Putting It All Together: Application and Infrastructure Workflows with Terraform
Today, we work on integrating everything we've learnt thus far. We'll investigate how to manage both application and infrastructure code, streamline deployments, and maintain consistency with Terraform in real-world scenarios. In this post, we will break down how to combine workflows for deploying application and infrastructure code, incorporate version control, enforce security requirements, and promote immutable artifacts across environments.
1. Using Version Control for Both Application and Infrastructure Code
Version control is essential for managing both application and infrastructure code. Using version control solutions such as Git, we can efficiently communicate, manage changes, and assure a clean and quick deployment process.
The application and infrastructure code can be kept in different repositories. The integration is automated with CI/CD pipelines such as GitHub Actions or GitLab CI. This allows infrastructure modifications to be triggered concurrently with application code deployments, ensuring that everything works together flawlessly.
2. Automating Tests on a CI Server
Automated testing is critical for maintaining stability and dependability throughout deployments. Both application and infrastructure code must be extensively tested before being launched into production.
Application Code: Using CI/CD technologies, unit, integration, and end-to-end tests are automatically triggered with each repository push. If the tests pass, the code will proceed to the next stage of deployment.
Infrastructure Code: Tools like Terratest or Kitchen-Terraform can be used to test infrastructure code, verifying that resources are properly provisioned and without errors.
These automated tests serve to avoid errors from reaching production, making the deployment process more reliable.
3. Using Terraform for Secure Workflows
Security is the main consideration in every deployment pipeline. One option to improve security is to include approval checks in the workflow.
Terraform provides manual permission before making changes to production settings, which protects against unintentional modifications. Sentinel Policies can also be used to enforce compliance by verifying configurations before they are deployed to ensure they fulfill security and compliance requirements.
4. Promoting Immutable, Versioned Artifacts Across Environments
The principle of immutable artifacts ensures that once infrastructure or application code is deployed, it remains consistent across environments. This eliminates environment drift and guarantees that each deployment is predictable.
Terraform enables you to manage infrastructure using versioned, immutable artifacts. These artifacts can be promoted in several environments—development, staging, and production—while remaining consistent throughout.
5. Integrating Application and Infrastructure Workflows
The integration of application and infrastructure workflows is crucial for ensuring smooth and automated deployments. By linking CI/CD pipelines for application code with Terraform’s infrastructure provisioning, changes to the application automatically trigger infrastructure updates when needed.
This connection ensures that both application and infrastructure are aligned, decreasing manual intervention and limiting the likelihood of differences between environments.
Reflecting on the Journey
Looking back, it’s clear how powerful the combination of application and infrastructure code management can be. The ability to use version control for both, automate tests, enforce security policies, and promote immutable artifacts across environments creates a streamlined and secure workflow.
Looking Ahead
With a strong understanding of these concepts, the next step is to use them in real-world tasks. The path continues, and these abilities will be the foundation of effective, scalable, and secure infrastructure management.