Programming Challenge: IaC Deployment Automation (Jan 24, 2025)

Challenge:

Build a script or configuration that automates cloud infrastructure provisioning using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles.

Basic Requirements:

✅ Use Terraform, Ansible, or Pulumi to define infrastructure.
✅ Deploy a virtual machine (VM) or containerized application in a cloud provider (AWS, Azure, GCP).
✅ Ensure idempotency (running the script multiple times should not break things).

Bonus Features for Enterprise-Grade IaC:

🔹 Configuration Management: Use Ansible or Puppet to configure the deployed system.
🔹 State Management: Store Terraform state remotely (S3 + DynamoDB for locking).
🔹 Security Best Practices:

• Implement IAM roles & least privilege.

• Use environment variables to protect secrets.
  🔹 CI/CD Integration: Automate infrastructure updates using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD.
  🔹 Drift Detection: Implement Terraform Plan to detect changes before applying.

Example: Terraform AWS EC2 Deployment

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"  # Example AMI
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "WebServer"
  }
}

terraform init
terraform apply -auto-approve

🔹 Scalability: Automates cloud resource provisioning efficiently.
🔹 Consistency: Ensures infrastructure remains the same across deployments.
🔹 Security & Compliance: Enforces policy-as-code for security best practices.