Ahmed Rizawan

Ever stared at your infrastructure setup wondering how it evolved into such beautiful chaos? Trust me, I’ve been there. After spending countless late nights manually configuring servers and dealing with the dreaded “but it works on my machine” syndrome, I finally decided enough was enough. Let me share how you can transform your infrastructure from a manual mess to automated brilliance in just two weeks.

Day 1-3: Setting the Foundation

First things first – we need to document what we currently have. I remember when I started this journey at a previous company, our infrastructure documentation consisted of sticky notes and tribal knowledge. Sound familiar? Let’s fix that.

Infrastructure Audit

Start by creating an inventory of your current infrastructure. Here’s a simple template I use:

infrastructure:
  compute:
    - name: web-server-01
      type: EC2
      specs: t3.medium
      purpose: Web Frontend
    - name: db-server-01
      type: RDS
      specs: db.t3.large
      purpose: Primary Database
  networking:
    vpcs:
      - name: production-vpc
        cidr: 10.0.0.0/16
    subnets:
      - name: web-subnet
        cidr: 10.0.1.0/24

Choose Your Tools

For this transformation, we’ll need some essential tools. After trying various combinations over the years, here’s what I recommend:

• Terraform for infrastructure provisioning
• AWS CLI for cloud interactions
• Git for version control
• Visual Studio Code with HashiCorp extensions

Day 4-7: First Steps into IaC

Now comes the fun part – writing your first Infrastructure as Code. We’ll start small with a simple VPC setup. Here’s a basic example that I wish someone had shown me when I started:

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
  cidr_block           = "10.0.0.0/16"
  enable_dns_hostnames = true
  enable_dns_support   = true

  tags = {
    Name = "production-vpc"
    Environment = "production"
  }
}

resource "aws_subnet" "public" {
  vpc_id     = aws_vpc.main.id
  cidr_block = "10.0.1.0/24"

  tags = {
    Name = "public-subnet"
  }
}

Day 8-11: Building the Pipeline

Remember the days of SSH-ing into servers to make changes? Let’s put those behind us. Here’s how we’ll structure our automation pipeline:

graph LR
    A[Git Push] --> B[CI Pipeline]
    B --> C{Tests Pass?}
    C -->|Yes| D[Plan]
    C -->|No| E[Fail]
    D --> F[Apply]
    F --> G[Monitor]

One of my biggest learnings was to implement a solid state management strategy. Here’s how I structure my Terraform backend configuration:

terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket         = "terraform-state-bucket"
    key            = "prod/terraform.tfstate"
    region         = "us-west-2"
    encrypt        = true
    dynamodb_table = "terraform-locks"
  }
}

Day 12-14: Testing and Documentation

The final days are crucial. This is where I’ve seen many IaC projects either succeed or fail. Here’s what we need to focus on:

Testing Your Infrastructure

Implement testing using tools like Terratest. Here’s a basic test I always include:

package test

import (
    "testing"
    "github.com/gruntwork-io/terratest/modules/terraform"
    "github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
)

func TestTerraformBasicExample(t *testing.T) {
    terraformOptions := &terraform.Options{
        TerraformDir: "../examples/basic",
    }

    defer terraform.Destroy(t, terraformOptions)
    terraform.InitAndApply(t, terraformOptions)
}

Documentation Best Practices

Documentation isn’t just about what you build – it’s about why you built it that way. I learned this the hard way when I had to revisit a project after six months. Here’s what your documentation should include:

• Architecture decisions and their rationale
• Dependencies and prerequisites
• Deployment procedures
• Common troubleshooting steps
• Resource naming conventions

Beyond the 14 Days

The journey doesn’t end here. In fact, this is just the beginning. Once you have your basic IaC setup running, you’ll start seeing opportunities for improvement everywhere. Some next steps I recommend:

• Implement cost monitoring and optimization
• Add security scanning to your pipeline
• Create reusable modules for common patterns
• Set up disaster recovery procedures

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Let me share some hard-learned lessons:

• Don’t try to automate everything at once – start small and iterate
• Always use state locking to prevent concurrent modifications
• Keep your modules focused and maintainable
• Don’t forget to implement proper backup strategies
• Avoid hardcoding sensitive information

Remember, this transformation isn’t just about adopting new tools – it’s about changing how we think about infrastructure. It’s about moving from “servers as pets” to “infrastructure as cattle,” as the saying goes.

Final Thoughts

Looking back at my own journey, the hardest part wasn’t learning the tools – it was changing my mindset. The satisfaction of running one command and watching your infrastructure spring to life is worth every minute spent learning these concepts. What part of your infrastructure are you planning to automate first?