This document discusses using Terraform to implement infrastructure as code and extending Terraform capabilities. It describes how Terraform allows configuring and provisioning infrastructure through code in a declarative way. It then discusses how a provider was built to manage Medium blog posts and images as code. The presentation encourages thinking about supporting other domains as code through custom providers that integrate with APIs.

1. Copyright © 2019 HashiCorp
Everything as Code with
Terraform
All Things Open | October 14, 2019

4. “I can’t stand using this interface to
paste all of these code snippets.”

5. (Actually 2 years, ~20 blogs, and slightly more wisdom later…)

6. “Oh, I can build a Terraform provider that
reads Markdown and sends it up to
Medium.”

7. “Blog-as-Code”

8. Agenda Infrastructure-as-Code
Terraforming the Datacenter
Extending Terraform
Writing a Provider
Everything-as-Code
Or Get Close
8

9. hashi.co/2019-ato

10. Infrastructure-as-Code
Terraforming the Datacenter
10

11. Infrastructure-as-Code Goals
▪ Unify the view of resources
▪ Support the modern data center (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS)
▪ Expose a way for individuals and teams to safely and predictably
change infrastructure
▪ Provide a workflow that is technology agnostic
▪ Manage anything with an API
11

12. “I don’t know how to code. But I do want
to automate how I configure my
infrastructure.”
- An Infrastructure Engineer Who Started Using Public Cloud
12

13. “It was hard enough for me to learn
infrastructure terms but writing code for
it too? Difficult.”
- A Developer Who Started Using Public Cloud
13

14. Terraform
HashiCorp Configuration
Language
CODE EDITOR
resource "google_compute_instance" "default" {
name = "test"
machine_type = "n1-standard-1"
zone = "us-central1-a"
tags = ["foo", "bar"]
boot_disk {
initialize_params {
image = "debian-cloud/debian-9"
}
}
// Local SSD disk
scratch_disk {
}
network_interface {
network = "default"
access_config {
// Ephemeral IP
}
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15. Extensible &
Idempotent
CODE EDITOR
resource "datadog_monitor" "foo" {
name = "Name for monitor foo"
type = "metric alert"
message = "Monitor triggered. Notify: @hipchat-
channel"
escalation_message = "Escalation message @pagerduty"
query = "avg(last_1h):avg:aws.ec2.cpu{environment:foo,host:foo}
by {host} > 4"
thresholds = {
ok = 0
warning = 2
warning_recovery = 1
critical = 4
critical_recovery = 3
}
notify_no_data = false
renotify_interval = 60
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16. TERMINAL
+ resource will be created
- resource will be destroyed
~ resource will be updated in-place
-/+ resources will be destroyed and re-created
16

17. Infrastructure-as-Code
github.com/joatmon08/2019-demo-ato

18. 18
terraform.io/docs/providers/

19. Extending Terraform
Writing a Provider
19

20. terraform.io/docs/extend/how-terraform-works.html

21. Let’s build a provider.
github.com/joatmon08/2019-demo-ato

22. Useful Resources
▪ Writing Custom Providers - official documentation
▪ Plugin SDK - now officially separated from core
▪ Creating a Terraform Provider for Just About Anything by Eddie
Zanewski
▪ Check out other providers like AWS or GCP!

23. Everything-as-Code
Or Get Close
23

24. Terraform
Provider for
Medium
github.com/joatmon08/
terraform-provider-
medium
CODE EDITOR
resource "medium_image" "draft" {
file_path = "./images/draft.png"
content_type = "image/png"
}
resource "medium_post" "my-post" {
title = "Writing a Terraform Medium Provider"
content = templatefile("./
content.md", { image_url = medium_image.draft.url })
content_format = "markdown"
publish_status = "draft"
tags = ["terraform", "medium", "automation"]
}

25. Tips for Building _______-as-Code
▪ Non-ideal upstream APIs
– Read-only provider
– Write your own client
▪ Testing
– Express functionality in acceptance tests
– Examine interface changes with contract tests

26. Alerts-as-Code?
Datadog
Grafana
PagerDuty
To Do-as-Code?
Google Calendar
G Suite
Todoist
(link)
Life-as-Code?
Meetup
(community-as-code)
Domino’s Pizza
(pizza-as-code)
Pokémon
(catch 'em-all-as-code)

27. “I like your blog but we don’t speak
much English.
Do you have translations?”
27

29. Translated Blog-as-Code
github.com/joatmon08/2019-demo-ato

30. “Doing Better”-through-Code
30

31. speakerdeck.com/joatmon08/everything-as-code-with-terraform
Rosemary Wang (she/her)
Developer Advocate at HashiCorp
@joatmon08
joatmon08
linkedin.com/in/rosemarywang/
31