Infrastructure as code

As explained in Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS

Infrastructure as code is the practice of defining and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable code or declarative configuration.

Infrastructure as code defines and provisions infrastructure through code or declarative configuration. On AWS, it can describe networks, virtual machines, load balancers, DNS entries, storage, and databases, then automate their creation and modification. section 1.3.3 section 4.4

Figure 4.1 The AWS cloud is composed of hardware and software services accessible via an API.

AWS exposes hardware and software services through an API; infrastructure as code turns that programmable foundation into repeatable infrastructure definitions. section 4.0

Use the AWS automation layer that matches the task:

• Run the command-line interface from a terminal, including scripts written in Bash or PowerShell. section 4.0 section 4.6
• Use an SDK from a supported programming language to embed AWS operations in an application. section 4.0 section 4.6
• Use CloudFormation templates in JSON or YAML to declare the desired infrastructure state; CloudFormation resolves the required API calls. section 4.0 section 4.6
• Apply software-development practices such as code repositories, automated tests, and build servers to infrastructure definitions. section 4.4

Changing an EC2 instance type

With imperative commands, stop the EC2 instance, wait, change its type, start it, and wait again. With CloudFormation, change the InstanceType property in the template and update the stack. A template can accept the instance type as a parameter, while the resulting deployed environment is called a stack. section 4.5.2

How Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS covers it

How deep it goes

Defines infrastructure, contrasts imperative and declarative control, and walks through an EC2 CloudFormation stack without covering later networking details.

Examples

Uses AWS resource blueprints, an EC2 template, parameters, and a CloudFormation stack update that changes an instance type.

What it assumes

Assumes basic AWS resource awareness while teaching API-driven control and distinguishing Infrastructure as Code from Infrastructure as a Service.

What you can do after

Operate/configure AWS infrastructure reproducibly with CLI scripts, SDK code, or declarative CloudFormation templates.

How it connects

Connects AWS APIs, command-line interfaces, SDKs, CloudFormation, virtual machines, networking, storage, and software development practices.

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Related concepts

• Terraformimplemented by · Terraform is an open-source infrastructure-as-code tool for defining, provisioning, and managing infrastructure resources through declarative configuration.
• versioninguses · The practice of identifying and managing successive revisions of files, data, models, interfaces, or other artifacts so changes can be tracked and earlier states recovered.
• declarative programmingused by · Declarative programming is a programming paradigm that specifies desired results, states, relationships, or rules without prescribing the step-by-step operations that produce them.
• GitOpsused by · GitOps is an operational approach that uses version-controlled declarative configuration as the source of truth and automation to apply or reconcile system state.
• Ansibleincludes · Ansible is an open-source automation and configuration-management tool for configuring systems, deploying applications, and orchestrating tasks across managed hosts.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Amazon Web Services in Action, Third Edition: An in-depth guide to AWS. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.