Cloud Infrastructure as Code

Why Smarter. The smarter-infrastructure repository builds Smarter’s AWS environment with Terraform: the network, the Kubernetes cluster, DNS, certificates, storage and email. Students can read a complete, real production configuration without having to pay for one, and Smarter’s own infrastructure service layer shows how an application manages cloud resources at run time.

Look at. The smarter-infrastructure repository, and smarter/smarter/apps/infrastructure/.

Read. Cloud Infrastructure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Infrastructure Services.

Exercises.

  • Map each Terraform module to the AWS resources that it creates, and explain why the cluster sits on a private network.

  • Run terraform plan against a sandbox AWS account, and estimate the monthly cost of the result. Compare it with the figures in Kubernetes for Running Applications at Scale.

  • Study how Smarter’s infrastructure service layer lets the same code use AWS in production and a fake, in-memory provider in tests, and why that matters.

Warning

terraform apply creates real, billable cloud resources. Use a dedicated sandbox account with a billing alert, and destroy what you create at the end of each session.

Course plans. Three complete, ready-to-teach plans, each with a schedule, graded assignments and rubrics, two capstone projects, recommended texts, further study and technical prerequisites. See Course Formats and Grading for what the formats have in common.

See the Smarter Instructor Guide to install Smarter and set up a class.