DevOps Automation Challenge

This is a project for demonstrating the ability to automate processes of provisioning and configuration management in a live environment with the latest DevOps practices.

Overview

The task is designed to showcase the skill level in automation, configuration management, and scripting.

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Features
• Interview-questions
• Installation
• Usage
• Description
• Pre-conditions
• Contributing
• License

Interview-questions:

1. Provision a New Virtual Machine a. Use Terraform (or any preferred IaC tool) to provision a new Windows EC2 instance on AWS or another cloud provider.

2. Automate Machine Setup a. Create an automation process to configure the machine after launch. You may use Ansible, user_data scripts, or any other preferred automation tool. The automation should achieve the following: i. Install IIS and configure it to host a new website. ii. Deploy the website from the following repository as a reference: https://github.com/AzureWorkshops/samples-simple-iis-website iii. Ensure the IIS setup is ready to automatically deploy any .NET application in the future.

3. Install and Configure Prometheus Exporter a. Install a Prometheus exporter (e.g., Windows Exporter). b. Configure the exporter to expose server metrics on localhost:9090.

4. Create a Scheduled Task a. Implement a scheduled task (should be done automatically when machine will start) that runs every 5 minutes to: b. Perform an HTTP POST request to send all Prometheus data (localhost:9090) to a temporary API endpoint like Pipedream RequestBin.

5. Develop a PowerShell Script a. Write a PowerShell script to: i. Generate a dump file of the deployed IIS website automatically. ii. Ensure the script is stored on the VM.

6. Generate IIS Usage Report • Based on the logs from IIS, create a script or tool that generates a summary/report including: o The most active times for the website. o A summary of errors encountered (e.g., 404, 500 errors). o User browser statistics (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, etc.). • Provide the report in a human-readable format, such as JSON, CSV, or an HTML page.

7. Harden the Instance • Apply security hardening measures to the instance to make it production-ready.

Features

The following project is completing all the interview questions mentioned Above with only one terraform apply, and a few pre-requisites

Pre-conditions

• AWS Account
• IAM Roles
• Key Pairs

Installation

• Terraform
• Ansible
• IIS

Usage

This section will describe the Project usage and Installation:

1. Start with cloning the repository with git:

   git clone https://github.com/Dan4ik7/Infigo
   

2. Connect to you AWS account and create a Key-pairs for the instance so you would be able to connect via RDP to the instance Key-Pairs Path: EC2 -> Network & Security -> Key Pairs -> Create a .pem file and download it

3. Go to the cloned Repository, inside the terraform folder: Initialize terraform a. First set up your aws Credentials: *For ease of ussage, I have exported the access keys directly in CLI as a environment vars:

   $env:AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="<KEY_ID>"
   $env:AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="<SECRET_ID>"
   

4. Apply configurations:

   terraform plan
   terraform apply --auto-approve
   

5. Connect to the Instance and Monitor the configuration Process: The terraform has created the security group to allow RDP trafiic. In order to connect to the instance via RDP go to your aws account: EC2 -> Instances -> Click on running instance -> Connect -> Click on RDP Client -> Click on Get Password and upload the .pem file created earlier in key pairs -> Decrypt Password -> Copy Password -> Click on Download Remote Desktop file and login to the EC2:

6. Monitor the Configuration Process - In case for any errors, re-run the user data script which will be available in the "C:\temp\userdata.ps1"

Description

• The following provisioning and configuration process is fully automated:

  • Provisioning:
    • EC2 Windows server allong with it's required resources
    • S3 Bucket for File upload/downlod - for Grafana
  • Configuration:

    • IIS server

    • Deploys a web app from Sample App

    • Exposes the Web APP to the <http:<Instance_PUB_IP>:8080> and localhost:8080

    • Ensures that IIS setup is ready to automatically deploy any .NET application in the future.

    • Generate a dump file of the deployed IIS webstie

    • Generates a usage Report provided in: html; csv and json

    • Installs Prometheos and Exposes server metrics at localhost:9090

    • Creates a Scheduled Task to be run every 5 minutes, that sents the metrics to an API Endpoint like Pipedream:
      https://eofnzuh3c3qiljs.m.pipedream.net

• The Project completes every asspect of the Interview Task:

• All the Executed Transcript is stored in "C:\temp" directory

  • Two files: windows-exporter.txt and userdata.txt

• All the scripts stored in the "C:\temp" directory

• The generated dump file is stored in "C:\temp"

• The Usage Report is stored in "C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\Temp\2" Three Files: IISUsageReport.html; IISUsageReport.csv; IISUsageReport.json

• Test IIS Ready: After running the script, you can check if IIS is installed by running the following PowerShell command:

  After running the script, you can check if IIS is installed by running the following PowerShell command:
  

  Check the ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle: Ensure that the ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle is installed by checking the registry again:

  Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ASP.NET Core\Shared Framework"
  

  

Contributing

Provide guidelines for contributing here.

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the LICENSE.