The document discusses test-driven infrastructure using CloudFormation and Cucumber. It recommends writing automated tests with Cucumber to verify infrastructure provisioned by CloudFormation templates, versioning infrastructure scripts and configurations, and integrating infrastructure testing into continuous delivery pipelines. Examples are provided of using Cucumber features and step definitions to test CloudFormation templates for provisioning AWS resources.

1. Test-Driven Infrastructure w/ CloudFormation and Cucumber
Paul Duvall, Stelligent CTO
Author of Continuous Integration and
DevOps in the Cloud
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Stelligent Monthly Cloud Delivery Webinar Series
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2. Introduction
Next August 28th: Scripted Deployment with Capistrano
Webinar http://stelligent.com/cap with Brian Jakovich
Powerpoint and other resources will be emailed to
Materials attendees and available in Linkedin group
Linkedin Continuous Delivery in the Cloud: http://linkd.in/Pfbf1h
Stelligent Cloud Delivery: Migration, Training and Operations
June Recording of last month’s webinar:
Webinar http://www.stelligent.com/aws-webinar/
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3. About Me
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4. Continuous Delivery
http://bit.ly/cdwebinar1
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5. Continuous Delivery
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6. COPYRIGHT © 2012 Stelligent Systems LLC
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7. 5 Steps to Continuous Delivery
Document Document to automate
Test Write an automated test to verify behavior
Script Automate to a single command
Version Version all scripts
Continuous Run headless with every change
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Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.

8. Business Value of Test-Driven Infrastructure
• Learn of problems earlier by integrating CI with
infrastructure - Infrastructure changes integrated
with rest of software system
• Scripted Infrastructure becomes Documentation
• Remove Gatekeepers
• Isolate Destructive Changes
• Canonical System
• Quickly get back to earlier version of Infrastructure
• Infrastructure as Code: Apply rigorous practices
similar to writing application code
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Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.

9. Test-Driven Infrastructure within Delivery Pipeline
• Manually Configure and
Document Environment
• Write Acceptance Test
• Script the Environment
provisioning
• Version the infrastructure
automation (Checkin the
Script(s))
• Run as part of a Continuous
Process
• Make “pre-baked”
environments available to
team members and CD
system
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Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.

10. Sidebar: Continuous Integration Process
DBA
Polling
Develo Create Target
per Environments Environment
Instances
Version- CI Server Tests
Control
Repository Build Deploy
Operations
Tester
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11. Test-Driven Infrastructure: Success
Jenkins Environment Job
Environment Email
SSH
Deployment Email
Working App
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12. Test-Driven Infrastructure: Failure
• Notified soon after
infrastructure script is
committed to version-control
repository
• Since all infrastructure scripts
and config are versioned, can
simply revert to previous
known-good version
• Failure is identified, scripts are
changed and committed back to
version-control system
• Infrastructure changes are
integrated with rest of software
system
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Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.

13. Non-Automated Test Scenario
• Environment is manually created by
running through a series of steps to
install/configure OS, networking, servers,
etc.
• In some cases, these steps are
documented. Often, the documentation is
not regularly updated
• New environments – based on the “initial
environment” – are created by going
through similar manual steps
• No canonical state of environments –
each environment is unique
• Software is deployed to environments
(Dev, QA, Stage, etc.). Deployments fail.
Root cause is unclear.
• Troubleshooting and patch work ensue.
State remains dubious. Team members
apply superstition to root cause.
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Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.

14. Sidebar: Test-Driven Development with JUnit
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15. Scripted Infrastructure (Code)
• Walkthrough of production.template CloudFormation template
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16. Cucumber BDD Basics
• Philosophy
• Executable Specifications
• Continuous Traceability
• Cucumber Components (1)
• Business Facing
• Features
• Scenarios
• Steps
• Technology Facing
• Step Definitions
• Support Code
• Automation Library
• Syntax Rules: Gherkin
From “The Cucumber Book” (Wynne and Hellesoy; Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2012)
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17. TDI BDD Components
CloudFormation
Cucumber
Jenkins
Step Definitions
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18. TDI Cucumber Examples
• Walkthrough of production.feature Cucumber feature
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19. Other TDI Tools
• Cucumber Nagios: http://auxesis.github.com/cucumber-nagios/
• Cucumber Chef: http://www.cucumber-chef.org/
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20. Question and Answer
Blog http://www.stelligent.com/blog/
Social @stelligent @paulduvall facebook.com/Stelligent
CD Video http://bit.ly/cdwebinar1
Solutions http://www.stelligent.com/solutions/
August
http://www.stelligent.com/cap/
Webinar
Training http://www.stelligent.com/cd-training/
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21. Infrastructure Components
CloudFormation Template
Elastic IP
Route 53 IAM S3 EC2 SimpleDB Linux OS
Config
Security Group
Apache Tomcat Jenkins Version-Control Repo Cucumber Amazon Simple
HTTPD Notification Service
(SNS)
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Unauthorized duplication is not permitted.