Presentation @ Infrastructure Coders April 2014

1. packer immutable
@bigal
http://resilvered.blogspot.com.au/

2. immutable
ɪˈmjuːtəb(ə)l/Submit
adjective
1. unchanging over time or unable to be changed.
"an immutable fact"
synonyms: unchangeable, fixed, set, rigid, inflexible, unyielding,
unbending, permanent, entrenched, established, well-established,
unshakeable, irremovable, indelible, ineradicable; More

3. The Golden Image
anti devops …. but why
Quarterly unchanged image
Any change was slow and frustrating
Poor tooling
Much easier deploy and then
change with config managment

4. Image benefits
Faster to deploy
Stability
Testable
Secure

5. Source Code Binary
libA 1.0 libB 1.0 libC 1.0libA 2.0
Compile Failed

6. New Server Ready Server
Chef, Puppet, Shell, Ansible ….
Package Network
Config
Management

7. New Server
Server Setup
Failed
Chef, Puppet, Shell, Ansible ….
Package
Changes
Network
Config
Management

8. New Server
Server Setup
Failed
Chef, Puppet, Shell, Ansible ….
Package
Network
Unreliable
Config
Management

9. New Server
Server Setup
Failed
Chef, Puppet, Shell, Ansible ….
Package
Config
Changes
Network
Unreliable

10. New Server Ready Server
Machine Image
Ready Server

11. Machine image
A deployable unit that contains a pre-
configured OS and software.

12. Config Management
How long does your puppet/chef run take?
Downloading
Compiling
Network outage
For each Machine!!

13. Packer
Use Packer to build machine image for multiple
platforms

14. Package
Server Image
Provision
Server
Instance
Apply
Configuration
Change
Apply
Configuration
Change
Change! Change!
Provide Service
Package
Server Image
Provision
Server
Instance
Provide Service

15. Immutable Servers
Instead of changing or maintaining a server,
replace it with a new one.
Servers no longer change, they are prebuilt
static images that we have tested.
Automation is key

16. The Future is Immutable
● Big Wins, little downsides
● As server become cheaper more
commoditized and more distributed
immutable servers will be key
● Start small not all servers will be easily
immutable

17. The Wins
Super fast deployment
Repeatable
High failure tolerance
Improved stability and testability
Versioning
Secure

18. The losses
Requires change in mindset
Tooling is young
Deployment for small config changes
Data

19. Light reading
www.packer.io
www.serfdom.io
http://zookeeper.apache.org/
https://github.com/coreos/etcd
https://github.com/ha/doozerd

20. packer immutable
@bigal
http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanchalmers
http://resilvered.blogspot.com.au/
http://runforthekids2014.gofundraise.com.
au/page/AlanChalmers