Being lazy with infrastructure

Steph Locke (@SteffLocke)

2017-04-20

Steph Locke

github.com/StephLocke | itsalocke.com | T: SteffLocke

Agenda

Agenda

  • Laziness
  • My machine
  • My servers
  • Wrap up

Laziness

Laziness

The art of doing simple(ish) things now to avoid hardwork at a later date

  • Automation is a tactic for enduring laziness

XKCD automation cartoon

XKCD automation cartoon

Laziness commandments

  • Do work today that avoids repeat work down the line
  • Do boring work today so tomorrow’s work is new and interesting
  • Don’t end up in the situation where you have to the same bit of work twice

My machine

Chocolatey

Chocolatey

A package manager for Windows

  • Command line interface
  • “packages” are community or software developer delivered

Why use it?

  • Scripted installs
  • Saved from “Next, Next, Next”
  • Can handle updates

How to use it

  • Install it
  • “run as admin” the command line
> choco install greenshot

Considerations

  • Inevitably, there can be bugs in package install processes
  • Can lag behind latest versions of software

Docker

Docker

  • Contained code
  • Scripted infrastructure
  • Bundled dependencies
  • Lower maintenance than VMs

Why use it?

  • Scripted installs
  • Saved from “Next, Next, Next”
  • Insanely disposable
  • Control your ops
  • Rapidly developing

Why not use it?

  • Insanely disposable
  • Control your ops
  • Rapidly developing

Why not use it? Versions

How to use it (locally)

  • Install it
  • Run the Docker Quickstart Terminal
docker run -it ubuntu /bin/bash

How to use it - demo

Docker-Machine

docker-machine is needed to run containers, work on remote machines hosting docker containers, and to work with swarm clusters

Docker plugins

Plugins allow you to extend docker capabilities. Most plugins are network and file system related.

Follow on

Storage

Never rely on your machine for more than temporary storage

  • Source control
  • Dropbox (or OneDrive)

And …

  • PowerShell
  • Soon … native bash

My servers

Servers

Don’t own any

Azure VMs

Ubuntu

  • I confess to preferring Linux than Windows Server!
  • DigitalOcean is a really neat cloud provider for simple Linux

Ditching the servers

Pizza as a Service

Wrap up

Laziness commandments

  • Do work today that avoids repeat work down the line
  • Do boring work today so tomorrow’s work is new and interesting
  • Don’t end up in the situation where you have to the same bit of work twice

Where to go from here?

  • Microsoft Channel 9
  • PluralSight
  • Get the slides: bit.ly/stephsR
  • Keep in touch: @SteffLocke