Infrastructure as Code
Terraform and Ansible for Data Platforms
Overview
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) enables reproducible, version-controlled infrastructure. For data platforms, this includes managing cloud resources (Terraform) and configuring servers (Ansible).
Tool Comparison
| Tool | Purpose | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Terraform | Provision cloud resources | AWS, GCP, Azure resources |
| Ansible | Configure servers | Install software, configuration files |
Guides
| Document | Description | Key Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Terraform Guide | Cloud resource provisioning | Modules, state, CI/CD |
| Ansible Guide | Configuration management | Roles, playbooks, vault |
Typical Workflow
- Terraform: Create VPC, EC2, S3, RDS, Redshift, BigQuery
- Ansible: Install Spark, Airflow, Jupyter, configure Hadoop
Best Practices
Terraform
- Use modules for reusability
- Remote state with locking
- Environment-specific workspaces
- CI/CD integration
Ansible
- Use roles for modularity
- Encrypt secrets with vault
- Idempotent playbooks
- Test with check mode
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