What's the difference?

When it comes to the cloud, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Configuration Management (CM) are inseparable. With IaC, a descriptive model is used for infrastructure management. To name a few examples of infrastructure: networks, virtual computers, and load balancers. Using an IaC model always results in the same setting.

Throughout the lifecycle of a product, Configuration Management (CM) ensures that the performance, functional and physical inputs, requirements, design, and operations of that product remain consistent.

Task

1. Read more about IaC and Config. Management Tools.

   IaC stands for Infrastructure as Code. IaC is an approach to infrastructure automation that uses code to define and manage infrastructure resources.

   Infrastructure as Code configures and manages the infrastructure through a descriptive model. An IaC model produces the same environment every time it is applied. It can also be called a code-based infrastructure automation process.

   Configuration management (CM) tools are software tools that allow you to manage and automate the deployment and configuration of infrastructure and applications. These tools can help with tasks such as version control, automated testing, and deployment, and help ensure that the infrastructure and applications are consistent and up-to-date.

2. Give differences between both with suitable examples.

   • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is an approach to infrastructure automation that involves defining and managing infrastructure using machine-readable files, rather than manual processes or interactive tools. The goal of IaC is to treat infrastructure as code, applying the same practices and principles of software development to infrastructure provisioning and management. IaC tools help you manage your infrastructure as a codebase and allow you to version control, test, and deploy infrastructure configurations with the same ease and confidence that you apply to software code.

     Ex: Terraform is an example of an IaC tool. You can use Terraform to create and manage AWS resources such as EC2 instances, security groups, and load balancers. You define the desired state of your infrastructure using Terraform code, and Terraform ensures that your infrastructure matches that state.

   • Configuration Management (CM), on the other hand, is a process of automating the configuration of servers and other infrastructure components, ensuring that they are configured consistently and correctly over time. Configuration management tools allow you to define, apply, and enforce configuration policies across your infrastructure, including managing configuration files, installing software packages, and setting up users and permissions.

     Ex: Ansible is an example of a configuration management tool. You can use Ansible to install packages, configure services, and set up users and permissions on multiple servers at once. Ansible ensures that your infrastructure is configured consistently and correctly over time, reducing the risk of configuration drift and ensuring that your systems are always in a known state.

   • In summary, IaC is about defining infrastructure as code and using code-based tools to manage infrastructure, while CM is about automating configuration management and ensuring that configurations are consistent and correct over time. While there is some overlap between the two concepts, they serve different purposes and can be used together to achieve more comprehensive infrastructure automation.

3. What are the most common IaC and Config Management Tools?

   There are several Infrastructure as code (IaC) and Configuration Management (CM) tools available in modern times for DevOps Practices. The most common ones are:

Infrastructure as Code Tools

• Terraform: Popular open-source tool used to build, manage, and version infrastructure as code. It supports many cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, and more.

• AWS CloudFormation: A service offered by AWS that allows you to create and manage AWS resources using JSON or YAML templates.

• Google Cloud Deployment Manager: A service provided by GCP that enables teams to define and manage GCP resources as code via YAML or JSON templates.

• Azure Resource Manager: A service provided by Microsoft Azure that enables teams to manage infrastructure resources using JSON templates.

Configuration Management Tools

• Ansible: An open-source IT automation engine that helps to automate configuration management, application deployment, and task automation.

• Puppet: A configuration management tool that enables the automation of repetitive tasks, such as deploying applications, configuring servers, and managing infrastructure.

• Chef: A configuration management tool that allows you to manage and automate the infrastructure of your organization.

• SaltStack: A powerful automation and orchestration engine that can be used for configuration management, remote execution, and event-driven automation.

Hope it will find you helpful.

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