Operational Infrastructure as Code

This instructor-led course provides in-depth comprehensive knowledge of HCP Terraform, Packer, and HCP Packer. The course is designed for operators and developers of HCP Terraform &Terraform Enterprise who will be engaged in deploying applications using Infrastructure as Code(IaC) and infrastructure deployment patterns.  This course utilizes lecture and hands-on workshop content to teach best practices and recommended patterns.  Each day includes dedicated Question & Answer time for attendees to work with the Course Instructor directly.

Objectives:

• Gain comprehensive knowledge of HCP Terraform and best practices for usage in Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Understand how to use Packer for creating machine images
• Understand HCP Packer and its automation & compliance features
• Understand infrastructure deployment patterns and automation
• Use course tools to develop and deploy applications in an automated deployment pipeline using IaC
• Course assumes familiarity with HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), how to write Terraform, basic Git usage, and basic Terraform Provider concepts

The target audience for the course are Cloud SRE's, DevOps Engineers, Sys Admins, SecOps, Application Teams, and similar roles that would benefit from knowing how to use HCP Terraform Enterprise to deploy and manage infrastructure as code.

Successful completion of the Terraform Foundations Course, or basic familiarity with HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) including how to write Terraform code is recommended. Familiarity with AWS, Azure, or another cloud provider, an understanding of basic Git usage, and basic Terraform Provider concepts is also valuable for attendees of this course.

Agenda:

1. Terraform fundamentals review
2. HCP Terraform features including State, Workspaces, Teams, Projects & Variables
3. Terraform VCS workflow
4. Advanced HCP Terraform features including Run Tasks & Agents
5. Packer fundamental
6. Packer features including Builders, Communicators, Provisioners, & Post-Processors
7. HCP Packer features including Automation, Artifacts, & Revocation
8. Integrating HCP Terraform and HCP Packer in a deployment pipeline
9. Hands-on Labs
10. Course Summary

Day 1 

• Terraform Fundamentals Review
• Terraform Providers, State, Workspaces, & Variables
• VCS Workflow & Role Based Access Control
• Projects, Teams, & Workspaces
• Terraform Agents

Day 2 

• Packer & the Packer CLI
• Packer Builders, Communicators, & Data Sources
• Packer HCL for images as code
• HCP Packer fundamentals

Day 3 

• Automating Packer
• Packer compliance features
• Integrating HCP Terraform and HCP Packer in a deployment pipeline