DevOPS - Initial State - Terraform/Azure

Requirements:

• The azure account created
• The Service Principal set up
• Set the variables (used security variables to make the repo be cleaner) to be used across the commands (used in the github actions)
  • For Azure CLI
    • AZURE_CREDENTIALS
  • For Terraform CLI
    • For authentication
      • AZURE_CLIENT_ID
      • AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET
      • AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID
      • AZURE_TENANT_ID
    • For backend state
      • RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME
      • STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME
      • STORAGE_CONTAINER_NAME
    • For the remaining resources
      • STORAGE_REGION_NAME (In my test, is brazilsouth)
      • STORAGE_SKU_NAME

Azure CLI

Creating RBAC

az ad sp create-for-rbac --role="Contributor" --scopes="/subscriptions/{{AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID}}" --name="Azure-DevOps-GithubActions" --sdk-auth

Output will be similar to that:

{ "clientId": "<clientId>", "clientSecret": "<clientSecret>", "subscriptionId": "<subscriptionId>", "tenantId": "<tenantId>", "activeDirectoryEndpointUrl": "https://login.microsoftonline.com", "resourceManagerEndpointUrl": "https://management.azure.com/", "activeDirectoryGraphResourceId": "https://graph.windows.net/", "sqlManagementEndpointUrl": "https://management.core.windows.net:8443/", "galleryEndpointUrl": "https://gallery.azure.com/", "managementEndpointUrl": "https://management.core.windows.net/" }

Important: Now copy/paste the output into the AZURE_CREDENTIALS variable and also for the clientId, clientSecret, subscriptionId, tenantId into AZURE_* variables, as they are used for terraform scripts. You will not be able to retrieve this data again after creation. The possibility to check this output again is resetting it.

You should be able to see the Service Principal User present in the AD, as showed below:

Creating Resource Group

az group create -g {{RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME}} -l {{STORAGE_REGION_NAME}}

Creating Storage Account

az storage account create -n {{STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME}} -g {{RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME}} -l {{STORAGE_REGION_NAME}} --sku {{STORAGE_SKU_NAME}}

Creating Storage Container

az storage container create -n {{STORAGE_CONTAINER_NAME}} --account-name {{STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME}}

CI/CD

Using Github actions, it was created the following YML files:

• az-create-terraform-state.yml
  • To create the initial default terraform state
    • Output in Azure will be like as below:
      • 
• az-destroy-terraform-state.yml
  • It will destroy all the resources related to state, including the resource group
• az-terraform-resource-create-test.yml
  • A test using the backend state file creating a resource
    • Output in Azure will be like as below:
      • 
• az-terraform-resource-destroy-test.yml
  • A test using the backend state file destroying a resource

What is not covered:

• RBAC Azure command, why ?
• Because the output of this command is mandatory to have in the AZURE_CREDENTIALS file that is used across another commands to be able to login as Service Principal.

References

Microsoft

• Github Actions
  • https://github.com/Azure/actions
  • https://github.com/Azure/login
  • https://github.com/Azure/CLI
  • https://github.com/marketplace/actions/azure-cli-action
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/github/github-actions
• CLI
  • Storage
    • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/storage?view=azure-cli-latest
    • SKU -> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.azure.management.storage.models.skuname?view=azure-dotnet
  • Resource Group
    • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/group?view=azure-cli-latest
  • AD Service Principal
    • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/ad/sp?view=azure-cli-latest
• Generic
  • Services available per region -> https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/services/?regions=brazil-south,brazil-southeast&products=all

Github

• Using Github Actions -> https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions
• Encrypting the variables into secrets -> https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/actions/reference/encrypted-secrets

Terraform

• Provider
  • https://github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-azurerm
  • Checking releases -> https://github.com/terraform-providers/terraform-provider-azurerm/releases
• Backend -> https://www.terraform.io/docs/backends/types/azurerm.html
• With Github Actions
  • https://github.com/hashicorp/setup-terraform
  • https://github.com/marketplace/actions/hashicorp-setup-terraform
  • https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/terraform/github-actions
  • https://nathan.kewley.me/2020-06-17-deploy-to-azure-using-terraform-and-github-actions/

Externals

• https://gmusumeci.medium.com/how-to-create-an-azure-remote-backend-for-terraform-67cce5da1520
• https://www.blendmastersoftware.com/blog/deploying-to-azure-using-terraform-and-github-actions
• https://dev.to/shofol/run-your-github-actions-jobs-from-a-specific-directory-1i9e