Infrastructure as Code

By the end

What you'll build

• Explain declarative desired state, reconciliation, idempotency and drift and predict how each behaves in a change
• Design module boundaries, inputs and defaults that can be versioned and reused across teams
• Isolate state per environment and handle secrets so they never enter source control
• Build a change pipeline with automated validation, policy checks and a plan review for blast radius
• Choose a proportionate test strategy for infrastructure code, including ephemeral environments
• Import, refactor and decommission existing infrastructure without unplanned destruction

Curriculum

What's inside

7 modules · 35 lessons

1. 01

   Principles of infrastructure as code

   5 lessons
   • Declarative desired state, reconciliation and what desired really means
   • Idempotency, convergence and drift
   • Imperative scripting compared with declarative definition
   • Immutable and mutable infrastructure trade-offs
   • Four words people use interchangeablymatch pairs
2. 02

   Structuring the code

   5 lessons
   • Module boundaries that survive a growing estate
   • Composition, inputs and sensible defaults
   • Repository layout and clear ownership
   • Versioning and releasing shared modules
   • Boundaries, interfaces and who reviews itfill blank
3. 03

   State, secrets and safety

   5 lessons
   • Handling infrastructure state without losing an environment
   • State isolation per environment and per tenant
   • Secrets handling and what must never enter code
   • Locking, concurrency and recovery from a corrupted state
   • A credential has been committedsequence order
4. 04

   Change pipelines

   5 lessons
   • Plan, review, apply: building a change pipeline people trust
   • Automated validation, linting and policy checks
   • Reviewing a plan for blast radius
   • Deciding where a human approval genuinely helps
   • Would you approve this change?scenario
5. 05

   Testing infrastructure code

   5 lessons
   • A proportionate test pyramid for infrastructure definitions
   • Static analysis and contract checks
   • Ephemeral environments for integration tests
   • Keeping the test strategy cost-aware
   • Which layer catches it?match pairs
6. 06

   Operating an estate

   5 lessons
   • Drift detection and continuous reconciliation at scale
   • Refactoring and moving resources safely
   • Importing infrastructure that was created by hand
   • Decommissioning and cleaning up abandoned resources
   • Drift, moves and importsfill blank
7. 07

   Practice and check

   5 lessons
   • Symptom to cause in an infrastructure estatematch pairs
   • One change, from push to proofsequence order
   • What the tooling is actually doingfill blank
   • Friday, 16:00: the plan wants to destroy a load balancerscenario
   • Course quizquiz

The shape of it

How this course works