Why Automation Matters : The cloud may not be right for you, but you still have to automate!

A few days ago I tweeted this link to an article about some workloads being better suited to on-prem infrastructure.

Jared Still sent me this link.

The executive summary in both cases is, if you have defined workloads that don’t require elastic resource allocation, and you are not making use of cloud-only platforms, you might find it significantly cheaper to run your systems on-prem compared to running it in the cloud.

With reference to the first article Freek D’Hooge responded with this.

“I agree that cloud is not always the best or most cost effective choice, but I find the article lacking in what it really takes to run on-prem equipment.”

I responded to Freek D’Hooge with this.

“Yes. On-prem works well if you have Infrastructure as Code and have automated all the crap, making it feel more like self-service.

For many people, that concept of automation only starts after they move to the cloud though, so they never realise how well on-prem can work…”

I’m assuming these folks who are moving back to on-prem are doing the whole high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) thing properly.

There are many counter arguments, and I don’t want to start a religious war about cloud vs on-prem, but there is one aspect of this discussion that doesn’t seem to be covered here, and that is automation.

But you still have to automate!

Deciding not to go to the cloud, or moving back from the cloud to on-prem, is not an excuse to go back to the bad old days. We have to make sure we are using infrastructure as code, and automating the hell out of everything. I’ve mentioned this before.

Of course, servers in racks are a physical task, but for most things after that we are probably using virtual machines and/or containers, so once we have the physical kit in place we should be able to automate everything else.

Take a look at your stack and you will probably find there are Terraform providers and Ansible modules that work for your on-prem infrastructure, the same as you would expect for your cloud infrastructure. There is no reason not to use infrastructure as code on-prem.

For many people the “step change” nature of moving to the cloud is the thing that allows them to take a step back and learn automation. That’s a pity because they have never seen how well on-prem can work with automation.

Even as I write this I am still in the same situation. I’m currently building Azure Integration Services (AIS) kit in the cloud using Terraform. I have a landing zone where I, as part of the development team, can just build the stuff we need using infrastructure as code. That’s great, but if I want an on-prem VM, I have to raise a request and wait. I’ve automated many aspects of my DBA job, but basic provisioning of kit on-prem is still part of the old world, with all the associated lost time in hand-offs. For those seeking to remain on-prem, this type of thing can’t be allowed to continue.

In summary

It doesn’t matter if you go to the cloud or not, you have to use infrastructure as code and automate things to make everything feel like self-service. I’m not suggesting you need the perfect private cloud solution, but you need to provide developers with self-service solutions and let them get on with doing their job, rather waiting for you.

Check out the rest of the series here.

Cheers

Tim…

Why Automation Matters : It doesn’t get much simpler than this!

Just a little story about something that happened recently…

The July Oracle quarterly security patches dropped, along with the downstream OpenJDK releases a little later. As soon as the OpenJDK release dropped I updated all our non-production Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS) middle tier to the latest and greatest. Production will follow shortly. I figured that was the end of it…

On Friday evening I noticed a post by Jeff Smith saying version 22.2.1 of SQLcl and ORDS had dropped. Now it was Friday evening, and I typically don’t work on Fridays, but I really didn’t want to have this hanging over me all weekend, so this is what I did…

  • Download the software.
  • Upload the software to Artifactory.
  • Change a couple of files in Git, specifying the new software versions.
  • Press a button in TeamCity to rebuild the ORDS Docker image and push the new image to JFrog Platform.
  • Press a button in TeamCity to redeploy all the non-production ORDS containers.

The whole process took a few minutes, and I was confident it would work because it’s all automated and works every time. I sent this message to Jeff.

I {expletive} love automation. I just noticed your post about 22.2.1 of SQLcl and ORDS. I logged on to work. Updated a couple of files in git and pressed a button in TeamCity. New ORDS Docker image built and pushed to all non-prod systems. Boom…

This is why automation matters. The combination of picking the right platform, in this case containers, and investing a little time in the automation means we can react really quickly to new releases. It doesn’t get much simpler than this!

Check out the rest of the series here.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. This post explains the application topology we use for ORDS and APEX.

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Vault

In today’s video we demonstrate how to use Ansible Vault with Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on this article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Ilmar Kerm, who is very vocal about automation in the Oracle space.

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Roles

In today’s video we demonstrate how to use role with Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Anton Els, who I first met when he worked for DBvisit.

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Users and Groups

In today’s video we demonstrate how to manage users and groups with Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Connor McDonald of AskTom fame. You can check out his YouTube channel here.

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Tags


In today’s video we demonstrate how to use handlers in Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Tanel Poder, who thinks he’s at the bow of a Viking ship by the look of it. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Files and Templates

In today’s video we demonstrate how to use handlers in Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Dan Norris, who is looking to the heavens for inspiration. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Handlers

In today’s video we demonstrate how to use handlers in Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is my dad, Graham Wood, who spend most of his time galivanting and spending my inheritance, which I’ve been waiting patiently for!

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Host and Group Variables

In today’s video we demonstrate how to use lists and loops in Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Toon Koppelaars, famous for The Helsinki Declaration (IT Version), which you may know better these days as the SmartDB approach to building applications.

Cheers

Tim…

Video : Ansible Playbooks : Lists and Loops

In today’s video we demonstrate how to use lists and loops in Ansible Playbooks.

The video is based on the following article.

You might find some useful stuff here.

The star of today’s video is Øyvind Isene, who took a break during coffee time to let me film this clip.

Cheers

Tim…