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»Network Infrastructure Automation

Network Infrastructure Automation (NIA) enables dynamic updates to network infrastructure devices triggered by service changes. Consul-Terraform-Sync utilizes Consul as a data source that contains networking information about services and monitors those services. Terraform is used as the underlying automation tool and leverages the Terraform provider ecosystem to drive relevant changes to the network infrastructure.

Consul-Terraform-Sync executes one or more automation tasks with the most recent service variable values from the Consul service catalog. Each task consists of a runbook automation written as a Consul-Terraform-Sync compatible Terraform module using resources and data sources for the underlying network infrastructure. The consul-terraform-sync daemon runs on the same node as a Consul agent.

CTS is available as an open source and enterprise distribution. Follow the Network Infrastructure Automation introduction tutorial to get started with CTS OSS or read more about CTS Enterprise.

»Use Cases

Application teams must wait for manual changes in the network to release, scale up/down and re-deploy their applications. This creates a bottleneck, especially in frequent workflows related to scaling up/down the application, breaking the DevOps goal of self-service enablement. Consul-Terraform-Sync automates this process, thus decreasing the possibility of human error in manually editing configuration files, as well as decreasing the overall time taken to push out configuration changes.

Networking and security teams cannot scale processes to the speed and changes needed. Manual approaches don't scale well, causing backlogs in network and security teams. Even in organizations that have some amount of automation (such as scripting), there is a need for an accurate, real-time source of data to trigger and drive their network automation workflows. Consul-Terraform-Sync runs in near real-time to keep up with the rate of change.

»Glossary

Condition - A task-level defined environmental requirement. When a task’s condition is met, Consul-Terraform-Sync executes that task to update network infrastructure. Depending on the condition type, the condition definition may also define and enable the source input that the task provides to the configured Terraform module.

Consul-Terraform-Sync - GitHub repo and binary/CLI name for the project that is used to perform Network Infrastructure Automation.

Dynamic Tasks - A dynamic task is a type of task that is dynamically triggered on a change to any relevant Consul catalog values e.g. service instances, Consul KV, catalog-services. See scheduled tasks for a type of non-dynamic task.

Note: The terminology "tasks" used throughout the documentation refers to all types of tasks except when specifically stated otherwise.

Network Drivers - Consul-Terraform-Sync uses network drivers to execute and update network infrastructure. Drivers transform Consul service-level information into downstream changes by processing and abstracting API and resource details tied to specific network infrastructure.

Scheduled Tasks - A scheduled task is a type of task that is triggered only on a schedule. It is configured with a schedule condition.

Note: The terminology "tasks" used throughout the documentation refers to all types of tasks except when specifically stated otherwise.

Source Input - A source input defines objects that provide values or metadata to the Terraform module. See source input for the supported metadata and values. For example, a user can configure a Consul KV source input to provide KV pairs as variables to their respective Terraform module. The source input can be included in two ways. It can be specified as a parameter in a condition using source_includes_var and also by using the source_input block.

Network Infrastructure Automation (NIA) - Enables dynamic updates to network infrastructure devices triggered when specific conditions, such as service changes and registration, are met.

Services - A service in CTS represents a service that is registered with Consul for service discovery. Services are grouped by their service names. There may be more than one instance of a particular service, each with its own unique ID. CTS monitors services based on service names and can provide service instance details to a Terraform module for network automation.

Tasks - A task is the translation of dynamic service information from the Consul Catalog into network infrastructure changes downstream.

Terraform Cloud - Per the Terraform documentation, "Terraform Cloud" describes both Terraform Cloud and Terraform Enterprise, which are different distributions of the same application. Documentation will apply to both distributions unless specifically stated otherwise.

Terraform Module - A Terraform module is a container for multiple Terraform resources that are used together.

Terraform Provider - A Terraform provider is responsible for understanding API interactions and exposing resources for an infrastructure type.

»Getting Started With Network Infrastructure Automation

The Network Infrastructure Automation (NIA) collection contains examples on how to configure Consul-Terraform-Sync to perform Network Infrastructure Automation. The collection contains also a tutorial to secure your Consul-Terraform-Sync configuration for a production environment and one to help you build you own Consul-Terraform-Sync compatible module.

»Community