Why Startups Need Automated Infrastructures

1. Why Startups NeedAutomated Infrastructures Adam Jacob Senior Partner HJK Solutions adam@hjksolutions.com

2. Overview • What is an “Automated Infrastructure”? • Why is it so important? • MonkeyNews - A Case Study • Review • Q & A

3. Disclaimer • These are the tools we use • They are not the only tools • They may or may not be the right tools for how you work or think Symbol From IIT Bombay

4. What is an “Automated Infrastructure”?

5. Automated ”…a process which may once have been performed manually but has been altered in some way which allows a machine or computer to either wholly or partially manipulate the process to save time”

6. Infrastructure “Infrastructure is generally a set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework supporting an entire structure”

7. Automated Infrastructure “Having the basic services necessary for your business to operate largely without the aid of a keeper.”

8. Why is it so important?

9. To your Operations Staff • Mitigates some failures • They want to be lazy • Repetition leads to burnout • They want to say “Yes”

10. For Startups • Time • Efficiency • Scalability • Economics • Flexibility

11. The Jesse Robbins (mis)Quote “Operations is the act of extracting value from your resources.”

12. MonkeyNews - A Case Study All the hottest Monkey news, as selected by your monkey-loving peers! Courtesy National Geographic

13. What is MonkeyNews • Small Startup • “Like Digg, only about Monkeys” • Going to sell Advertising as a revenue model

14. MonkeyNews on Launch Day

15. Steps to Launch

16. Steps to Launch - OS Install Manual • Install each system by hand • 1 hour per system

17. Steps to Launch - OS Install Automated • Ops1prod built manually • 1 hour • Automated install system (PXE) • EC2, Cloud

18. Steps to Launch - OS Install

19. Steps to Launch - DNS Manual • Update each machine in /etc/hosts Automated • Install a DNS Server • Use a service provider

20. Steps to Launch - Server Inventory Manual • Use a wiki Automated • Use iClassify • Roll your own

21. Steps to Launch - Identity Management Manual • Add each user everywhere Automated • Use LDAP or AD

22. Steps to Launch - Version Control An Easy One • You must use version control Symbol From IIT Bombay

23. Manual Version Control Wiki Check in copies of config files Try and keep a record of what you have done Steps to Launch - Configuration Management

24. Automated Puppet Cfengine Bcfg2 Infrastructure as Code Steps to Launch - Configuration Management

25. Puppet Example - sudo

26. Puppet Example - sudo

27. Steps to Launch - Configuration Management Automation is Key • 50+ Different Applications • ad, apache2, apt-proxy, beaver, build-essential, capistrano, yum, apt, djbdns, emacs, erubis, rubygems, iclassify, imagemagick, iptables, java, logrotate, man, maradns, memcached, mongrel-runit, munin, mysql, nagios, nscd, ntp, openldap, openssh, perl, perlbal, php, postfix, postgresql, puppet, rails, resolver, rsync, ruby, runit, sqlite, subversion, sudo, trac, zsh • Why repeat yourself?

28. Steps to Launch - Monitoring Manual • Add each server by hand Automated • Use your System Inventory and Configuration Management Tools

29. Steps to Launch - Trending Manual • Add each server and graph by hand Automated • Use your System Inventory and Configuration Management Tools

30. Steps to Launch - Email Another Easy One • Every server must be able to send email locally. Symbol From IIT Bombay

31. Steps to Launch - Application Deployment Manual • Update the application by hand Automated • Use Capistrano • Roll your own • Integrate with System Inventory

32. Launch Day

33. Tech Crunched! Symptoms • Monitors alert • Trending shows the traffic spike • Your RSS reader has the culprit

34. Tech Crunched! - EC2 • Launch more capacity. • Two minutes later, they are up

35. Tech Crunched! - iClassify • Classify the Servers

36. Tech Crunched! - Puppet • Puppet applies the class that matches the tag:

37. Tech Crunched! - Deploy • Deploy your application! • “cap -S env=prod deploy” • One command.

38. Tech Crunched! - Post Mortem • Total Time: ~5 - 10 minutes • 4 steps total! • We doubled capacity • No configuration during the issue at all

39. Issue MonkeyNews hires a new engineer Resolution Add the user to LDAP Add the right group privileges New Hire

40. Issue MonkeyNews has started taking micro-payments (for bananas) Resolution Update Apache Virtual Host in your Configuration Management Add the SSL Certificates to Configuration Management < 10 minutes from start to finish Add SSL Support

41. Review

42. Review • Automated Infrastructure means: • “Having the basic services necessary for your business to operate largely without the aid of a keeper.” • Automated Infrastructure • Saves time • Increases efficiency • Allows for scalability • Reduces economic impact • Improves flexibility

43. HJK does this for a living.But you can ask me how to do it for free. :) Adam Jacob +1 (206) 508-4759 adam@hjksolutions.com

44. June 23-24, 2008 20% off discount: “vel08js”