Externalizing Your Configurations With Vault for Scalable Deployments

Table of Contents:

  • Introduction
    1. The Solution
  • Setting Up Vault
    1. Creating API Admin Policy
    2. Creating Read-Only user policy
    3. Creating Token attached with API read-only policy
  • 1. Linux Shell Integration
  • 2. Java Integration
  • 3. Python Integration
  • 4. Nodejs Integration
  • 5. Ansible Integration
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

To implement automation for microservices or applications deployed to a large number of systems, it becomes essential to externalize the configurations to a secure, scalable, centralized configuration store. This is necessary to be able to deploy the application in multiple environments with environment-specific parameters without requiring human intervention and without requiring modification to the core application during automated deployments, scaling, and failover recoveries.

Besides the fact that manually managed configurations involve the risk of human error, they are also not scalable for 24x7 large-scale deployments, particularly when we are deploying several instances of microservices across various infrastructure platforms.

RPA With Open Source

We humans are lazy and were habitually attempting to do more with less. For thousands of years, we have built machines to perform arduous tasks for us. In the era of computerization and software, a new terminology emerges in automation – Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

While automation has a broad connotation of any labor-saving technique or technology, RPA is a specialized application for business process and workflow automation. RPA is particularly aimed at mimicking essential human actions for business development. The goal of RPA is to reduce the use of human labor for mundane tasks, thus making it possible to reuse their capabilities towards gainful business activities.