IHLP

The International House of Loading Programs

Overview

IHLP is a cross-platform program designed as a lightweight helper for infrastructure management.

It compliments tools like Terraform and Serverless Framework, adding pre-deployment (like installing specific Terraform versions or initializing per-environment Terraform backends) and post-deployment (like syncing files to a S3 bucket and invalidating their CloudFront distribution cache) actions.

Its variable system facilitates moving configuration values between tools, e.g. using CloudFormation stack output values in Terraform backend configuration.

Getting Started

Install ihlp via npm, e.g.:

mkdir myproject
cd myproject
npx ihlp init

The initialization process will have you choose a starter template. Custom it and deploy it via npx ihlp deploy -e dev.

Uses

• Enabling safe GitOps workflows:
  • When rolling back changes, previous working builds (e.g. AWS Lambda functions or React sites) will be automatically used instead of rebuilding them
• Combining multiple deployment systems (e.g. CloudFormation or Azure Resource Manager alongside Terraform, or Terraform and Serverless Framework)
• Combining multiple Terraform projects
  • Especially useful for when a single Terraform configuration isn't technically feasible (e.g. dynamic provider values)
• Enforce Terraform execution best-practices:
  • Use of Workspaces
  • Retrieving any module updates before plan/apply

Supported Deployment Systems

• AWS CloudFormation (CFN) / Serverless Application Repository (SAR)
• Azure Resource Manager (ARM)
• GCP Deployment Manager
• Serverless Framework
• Terraform

AWS CloudFormation (CFN) / Serverless Application Repository (SAR)

AWS CloudFormation

Here's a basic IHLP ihlp.ts deploying a CloudFormation stack:

import type { IHLPConfig } from "ihlp/lib/config";

const envOptions = {
  dev: {
    namespace: "dev",
    someParam: "foo",
    tags: {
      environment: "dev",
      namespace: "dev-app",
    },
  },
};

const ihlpConfig: IHLPConfig = {
  deployments: [
    {
      blocks: [
        {
          options: {
            stackName: `${envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].namespace}-stack-a`,
            stackParameters: {
              SomeParam: envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].someParam
            },
            stackTags: envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].tags,
            templatePath: "./cfn-templates/app-stack-a.yml",
          },
          type: "aws-cfn-stack",
        },
      ],
      locations: ["us-west-2"],
    },
  ],
};

module.exports = ihlpConfig;

When running in the dev environment (e.g. npx ihlp deploy -e dev), the stack dev-app-stack-a will be deployed from the template on-disk at ./cfn-templates/app-stack-a.yml with parameter SomeParam set to foo.

AWS Serverless Application Repository (SAR)

Applications available in the Serverless Application Repository can be deployed like regular CloudFormation stacks; simply substitute an applicationId in place of the templatePath:

import type { IHLPConfig } from "ihlp/lib/config";

const envOptions = {
  dev: {
    namespace: "dev",
    appVersion: "1.0.0",
    tags: {
      environment: "dev",
      namespace: "dev-app",
    },
  },
};

const ihlpConfig: IHLPConfig = {
  deployments: [
    {
      blocks: [
        {
          options: {
            applicationId: "arn:aws:serverlessrepo:us-east-2:012345678901:applications/example",
            applicationVersion: envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].appVersion,
            stackName: `${envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].namespace}-stack-a`,
            stackParameters: {
              SomeParam: envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].someParam
            },
            stackTags: envOptions[process.env.IHLP_ENV].tags,
          },
          type: "aws-cfn-stack",
        },
      ],
      locations: ["us-west-2"],
    },
  ],
};

module.exports = ihlpConfig;

When running in the dev environment (e.g. npx ihlp deploy -e dev), the stack serverlessrepo-dev-app-stack-a will be deployed from the SAR app arn:aws:serverlessrepo:us-east-2:012345678901:applications/example with parameter SomeParam set to foo.

FAQ

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