CloudBender/README.md

# ![Logo](https://git.zero-downtime.net/ZeroDownTime/CloudBender/media/branch/main/cloudbender.png) CloudBender

# About

Toolset to deploy and maintain infrastructure in automated and trackable manner.
First class support for:
- [Pulumi](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/)
- [AWS CloudFormation](https://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation)


# Installation
The preferred way of running CloudBender is using the public container. This ensure all tools and dependencies are in sync and underwent some basic testing during the development and build phase.

As a fall back CloudBender and its dependencies can be installed locally see step *1b* below.

## 1a. Containerized

The command below tests the ability to run containers within containers on your local setup.
( This most likely only works on a recent Linux box/VM, which is capable of running rootless containers within containers.
Requires kernel >= 5.12, Cgroups V2, podman, ... )

```
podman run --rm -v .:/workspace -v $HOME/.aws/config:/workspace/.aws/config public.ecr.aws/zero-downtime/cloudbender:latest podman run -q --rm docker.io/busybox:latest echo "Rootless container inception works!"
```

if you get `Rootless container inception works!`, add an alias to your environment, eg:

```
alias cloudbender="podman run --rm -v .:/workspace -v $HOME/.aws/config:/home/cloudbender/.aws/config public.ecr.aws/zero-downtime/cloudbender:latest cloudbender"
```
and proceed with step 2)

## 1b. Local install
- `pip3 install -U cloudbender`
- `curl -fsSL https://get.pulumi.com | sh`  (official [Docs](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/get-started/install/))
- either `podman` or `docker` depending on your platform

## 2. Test cli
To verify that all pieces are in place run:
```
cloudbender version
```
which should get you something like:
```
[2022-06-28 16:06:24] CloudBender: 0.13.5
[2022-06-28 16:06:24] Pulumi: v3.34.1
[2022-06-28 16:06:24] Podman/Docker: podman version 4.1.0
```

## CLI

```
Usage: cloudbender [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --profile TEXT  Use named AWS .config profile, overwrites any stack config
  --dir TEXT      Specify cloudbender project directory.
  --debug         Turn on debug logging.
  --help          Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  assimilate         Imports potentially existing resources into Pulumi...
  clean              Deletes all previously rendered files locally
  create-change-set  Creates a change set for an existing stack - CFN only
  create-docs        Parses all documentation fragments out of rendered...
  delete             Deletes stacks or stack groups
  execute            Executes custom Python function within an existing...
  export             Exports a Pulumi stack to repair state
  get-config         Get a config value, decrypted if secret
  outputs            Prints all stack outputs
  preview            Preview of Pulumi stack up operation
  provision          Creates or updates stacks or stack groups
  refresh            Refreshes Pulumi stack / Drift detection
  render             Renders template and its parameters - CFN only
  set-config         Sets a config value, encrypts with stack key if secret
  sync               Renders template and provisions it right away
  validate           Validates already rendered templates using cfn-lint...
  version            Displays own version and all dependencies
```

# Architecture
## State management
### Pulumi
The state for all Pulumi resources are stored on S3 in your account and in the same region as the resources being deployed.
No data is send to nor shared with the official Pulumi provided APIs.

CloudBender configures Pulumi with a local, temporary workspace on the fly. This incl. the injection of various common parameters like the AWS account ID and region etc.

### Cloudformation
All state is handled by AWS Cloudformation.
The required account and region are determined by CloudBender automatically from the configuration.


## Config management
- Within the config folder each directory represents either a stack group if it has sub-directories, or an actual Cloudformation stack in case it is a leaf folder.
- The actual configuration for each stack is hierachly merged. Lower level config files overwrite higher-level values. Complex data structures like dictionaries and arrays are deep merged.

## Secrets

### Pulumi
CloudBender supports the native Pulumi secret handling.
See [Pulumi Docs](https://www.pulumi.com/docs/intro/concepts/secrets/) for details.

### Cloudformation
CloudBender supports [SOPS](https://github.com/mozilla/sops) to encrypt values in any config file.

If a sops encrypted config file is detected by CloudBender, it will automatically try to decrypt the file. All required information to decrypt has to be present in the embedded sops config or set ahead of time via sops supported ENVIRONMENT variables.

SOPS support can be disabled by setting `DISABLE_SOPS` in order to reduce timeouts etc.