atmos

README

atmos

atmos - Universal Tool for DevOps and Cloud Automation.

---

This project is part of our comprehensive "SweetOps" approach towards DevOps.

It's 100% Open Source and licensed under the APACHE2.

Introduction

atmos is both a library and a command-line tool for provisioning, managing and orchestrating workflows across various toolchains. We use it extensively for automating cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes clusters.

atmos includes workflows for dealing with:

• Provisioning Terraform components
• Deploying helm charts to Kubernetes clusters using helmfile
• Executing helm commands on Kubernetes clusters
• Provisioning istio on Kubernetes clusters using istio operator and helmfile
• Executing kubectl commands on Kubernetes clusters
• Executing AWS SDK commands to orchestrate cloud infrastructure
• Running AWS CDK constructs to define cloud resources
• Executing commands for the serverless framework
• Executing shell commands
• Combining various commands into workflows to execute many commands sequentially in just one step
• ... and many more

In essence, it's a tool that orchestrates the other CLI tools in a consistent and self-explaining manner. It's a superset of all other tools and task runners (e.g. make, terragrunt, terraform, aws cli, gcloud, etc.) and is intended to be used to tie everything together, so you can provide a simple CLI interface for your organization.

Moreover, atmos is not only a command-line interface for managing clouds and clusters. It provides many useful patterns and best practices, such as:

• Enforces Terraform and helmfile project structure (so everybody knows where things are)
• Provides separation of configuration and code (so the same code could be easily deployed to different regions, environments and stages)
• It can be extended to include new features, commands, and workflows
• The commands have a clean, consistent and easy to understand syntax
• The CLI code is modular and self-documenting

Install

OSX

From Homebrew directly:

brew install atmos

Linux

On Debian:

# Add the Cloud Posse package repository hosted by Cloudsmith
apt-get update && apt-get install -y apt-utils curl
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/cloudposse/packages/cfg/setup/bash.deb.sh' | bash

# Install atmos
apt-get install atmos@="<ATMOS_VERSION>-*"

On Alpine:

# Install the Cloud Posse package repository hosted by Cloudsmith
curl -sSL https://apk.cloudposse.com/install.sh | bash

# Install atmos
apk add atmos@cloudposse~=<ATMOS_VERSION>

Go

Install the latest version

go install github.com/cloudposse/atmos

Get a specific version

NOTE: Since the version is passed in via -ldflags during build, when running go install without using -ldflags, the CLI will return 0.0.1 when running atmos version.

go install github.com/cloudposse/atmos@v1.3.9

Build from source

make build

or run this and replace $version with the version that should be returned with atmos version.

go build -o build/atmos -v -ldflags "-X 'github.com/cloudposse/atmos/cmd.Version=$version'"

Usage

There are a number of ways you can leverage this project:

Recommended Layout

Our recommended filesystem layout looks like this:

   │   # CLI configuration
   └── cli/
   │  
   │   # Centralized components configuration
   ├── stacks/
   │   │
   │   └── $stack.yaml
   │  
   │   # Components are broken down by tool
   ├── components/
   │   │
   │   ├── terraform/   # root modules in here
   │   │   ├── vpc/
   │   │   ├── eks/
   │   │   ├── rds/
   │   │   ├── iam/
   │   │   ├── dns/
   │   │   └── sso/
   │   │
   │   └── helmfile/  # helmfiles are organized by chart
   │       ├── cert-manager/helmfile.yaml
   │       └── external-dns/helmfile.yaml
   │  
   │   # Makefile for building the CLI
   ├── Makefile
   │  
   │   # Docker image for shipping the CLI and all dependencies
   └── Dockerfile (optional)

Example

The example folder contains a complete solution that shows how to:

• Structure the Terraform and helmfile components
• Configure the CLI
• Add stack configurations for the Terraform and helmfile components (to provision them to different environments and stages)

CLI Configuration

Centralized Project Configuration

atmos provides separation of configuration and code, allowing you to provision the same code into different regions, environments and stages.

In our example, all the code (Terraform and helmfiles) is in the components folder.

The centralized stack configurations (variables for the Terraform and helmfile components) are in the stacks folder.

In the example, all stack configuration files are broken down by environments and stages and use the predefined format $environment-$stage.yaml.

Environments are abbreviations of AWS regions, e.g. ue2 stands for us-east-2, whereas uw2 would stand for us-west-2.

$environment-globals.yaml is where you define the global values for all stages for a particular environment. The global values get merged with the $environment-$stage.yaml configuration for a specific environment/stage by the CLI.

In the example, we defined a few config files:

• ue2-dev.yaml - stack configuration (Terraform and helmfile variables) for the environment ue2 and stage dev
• ue2-staging.yaml - stack configuration (Terraform and helmfile variables) for the environment ue2 and stage staging
• ue2-prod.yaml - stack configuration (Terraform and helmfile variables) for the environment ue2 and stage prod
• ue2-globals.yaml - global settings for the environment ue2 (e.g. region, environment)
• globals.yaml - global settings for the entire solution

NOTE: The stack configuration structure and the file names described above are just an example of how to name and structure the config files. You can choose any file name for a stack. You can also include other configuration files (e.g. globals for the environment, and globals for the entire solution) into a stack config using the import directive.

Stack configuration files have a predefined format:

import:
  - ue2-globals

vars:
  stage: dev

terraform:
  vars: {}

helmfile:
  vars: {}

components:
  terraform:
    vpc:
      command: "/usr/bin/terraform-0.15"
      backend:
        s3:
          workspace_key_prefix: "vpc"
      vars:
        cidr_block: "10.102.0.0/18"
    eks:
      backend:
        s3:
          workspace_key_prefix: "eks"
      vars: {}

  helmfile:
    nginx-ingress:
      vars:
        installed: true

It has the following main sections:

• import - (optional) a list of stack configuration files to import and combine with the current configuration file
• vars - (optional) a map of variables for all components (Terraform and helmfile) in the stack
• terraform - (optional) configuration (variables) for all Terraform components
• helmfile - (optional) configuration (variables) for all helmfile components
• components - (required) configuration for the Terraform and helmfile components

The components section consists of the following:

• terraform - defines variables, the binary to execute, and the backend for each Terraform component. Terraform component names correspond to the Terraform components in the components folder

• helmfile - defines variables and the binary to execute for each helmfile component. Helmfile component names correspond to the helmfile components in the helmfile folder

Run the Example

To run the example, execute the following commands in a terminal:

• cd example
• make all - it will build the Docker image, build the CLI tool inside the image, and then start the container

Provision Terraform Component

To provision a Terraform component using the atmos CLI, run the following commands in the container shell:

atmos terraform plan eks --stack=ue2-dev
atmos terraform apply eks --stack=ue2-dev

where:

• eks is the Terraform component to provision (from the components/terraform folder)
• --stack=ue2-dev is the stack to provision the component into

Short versions of the command-line arguments can be used:

atmos terraform plan eks -s ue2-dev
atmos terraform apply eks -s ue2-dev

To execute plan and apply in one step, use terraform deploy command:

atmos terraform deploy eks -s ue2-dev

Provision Helmfile Component

To provision a helmfile component using the atmos CLI, run the following commands in the container shell:

atmos helmfile diff nginx-ingress --stack=ue2-dev
atmos helmfile apply nginx-ingress --stack=ue2-dev

where:

• nginx-ingress is the helmfile component to provision (from the components/helmfile folder)
• --stack=ue2-dev is the stack to provision the component into

Short versions of the command-line arguments can be used:

atmos helmfile diff nginx-ingress -s ue2-dev
atmos helmfile apply nginx-ingress -s ue2-dev

To execute diff and apply in one step, use helmfile deploy command:

atmos helmfile deploy nginx-ingress -s ue2-dev

Workflows

Workflows are a way of combining multiple commands into one executable unit of work.

In the CLI, workflows can be defined using two different methods:

• In the configuration file for a stack (see workflows in ue2-dev.yaml for an example)
• In a separate file (see workflows.yaml

In the first case, we define workflows in the configuration file for the stack (which we specify on the command line). To execute the workflows from workflows in ue2-dev.yaml, run the following commands:

atmos workflow deploy-all -s ue2-dev

Note that workflows defined in the stack config files can be executed only for the particular stack (environment and stage). It's not possible to provision resources for multiple stacks this way.

In the second case (defining workflows in a separate file), a single workflow can be created to provision resources into different stacks. The stacks for the workflow steps can be specified in the workflow config.

For example, to run terraform plan and helmfile diff on all terraform and helmfile components in the example, execute the following command:

atmos workflow plan-all -f workflows

where the command-line option -f (--file for long version) instructs the atmos CLI to look for the plan-all workflow in the file workflows.

As we can see, in multi-environment workflows, each workflow job specifies the stack it's operating on:

workflows:
  plan-all:
    description: Run 'terraform plan' and 'helmfile diff' on all components for all stacks
    steps:
      - job: terraform plan vpc
        stack: ue2-dev
      - job: terraform plan eks
        stack: ue2-dev
      - job: helmfile diff nginx-ingress
        stack: ue2-dev
      - job: terraform plan vpc
        stack: ue2-staging
      - job: terraform plan eks
        stack: ue2-staging

You can also define a workflow in a separate file without specifying the stack in the workflow's job config. In this case, the stack needs to be provided on the command line.

For example, to run the deploy-all workflow from the workflows file for the ue2-dev stack, execute the following command:

atmos workflow deploy-all -f workflows -s ue2-dev

Help

Got a question? We got answers.

File a GitHub issue, send us an email or join our Slack Community.

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Work directly with our team of DevOps experts via email, slack, and video conferencing.

We deliver 10x the value for a fraction of the cost of a full-time engineer. Our track record is not even funny. If you want things done right and you need it done FAST, then we're your best bet.

• Reference Architecture. You'll get everything you need from the ground up built using 100% infrastructure as code.
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Join our Open Source Community on Slack. It's FREE for everyone! Our "SweetOps" community is where you get to talk with others who share a similar vision for how to rollout and manage infrastructure. This is the best place to talk shop, ask questions, solicit feedback, and work together as a community to build totally sweet infrastructure.

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Contributing

Bug Reports & Feature Requests

Please use the issue tracker to report any bugs or file feature requests.

Developing

If you are interested in being a contributor and want to get involved in developing this project or help out with our other projects, we would love to hear from you! Shoot us an email.

In general, PRs are welcome. We follow the typical "fork-and-pull" Git workflow.

1. Fork the repo on GitHub
2. Clone the project to your own machine
3. Commit changes to your own branch
4. Push your work back up to your fork
5. Submit a Pull Request so that we can review your changes

NOTE: Be sure to merge the latest changes from "upstream" before making a pull request!

Copyright

Copyright © 2017-2022 Cloud Posse, LLC

License

See LICENSE for full details.

Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
distributed with this work for additional information
regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at

  https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
software distributed under the License is distributed on an
"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
specific language governing permissions and limitations
under the License.

Trademarks

All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.

About

This project is maintained and funded by Cloud Posse, LLC. Like it? Please let us know by leaving a testimonial!

We're a DevOps Professional Services company based in Los Angeles, CA. We ❤️ Open Source Software.

We offer paid support on all of our projects.

Check out our other projects, follow us on twitter, apply for a job, or hire us to help with your cloud strategy and implementation.

Contributors

Erik Osterman	Andriy Knysh	RB