DevSecOps : Reproducing Production Setup

[emvaldes]

Objective:

Recreate a production-like environment in a testing/staging setup to accurately measure performance, scalability, and reliability under realistic conditions.

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Deliverables

1. Fully functional high-fidelity staging environment.
2. Documented differences between production and staging.
3. Updated Terraform templates and CI/CD workflows for consistency.
4. Test results from load and chaos testing.

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Integration With Existing Sections

• If the "Reproduce Prod Env for Testing" is already partially covered, this expansion adds:
  1. Validation Process: Ensures production and staging parity through automated validation.
  2. High-Fidelity Testing: Extends into load and chaos testing in staging.
  3. Documentation of Findings: Explicitly ties outcomes to actionable updates.

[emvaldes]

Define the Scope of Reproduction

Goal: Document the components and dependencies required to replicate the production environment.

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Tasks:

1. Inventory Production Components

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Identify all resources in production (e.g., VMs, containers, databases, APIs).
     2. Map dependencies between components (e.g., APIs calling databases, batch pipelines relying on message queues).

2. Document Network Topology

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Replicate production subnets, VNets, and NSG configurations.
     2. Include traffic routing (e.g., Azure Front Door, Load Balancers).

3. Determine Data Sensitivity

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Define which data can be anonymized or mocked for testing.
     2. Implement Azure Data Factory or scripts to generate mock production-like datasets.

[emvaldes]

Implement the Staging Environment

Goal: Deploy a high-fidelity staging environment using Infrastructure as Code (IaC).

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Tasks:

1. Define Infrastructure in Terraform

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Create Terraform templates for VMs, Kubernetes clusters (AKS), databases, and other resources.
     2. Use Terraform modules to match production configurations (e.g., instance sizes, scaling policies).

2. Set Up Monitoring Tools

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Deploy Azure Monitor and Application Insights for staging.
     2. Integrate Log Analytics to track test environment metrics.

3. Replicate CI/CD Pipelines

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Clone GitHub Actions workflows to deploy into staging.
     2. Set up secrets and credentials for staging pipelines (e.g., using Azure Key Vault).

4. Implement Configuration Management

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Use tools like Ansible or Azure Automation to manage VM and container configurations.
     2. Ensure environment variables and configurations match production values.

[emvaldes]

Validate the High-Fidelity Environment

Goal: Ensure the staging environment matches production as closely as possible.

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Tasks:

1. Perform Environment Validation

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Compare resource inventory (e.g., Azure Resource Graph Explorer) between production and staging.
     2. Verify network connectivity and routing configurations using Azure Network Watcher.

2. Run Smoke Tests

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Deploy a basic workload to validate infrastructure readiness.
     2. Test connectivity between components (e.g., API calls to databases, message queues).

3. Validate Monitoring and Logs

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Verify that Azure Monitor is capturing metrics (CPU, memory, network).
     2. Ensure logs are flowing into Log Analytics from all components.

[emvaldes]

Test for Scalability and Reliability

Goal: Use the high-fidelity environment to perform load and chaos testing.

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Tasks:

1. Load Testing in Staging

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Use K6 or JMeter to simulate production-level traffic.
     2. Measure system throughput, latency, and error rates.

2. Chaos Testing in Staging

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Use Azure Chaos Studio to inject faults (e.g., VM shutdown, network latency).
     2. Measure system resilience (e.g., auto-scaling, failover success).

[emvaldes]

Document Results and Adjustments

Goal: Ensure all findings and gaps are documented to enhance the fidelity of the staging environment.

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Tasks:

1. Gap Analysis

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Identify discrepancies between staging and production.
     2. Record unresolved issues or challenges in reproducing specific components.

2. Update IaC Templates

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Refine Terraform templates based on findings.
     2. Update CI/CD workflows to include fixes or enhancements.

3. Create Environment Comparison Report

   • Sub-Tasks:
     1. Document differences between production and staging (e.g., resource sizes, scaling configurations).
     2. Share findings with stakeholders to validate the setup.