Generic infrastructure requirements

[ddeboer]

Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed (NDE) develops web applications (‘netwerkdiensten’) including HTTP APIs and demonstrators. These applications currently run on our Kubernetes cluster but will be moved to other organisations for hosting in the long run. We’re in the process of formalising application infrastructure requirements that we will use when discussing application handover. (Unlike many of the CLARIAH use cases, these requirements are not aimed at solving research questions.)

These requirements follow best practices such as Twelve-Factor and infrastructure as code. Additional principles are:

• A clear boundary between the application and the infrastructure it runs on. The application code should not contain infrastructure specifics and be as generic as possible so instances can be hosted by multiple parties, including developers that want to run or debug the application locally. On the other hand, existing infrastructure should not have to change fundamentally to accommodate new applications.
• Processes are automated, which strengthens transparency and prevents human error; for example application code is built automatically when commits are pushed.
• The infrastructure is reliable, which helps adoption of the applications.

Questions

1. Should I create a use case among many for this, for instance ‘Serving web applications’?
2. Do we have a place for generic infrastructure (i.e. non application-specific) best practices?
3. Can we work together towards a single set of requirements or are the participating organisations’ situations too different?

[proycon]

Perhaps @GertjanFi , @roelandordelman and Mario (@mmisworking) want to chime in here...

From my view, I think these more generic use cases are welcome here too; even when not explicitly tied to solving research questions. From a DevOps perspective these will be more common. I also submitted one deployment

I like the best practises you cited and the application infrastructure requirements you're formulating, that may be a valuable input for the DevOps interest group, I think.

1. Should I create a use case among many for this, for instance ‘Serving web applications’?

I'd say yes, perhaps be as specific as you can in the context you're using for deployment (e.g. Serving web applications on a Kubernetes cluster), and mark the use case as "generic".

2. Do we have a place for generic infrastructure (i.e. non application-specific) best practices?

The DevOps interest group is the ideal place for that I think.

3. Can we work together towards a single set of requirements or are the participating organisations’ situations too different?

I think adding these use cases helps to get a feeling of how participating organisation's differ, I don't really know yet. Perhaps Mario (@mmisworking) knows more I'd say working towards a single set of guidelines and requirements is a good idea. It sounds like a good topic for our DevOps interest group in any case.

[ddeboer]

We just published a draft of our infrastructure requirements, so adding a link to that here: https://github.com/netwerk-digitaal-erfgoed/requirements-infrastructure. Feedback is very welcome!

I'd say working towards a single set of guidelines and requirements is a good idea.

Same! Having a shared set of guidelines will help us push other organisations in the field towards more modern infrastructure approaches.

It sounds like a good topic for our DevOps interest group in any case.

Agreed: let’s put it on the agenda for our next meeting.

[proycon]

Closing this because this is now well underway in #4 and #5