AWS Scaffolding in Backstage

[nizarajroud]

As a DevOps Engineer, I want to scaffold AWS resources within Backstage so that I can streamline infrastructure deployment and standardize AWS service creation across teams.

- Description:

Backstage users should be able to create AWS resources (ECS , EKS, serverless, GenIA, etc..) using pre-configured scaffolding templates directly from the Backstage interface. - Acceptance Criteria:

1. Scaffolding Templates: Templates for commonly used AWS services (ECS , EKS, serverless, GenIA, etc..) are available in the Backstage scaffolder. The scaffolding should follow best practices (e.g., using CloudFormation, Terraform, or AWS CDK

2. Customization: The user can customize key parameters like instance types, storage configurations, or permissions during scaffolding.

3. Deployment:

   • AWS resources should be provisioned automatically via a CI/CD pipeline.

4. Permissions & Security:

   • Users must have the appropriate AWS credentials and permissions to scaffold resources.
   • Use Github for authentication and versionning of scaffolder repositories.

5. Documentation & Support:

• Each template should include documentation explaining what the template does, required input fields, and potential costs associated with the AWS resources. => use techdocs plugin and cost insights
• There should be guidance on how to manage, update, or delete the scaffolded AWS resources after creation.

- Technical Requirements:

• Backstage Plugins: Leverage Backstage's scaffolder plugin to allow users to choose and configure AWS templates.

• Secrets Management: Use AWS Secrets Manager or Backstage’s secret management to handle credentials securely.

• Auditing and Logging: Ensure that each scaffolding operation is logged for auditing and debugging purposes.

- Value: By allowing AWS scaffolding within Backstage, teams can speed up the process of infrastructure creation and ensure best practices are followed,

[nizarajroud]

Task List

What has been achieved so far:

• [ ] Integration of dotenv workspaces/aws/.env.vault
• [ ] Consolidating all variables into a single file workspaces/aws/app-config.yaml
• [ ] Authentication via GitHub
• [ ] Registration of processors for the Aws environment and Aws environment provider components on the backend
• [ ] Registration and configuration of actions in the scaffolder workspaces/aws/packages/backend/src/extensions/scaffolderActions.ts
• [ ] Review of the structure of the existing plugins (namely the two plugins alithya-oss/plugin-catalog-backend-module-aws-apps-entities-processor and scaffolder-backend-module-aws-apps) to make them accessible from package.json
• [ ] Testing the entire scaffolder creation flow and registration of the entity (kind: Aws environment provider) "My-First-ECS-EC2-Env-repo" in the catalog

What remains to be done:

• [ ] Refer to alithya-oss instead of my own organization harmonix-generated-environments
• [ ] Instantiate the created template Aws environment provider to create a full ECS environment on my AWS account
• [ ] Generalize instantiation across all Harmonix templates
• [ ] Deploy the Harmonix Backstage integration in the landing zone
• [ ] Add technical documentation backstage.io/techdocs-ref in harmonix/backstage-reference/templates/aws-ecs-ec2-environment-provider/content/.backstage/catalog-info.yaml

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[ionSurf]

HI @nizarajroud. Thank you for raising this issue, we'll look into it. We hope that's ok that we've been piggy back ridding on your source code, let us know if there's any accommodations in terms of contributions that you'd like us have made.