On-Demand Server Provisioning with Infrastructure as Code
Challenge:
The traditional manual process of requesting and setting up new server environments is a major bottleneck for many companies. This project aims to solve that by providing a fully automated, self-service platform for creating and managing virtual servers.
Deliverables:
- IaC Module:
- A complete and reusable Terraform module to define and provision virtual machines, networking, and storage resources on a chosen cloud platform (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
- An Ansible playbook to handle the initial configuration of the provisioned servers, including installing necessary software (e.g., Docker, Node.js, Python), setting up user accounts, and configuring security.
- This module will include at least two predefined templates for different server types (e.g., dev_server with limited resources and test_server with more resources).
- Self-Service API & UI:
- A RESTful API that allows users to programmatically request, start, stop, or destroy server environments.
- A simple, user-friendly web-based UI (built with React, Vue.js, or a similar framework) that interacts with the API, allowing non-technical users to manage their servers through a dashboard.
- Resource Management Module:
- A mechanism or script for automated cleanup of idle servers to prevent resource waste and reduce costs. This script should be able to identify servers that haven't been used for a specified period (e.g., 7 days) and automatically terminate them.
- A simple monitoring dashboard (e.g., using Grafana) to display resource consumption (CPU, RAM, Storage) and an alerting system to notify users before their servers are shut down.
- Comprehensive Documentation:
- A detailed README.md file that covers the project's architecture, setup instructions, tool dependencies, and usage guide for both the API and the UI.
- This documentation is a key deliverable and should be clear and professional.
Expected Outcomes:
The delivered solution will be a practical, real-world product that showcases the freelancer's ability to solve complex infrastructure problems with automation, reducing costs and accelerating development cycles for clients.