Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Questions and Answers for Viva

Answer-1: IaC is the practice of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable definition files, rather than manual hardware configuration.

Answer-2: IaC provides automation, consistency, repeatability, faster deployments, reduced human error, and easier infrastructure management.

Answer-3: Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Ansible, Puppet, Chef, SaltStack.

Answer-4: Traditional methods are manual and error-prone, while IaC uses code to automate infrastructure setup and management.

Answer-5: Declarative defines what the infrastructure should look like, while imperative specifies how to achieve it step-by-step.

Answer-6: Terraform and AWS CloudFormation are examples of declarative IaC tools.

Answer-7: Idempotency ensures that running the same IaC script multiple times results in the same infrastructure state without unintended changes.

Answer-8: IaC scripts are stored in version control systems like Git to track changes, enable collaboration, and rollback if necessary.

Answer-9: State files keep track of the current infrastructure resources managed by Terraform, enabling incremental updates.

Answer-10: Modules are reusable, composable code blocks that help organize and share IaC configurations.

Answer-11: Yes, IaC can manage infrastructure across cloud providers and on-premises environments.

Answer-12: Automated testing verifies IaC scripts work as intended and helps prevent misconfigurations before deployment.

Answer-13: IaC enables rapid and consistent infrastructure rebuilding from code, reducing recovery time.

Answer-14: Challenges include complexity, tool learning curves, managing secrets, and integrating with existing workflows.

Answer-15: CloudFormation is AWS-specific and declarative, while Terraform is multi-cloud and also declarative but supports more providers.

Answer-16: By using secrets management tools, environment variables, or encryption rather than hardcoding secrets.

Answer-17: Detecting when the actual infrastructure differs from the state defined in IaC scripts.

Answer-18: IaC scripts automate infrastructure provisioning within CI/CD pipelines for consistent and fast deployments.

Answer-19: Provisioners execute scripts or commands on resources after they are created or updated.

Answer-20: They ensure safe, repeatable deployments without causing unintended side effects.

Answer-21: IaC can enforce security policies and configurations automatically, ensuring compliance across environments.

Answer-22: JSON, YAML, and HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language).

Answer-23: Infrastructure components are replaced instead of modified, reducing configuration drift.

Answer-24: Using variables, parameter files, or different modules for each environment.

Answer-25: Push-based pushes changes from a central server, pull-based lets clients pull configurations from a repository.

Answer-26: Ansible is primarily a configuration management tool with some provisioning, while Terraform is focused on infrastructure provisioning.

Answer-27: Ensures repeated execution leads to the same result, avoiding unexpected changes.

Answer-28: Yes, IaC can automate setup of virtual networks, subnets, firewalls, and load balancers.

Answer-29: Specifying the order in which resources are created or destroyed to handle dependencies.

Answer-30: Terraform automatically builds a dependency graph based on resource references.

Answer-31: Backends store state files remotely, enabling collaboration and state locking.

Answer-32: A mechanism to prevent multiple simultaneous updates to infrastructure that could cause conflicts.

Answer-33: By applying previous versions of IaC scripts stored in version control or restoring state files.

Answer-34: It?s when actual infrastructure diverges from IaC definitions; prevented by regular enforcement and drift detection.

Answer-35: Using unit tests, integration tests, and tools like Terraform Validate, Terratest, or kitchen-terraform.

Answer-36: Shows the changes Terraform will apply before actual execution.

Answer-37: Using multi-cloud tools like Terraform that support different providers.

Answer-38: HCL is human-readable, supports complex logic, and is designed specifically for Terraform.

Answer-39: By providing a shared, version-controlled infrastructure codebase enabling transparency and reviews.

Answer-40: Provisioning sets up infrastructure resources; configuration management installs and configures software on them.

Answer-41: By enforcing access controls, secret management, and auditing changes.

Answer-42: Mutable infrastructure is updated in-place; immutable infrastructure is replaced entirely.

Answer-43: Marking a resource for destruction and recreation on the next apply.

Answer-44: Using tools like Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or environment variables.

Answer-45: Allows Terraform to fetch data from external sources for use in configurations.

Answer-46: Automates provisioning of additional resources dynamically as needed.

Answer-47: They expose information from the infrastructure for use by other configurations or users.

Answer-48: Enables team collaboration and ensures consistent view of infrastructure state.

Answer-49: By checking system state before applying changes and avoiding destructive commands.

Answer-50: Increasing automation, integration with AI/ML for predictive management, and stronger multi-cloud support.