A quest in the clouds

Q. What is this quest ?

It is a fun way to assess your cloud skills. Quest is a webapp made with node.js and golang.

Q. Do i need to be an expert in node.js and golang ?

No. The starting point of the quest app is npm install && npm start. That is all the node.js you need to know. And you wont even see golang.

Q. So what skills should i have ?

AWS. Cloud concepts. Docker (containerization). IAC (Infrastructure as code). HTTP/HTTPS. Linux/Unix.

Q. What do i have to do ?

1) Deploy the app in AWS and find the secret page. Use Linux 64-bit as your OS (Amazon Linux preferred)

2) Deploy the app in a Docker container. Use node:10 as the base image

3) Inject an environment variable (SECRET_WORD) in the docker container. The value of SECRET_WORD should be the secret word discovered on the secret page

4) Deploy a loadbalancer in front of the app

5) Complete "Terraform"ing and/or "Cloudformation"ing the entire stack for single click deployment

6) Add TLS (https)

Q. How do i know i have solved these stages ?

Each stage can be tested as follows (where <ip_or_host> is the location where the app is deployed)

1) AWS/Secret page - http(s)://<ip_or_host>[:port]/

2) Docker - http(s)://<ip_or_host>[:port]/docker

3) SECRET_WORD env variable - http(s)://<ip_or_host>[:port]/secret_word

4) Loadbalancer - http(s)://<ip_or_host>[:port]/loadbalanced

5) Terraform and/or Cloudformation - we will test your submitted templates in our AWS account

6) TLS - http(s)://<ip_or_host>[:port]/tls

Q. Do i have to do all these ?

You can do as many as you like. We suspect though that once you start you wont be able to stop. Its addictive.

Q. What do i have to submit ?

1) Terraform and/or Cloudformation template(s) (if you complete stage 5)

2) Dockerfile (if you complete stages 2 and 3)

3) Screenshot of the secret page (if you complete stage 1)

4) URL of your stack (if the endpoint is exposed)

Q. What if i successfully complete all the challenges ?

We have many more for you to solve as a member of the Rearc team !

Q. What if i find a bug ?

Awesome! Lets talk.

Q. What if i fail ?

Do. Or do not. There is no fail.