Submission executable tutorial

[ttoma00]

submisson

Title

Infracost with CI/CD pipeline

Names and KTH ID

• Student Tomi Toma ([email protected])
• Student Sina Khoraman ([email protected])

Deadline

Task 3

Category

Executable Tutorial

Description

We are going to integrate infracost into a CI/CD pipeline to generate real time estimates for cloud infrastrcutre. You will learn how to configure infracost and set up cost predictions within your CI/CD workflow. We will create a web project, set up a CI/CD pipleline, setup a terraform file and integrate infracost into the pipeline to monitor the infrastructure cost.

Relevance

This is relevant for devops beacuse by integrating infracost for develeopers it allows them to automate cost control and avoid unexpected expenses. This is useful for continuous improvment of infrastrcture by ensuring cost efficiency.

Submisson
proposal : #2595
Killercoda : https://killercoda.com/skkillercoda/

Github : https://github.com/SKFrozenCloud/baji

[emilsjol]

Feedback from Emil Sjölander ([email protected])

I certify that generative AI, incl. ChatGPT, has not been used to write this feedback. Using generative AI without permission is considered academic misconduct.

High level strengths

First I would liked to commend the practical-ness of the tutorial. Having multiple steps where I needed to open some text editors myself and remove or add code made it feel more tangible to me. Even though I did not have any experience with Nano (I prefer Vim (sorry, had to say it 😉 )) following your tutorial was without any issues. Seeing the jump in the calculated cost provided by the tool you're explaining in the tutorial was interesting. I felt that I understood the reason for the tool and thus your tutorial.

Secondly, I also liked the pacing and difficulty of the tutorial. When explaining some technology to someone who is completely unfamiliar with it, it's good to start at a simple level and make it more complex. I think you managed this expertly in your tutorial. At first I had no understanding of the tool, but through your tutorial I felt I had a better grasp on how it functions in this particular context.

High level weaknesses

While I felt I had learned something about the tool and how to integrate it after the tutorial was done, something I had wished for was that there was a more clear description of the tool and the different components of the tutorial in the beginning. For example, maybe the structure of the tutorial could be mentioned in the beginning, so I would know what to expect. Another idea is that the context of the tool could be explained a bit more. For example, when is the tool useful, and how would a workflow incorporating it look? This could be described in text and maybe a diagram of sorts. Alternatively a scenario could be incorporated, which would give a good reason for why the tool would be used as well as showing the importance of the tutorial.

Getting hands-on experience with infracost was very educational, but there could have been more of a discussion about the different functionalities of infracost. What do the "configure" and "breakdown" commands do and require as arguments? I could search about it somewhere else but perhaps it could have been explained a bit in the tutorial. Also, what does the code that you provide do? Could I change other things?

Minor strengths and weaknesses

I thought your language in the tutorial was very concise and appropriate. In my experience some tutorial-makers often dance around the point of the tutorial: learning about the tool, but I think you struck a balance between concise wording and how to actually proceed. Additionally I felt that nothing was out of place.
KillerCoda has a functionaliy to allow code blocks to be executed by clicking them. Sometimes it would make the tutorial experience smoother.

Additional material

I looked around on the internet and found some other tools. Maybe these could be briefly mentioned and compared to infracost? For example, for AWS there is AWS cost explorer. From what I could gather, infracost could be used with other cloud providers than AWS. Maybe it could be explored how it can be used with Azure?

Summary

I think you have done a great job with your tutorial. I felt that I had learned something by the end of it, even if my understanding could have come a bit quicker with an overview at the beginning. Your tutorial had a good pace and eased me into using the more complex parts of the tool. Having a scenario presented to give me a mental idea of a use case could be useful. Lastly, I think you have created a very clean and concise tutorial, very well done!