A quest in the clouds

Q. What is this quest ?

It is a fun way to assess your cloud skills. It is also a good representative sample of the work we do at Rearc. 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 (Use the latest version of Terraform available at the time)

6) Add TLS (https). Its OK to use locally generated certs.

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.

Q. Can i share this quest with others ?

No.