Github https://github.com/3dw1np/alicloud-cen

Alibaba (CEN) - Intranet China to Internet Europe - User Case #1

At Alibaba Cloud, we use Terraform to provide fast demos to our customers. I truly believe that the infrasture-as-code is the quick way to leverage a public cloud provider services. Instead of clicking on the Web Console UI, the logic of the infrasture-as-code allows us to define more accuratly each used services, automate the entire infrastructure and version it with a versionning control (git).

High-level design

Export environment variables

We provide the Alicloud credentials with envrionments variables. In this tutorial, we are going to use the Singapore Region (ap-southeast-1).

root@alicloud:~$ export ALICLOUD_ACCESS_KEY="anaccesskey"
root@alicloud:~$ export ALICLOUD_SECRET_KEY="asecretkey"
root@alicloud:~$ export ALICLOUD_REGION="eu-central-1"

If you don't have an access key for your Alicloud account yet, just follow this tutorial.

Install Terraform

To install Terraform, download the appropriate package for your OS. The download contains an executable file that you can add in your global PATH.

Verify your PATH configuration by typing the terraform

root@alicloud:~$ terraform
Usage: terraform [--version] [--help] <command> [args]

Setup Alicloud terraform provider (> v1.19.0)

The official repository for Alicloud terraform provider is https://github.com/alibaba/terraform-provider

• Download a compiled binary from https://github.com/alibaba/terraform-provider/releases.
• Create a custom plugin directory named terraform.d/plugins/darwin_amd64.
• Move the binary inside this custom plugin directory.
• Create test.tf file for the plan and provide inside:

# Configure the Alicloud Provider
provider "alicloud" {}

• Initialize the working directory but Terraform will not download the alicloud provider plugin from internet, because we provide a newest version locally.

terraform init

Deployment steps

🚨 Before start

Please pay attention, the block resource concerning the alicloud_cen_bandwidth_package has been commented to avoid charging mistake. CEN doesn't need a bandwidth package for PoC purpose, the default bandwidth is 1 Kb/s and it's only usable for testing (ping, mtr ...).

⚙️ Paramaters file

In the file parameters/global_network.tfvars, you can change the default configuration of the project. The vpcs will be created in region eu-central-1 and cn-shanghai.

name = "global_cen"

region_id_A = "eu-central-1"
cidr_A = "10.0.0.0/8"
az_count_A = 1

region_id_B = "cn-shanghai"
cidr_B = "172.16.0.0/12"
az_count_B = 1

bandwidth = 2

🛠 Launch the stack

terraform init solutions/global_network
terraform plan|apply|destroy \
  -var-file=parameters/global_network.tfvars \
  -state=states/global_network \
  solutions/global_network

Terraform modules description

vpc

Create a vpc in a specific region.

cen

Create a CEN instance in a speific region, then it attach all VPC childs and also order/bind a bandwidth package between China <-> Europe (of 2 Mbps by default).

ecs_reverse_proxy

Create a ECS in a specific Vswitch with all security groups nested and bootstrap a pre-configured HAproxy.

ecs_proxy

Create a ECS in a specific Vswitch with all security groups nested and bootstrap a pre-configured Squid.

Run a new instance Windows with the ECS wizard

Follow the different steps and make sure you select the right VPC (where the reverse proxy is running).

https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/doc-detail/87190.htm

Finally, install Chrome and setup the proxy with the IP address of the reverse proxy and the port (80 by default).

https://customers.trustedproxies.com/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=10

Debug

Useful command Tcpdump for sniffering http request

http://www.music-come.com/2015/06/09/tcpdump-http-request/