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I'm converting some servers from manual scaling (with a load balancer) to auto-scaling. I'm currently using an Ansible script to manage upgrades, and I wouldn't want an automatically created instance to not be using the newest version of the software. I created an AMI that will download the newest commit from a chosen branch on first boot.

I've since realized my approach is somewhat like "cowboy coding", since AWS provides a mechanism to replace auto-scaling instances when there should be an update. (If using that, my existing update script would become obsolete, and I guess the update would entail creating a new AMI containing the new server version.)

Are there any serious problems with using the "cowboy" approach? I realize auto-created servers might end up with newer code than the other servers (if someone pushes but does not deploy their code changes). I wonder whether auto-scaling will cause Ansible scripts to fail if servers are terminated while being processed by Ansible. What have I missed?

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What you're going to do is only calling for inconsistencies between your nodes.

I wouldn't do any deployment during the instance boot-up, instead install AWS CodeDeploy as part of your boot-up (or bake it into the AMI) and once the instance boots up it contacts the CodeDeploy service and obtains the newest code version.

Likewise if you need to roll-out a newer code version push it to CodeDeploy and it will take care of updating all the servers in your Auto-Scaling Group in a consistent, predictable way.

With ASG you really really want to prevent inconsistencies between the nodes and this is one of the ways to do it.

Hope that helps :)

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  • Thank you. By the way, how do yo learn about techniques and services you don't even realize you should be asking about? Is there a modern book that treats AWS best practices, or do you just read the docs from start to end?
    – piojo
    Commented Aug 19, 2020 at 3:30
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    @piojo Heh, that's a million dollar question. I don't know every detail of every service but it's useful to know what exists out there. To stay up to date you can for example subscribe to AWS blog, attend Cloud / DevOps / etc meetups, watch conference keynotes where they announce new services (e.g. AWS re:Invent keynotes on YouTube), etc. Also try to get AWS certified - you'll learn a lot while preparing for it.
    – MLu
    Commented Aug 19, 2020 at 3:48

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