This Proof of Concept (PoC) deploys the Ghost Blog platform on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), ensuring * scalability, high availability, and resilience*. The architecture is designed to handle sudden traffic spikes, support multi-region disaster recovery, and facilitate frequent deployments by multiple DevOps teams.
Below is a high-level diagram of the solution:
- Azure Front Door: Global load balancing and traffic routing.
- Azure Application Gateway (WAF enabled): Secure ingress with DDoS protection and SSL termination.
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): Manages Ghost Blog application pods with auto-scaling capabilities.
- Azure Redis Cache: Caching layer to optimize performance.
- Azure MySQL Flexible Server: Managed database backend for Ghost Blog.
- Azure Blob Storage: Stores blog media files.
- Azure Monitor, Prometheus, Grafana: Observability stack for logs, metrics, and alerting.
- Azure Key Vault: Secure storage for sensitive credentials.
- Azure Functions (Serverless): Implements a function to delete all blog posts when required.
- Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA): Dynamically adjusts AKS workload based on CPU/memory usage.
- Multi-Region Deployment: Supports failover to a secondary Azure region for disaster recovery.
- Geo-Redundant Storage & Database Backups: Ensures recovery in case of region-wide failures.
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform): Automates the provisioning of Azure resources.
- GitHub Actions / Azure DevOps Pipelines: Implements CI/CD for automated deployment.
- Helm Charts: Manages Ghost Blog deployment on Kubernetes.
- Rolling Updates & Blue/Green Deployments: Ensures zero downtime during application updates.
- RBAC & Network Policies: Restricts access based on least privilege principles.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF) & DDoS Protection: Safeguards against cyber threats.
- Audit Logging & Monitoring: Enables real-time security and compliance visibility.
Ensure the following tools and configurations are set up before deployment:
- An active Azure Subscription
- Terraform installed on your local machine
- Azure CLI configured with appropriate permissions
- Kubectl installed for interacting with the Kubernetes cluster
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Clone the Repository:
git clone <repo-url> cd azure-ghost-blog-poc
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Initialize Terraform:
terraform init
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Apply Terraform Configuration:
terraform apply -auto-approve
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Deploy Ghost Blog on AKS using Helm:
helm install ghost ./helm/ghost-chart
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Access the Blog:
- Retrieve the public IP of the service:
kubectl get svc -n ghost
- Open the retrieved blog URL in a browser.
- Retrieve the public IP of the service:
To ensure system reliability, the following monitoring tools and techniques are used:
- Grafana Dashboards: Provides insights into system health, performance, and alerts.
- Azure Monitor & Log Analytics: Centralized logging for debugging and operational visibility.
- Prometheus Alerts: Sends real-time notifications in case of failures or anomalies.
To further improve the solution, the following enhancements are planned:
- Implement CI/CD for database migrations to streamline updates.
- Introduce automated performance testing for better reliability assessment.
- Expand security compliance by integrating additional policies and auditing mechanisms.