NOTES.md

SVG

• vscode: extensions: SVG Viewer v1.4.4 by cssho

Icons

• AWS Icons Package
  • simple icons page: https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/icons/
  • direct link: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/awswebanddesign/Architecture+Icons/AWS-Arch-Icon-Sets_Feb-18/PNG%2C+SVG%2C+EPS_18.02.22.zip
  • unzip
• PNG Icons used (in 'PNG, SVG, EPS' folder)
  • VPC
    • ..\General\General_virtualprivatecloud.png
    • ..\Compute\Compute_AmazonVPC.png
  • RDS
    • ..\Database\Database_AmazonRDS.png
  • WAF
    • ..\Security Identity & Compliance\SecurityIdentityCompliance_AWSWAF.png
  • Route Table
  • Subnet
    • Missing
  • Security Group
  • EC2 Instance
    • ..\Compute\Compute_AmazonEC2_instance.png
  • Application Load Balancer
    • ..\Networking & Content Delivery\NetworkingContentDelivery_ElasticLoadBalancing_ApplicationLoadBalancer.png
    • ..\Compute\Compute_ElasticLoadBalancing_ApplicationLoadBalancer.png
  • NAT Gateway
    • ..\Networking & Content Delivery\NetworkingContentDelivery_ElasticLoadBalancing_ApplicationLoadBalancer.png
    • ..\Compute\Compute_AmazonVPC_VPCNATgateway.png
  • Internet Gateway
    • ..\Compute\Compute_AmazonVPC_Internetgateway.png
  • VPC Peering
    • ..\Networking & Content Delivery\NetworkingContentDelivery_AmazonVPC_VPCpeering.png
    • ..\Compute\Compute_AmazonVPC_VPCpeering.png
  • Router
    • ..\Networking & Content Delivery\NetworkingContentDelivery_AmazonVPC_router.png

Layout Style Notes

• Region: Outermost box, solid black line, transparent background, "AWS" logo in upper left, rounded corners, usually says "Region" at bottom. Not sure how multi-region diagrams look, initially only support one region.

• VPC: Second most outermost box, solid black line, transparent background, "VPC" logo in upper left, rounded corners.

• VPC Peering: Double-line joining the VPC boxes with VPC Peering icon in middle of line

• Availability Zone: Orange dashed line box with light semi-transparent orange background. Name (ex. 'Availability Zone 1') in orange centered left to right, above bottom line of AZ box. If stacked vertically, left-right edges extend outside VPC box. If stacked horizontally, top-bottom edges extend outside VPC box.

• Subnet: Entirely within VPC box, lock icon in upper left, solid black line, transparent background. Public subnets have light green background, Private subnets have a light blue background. Subnet name and CIDR centered left to right, above bottom line.

• EC2 Instance: Orange box EC2 icon, Name in black text centered left to right and below box.

Script notes

• The bulk of Terraform is written in Go. So it makes sense to do the same.

• Terraform Module or Plugin

  • FINAL: Abandoned distribution via Terraform module or Plugin. No slick way to locate our exe in the .terraform folder. Plugin abandoned as we need to call terraform graph in our exe.
  • Initial thought for distribution was to use a terraform module, but that would require user to manually invoke the embedded Go script.
  • Another option is writing a custom Terraform provider (plugin)
    • https://www.terraform.io/docs/extend/writing-custom-providers.html
    • https://www.terraform.io/docs/plugins/basics.html
    • To test your plugin, the easiest method is to copy your terraform binary to $GOPATH/bin and ensure that this copy is the one being used for testing. terraform init will search for plugins within the same directory as the terraform binary, and $GOPATH/bin is the directory into which go install will place the plugin executable.
    • Unfortunately it looks like retrieval of plugins is a bit of a mess
      • hashicorp/terraform#15252
    • Yet another option is using the local-exec provisioner
      • https://www.terraform.io/docs/provisioners/local-exec.html
      • "The local-exec provisioner invokes a local executable after a resource is created. This invokes a process on the machine running Terraform, not on the resource."
      • So can we use this to call our Go script?
  • So thinking we do this with a go script, distributed via a module.
    • User adds module ref
    • User runs terraform init
      • Downloads module, and untars
    • ??? where do we find the module under .terraform directory ???
    • User runs graphme.go script
  • terraform graph scripts
    • located the rest of the terraform graph scripts
      • https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/blob/master/command/graph.go
      • https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/blob/master/terraform/graph.go
      • https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/blob/master/dag/graph.go

• Scripts

  • graphme.go

    • Main (wrapper) script
    • "graphme.go" is dev name of this file, tfgraph will map to this file/be the release name
      • So for dev, cd into tfproject folder, run terraform init and then run .\go run graphme.go
    • Steps
      • Runs terraform graph which outputs DOT file
      • Calls graphprocess.go to process DOT file
      • Calls graphviz to render the SVG graph from DOT file

  • graphprocess.go

    • Updates the DOT file created by terraform graph command
    • Different rulesets used for different intended diagram types
    • Rulesets passed in as command line options or via defaults file
    • Sets the icon used on the nodes
    • Removes items from DOT file that are not desired
    • Looks like there is a DOT file parser for Go already
      • https://github.com/awalterschulze/gographviz
      • Example using this for Grails/Groovy
        • https://github.com/ilikeorangutans/grails-service-visualizer
        • https://ilikeorangutans.github.io/2014/05/03/using-golang-and-graphviz-to-visualize-complex-grails-applications/

• Misc links

  • display image in dot file layout: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8073115/how-do-i-get-dot-to-display-an-image-for-a-node
  • online svg editor: http://www.drawsvg.org/
  • styling SVG with CSS: http://svgtutorial.com/styling-svg-with-css/
  • Go by Example: https://gobyexample.com/
    • Command-Line Flags: https://gobyexample.com/command-line-flags
    • Spawning Processes: https://gobyexample.com/spawning-processes
    • Reading Files: https://gobyexample.com/reading-files
    • Writing Files: https://gobyexample.com/writing-files
  • DOT File Links
    • https://www.graphviz.org/pdf/dotguide.pdf
  • Grails Dep Visualizer using Graphviz: https://github.com/ilikeorangutans/grails-service-visualizer
  • Go GraphViz Parser: https://github.com/awalterschulze/gographviz
    • GoDoc: https://godoc.org/github.com/awalterschulze/gographviz#SubGraph
  • Go Build Command: https://dave.cheney.net/2013/10/15/how-does-the-go-build-command-work

Building / Packaging

• pull gographviz dependency locally into src dir
  • go get github.com/awalterschulze/gographviz
• output tfgraph.exe in Go-WS bin dir
  • go install

Building Misc Commands

• previous tarball command (causes terraform symlink error on init)
  • 7z a -ttar -so archive.tar .\module\* | 7z a -sio tfgraph.tar.gz
• output tfgraph.exe in project src dir
  • go build
• move file to module dir
  • mv -Force tfgraph.exe .\module
• create module zip
  • 7z a -tzip tfgraph.zip .\module\*