Geodesic

Geodesic is a “toolbox” distributed as a docker image containing all essential DevOps tools. It's how we ensure your team is up and running quickly.

In the landscape of infrastructure, there are dozens of open-source tools that we need on our personal workstations to do our jobs. In SweetOps, instead of having you install each tool individually, we use Docker to package all of these tools into one convenient image that you can use as your infrastructure automation toolbox. We call it Geodesic and we use it as our DevOps automation shell and as the base Docker image for all of our DevOps tooling.

Geodesic is just a “toolbox” distributed as a docker image. Think of it as a DevOps Linux Distribution packaged as a Docker image that provides users the ability to utilize atmos, terraform, kubectl, helmfile, the AWS CLI, and many other popular tools that compromise the SweetOps methodology without having to invoke a dozen install commands to get started. It’s intended to be used as an interactive cloud automation shell, a base image for other containers, or used in CI/CD workflows to ensure that all systems are running the same set of versioned, easily accessible tools.

Key Benefits

• Consistency: toolboxes ensure that all team members have access to the same versions of the tools being used. This eliminates the risk of compatibility issues caused by different versions of the same tool being used.
• Portability: oolboxes are self-contained, meaning they can be easily moved between different environments without requiring any additional installation or configuration. This makes it easy to work across different machines, operating systems, and cloud providers.
• Isolation: toolbox containers provide a high degree of isolation, ensuring that the tools used in one project do not interfere with those used in another project.
• Easy installation and setup: Dockerized toolboxes can be set up and installed quickly and easily, without the need to manually install each individual tool.
• Reduced Maintenance: Dockerized toolboxes require minimal maintenance as the tools and their dependencies are managed within the container. This eliminates the need for frequent updates and maintenance of individual tools.

In today's world, most software applications are distributed as docker images and run as containers. So, why should infrastructure be any different? That's how why we have Geodesic. We believe that everything we write, including infrastructure, should be treated as code and distributed through containers. Our containerized toolbox eliminates the need for awkward “env managers,” complicated folder structures, and symlink hacks. Geodesic provides a container for all your infrastructure automation needs, enabling you to achieve SweetOps with ease.

Whether you want to leverage all of our components or just the parts that make your life easier, Geodesic offers unparalleled flexibility. We recommend starting with our Docker base image, pinned to a release and base OS, to quickly get up and running with your projects. Choose Geodesic and experience the benefits of containerization in your infrastructure automation processes.

Alternatives

Before there was Geodesic, the common ways to manage these tools were:

1. Install two dozen commands locally using Homebrew.
   Protip: use a Brewfile to define all dependencies and commit this to the infrastructure VCS.
2. Use a virtual machine that has all the tools you depend on (e.g. managed by Vagrant). This was pretty typical before the advent of Docker (and let's face it, docker on Mac runs in a VM anyways).
3. Use ansible to run some playbooks to configure the host machine (e.g. your laptop)
4. Use a Makefile with a deps target that installs the tools you need

TL;DR

Geodesic is the ultimate DevOps toolbox that helps you automate your infrastructure and achieve SweetOps quickly and easily. Contact us today to learn more about how Geodesic can benefit your business.

• Try out the Geodesic Tutorial to see for yourself just how easy it is to get started.
• Learn about Atmos, our tool that simplifies complex configurations and works with Terraform