cloud-custodian VS gatekeeper

> The best optimization is simply shutting things off

This is the way.

A similar idea has been bouncing around in my mind for a while now. An ideal, turnkey system would do the following:

- Execute via Lambda (serverless).

- Support automated startup and shutdown of various AWS resources on a schedule influenced by specially formatted tags.

- Enable resources to be brought back up out of schedule when demand dictates.

- Operate as a TCP/HTTP proxy that can delay clients so that a given service can be started when it is dormant or, even better, the service isn't serverless but you want it to be. This can't work for everything, but perhaps enough things such that the need to run always on services is reduced.

Cloud Custodian [1] can purportedly do some of this, but I've been reluctant to learn yet another YAML-based DSL to use it.

So this is my "make things designed to be always-on serverless instead" project and the work AWS has done to make Java apps function on Lambda keeps me thinking about the potential to take things that 1) have a relatively long startup time and 2) are designed to be long running service loops, and find a way to force them into the serverless execution model.

[1] https://cloudcustodian.io/

Goal was to clear up anything old and set us up to rotate keys in use. Why did I do it in the end of December? It was a quarterly goal and I learned to push those across the line if I wanted a good review. Great incentive, that one. I used Cloud Custodian for this. It has a terrible bug where the code says you'll be acting on days since the key was used but actually is reading days since it was created.

What is wrong with https://github.com/cloud-custodian/cloud-custodian?

You can start reading about it here.

Use a tool like this https://cloudcustodian.io/ to manage instance on/off hours or go fargate.

Certs aside, there are some great compliance tools out there that you might want to become familiar with. Here is one that comes to mind (is open-source): https://cloudcustodian.io/

I'd use a combination of Cloudcustodian for start/stop scheduling and Apprise for notifications.

Cloud custodian is a good utility if config rules doesn’t satisfy your needs. It’s also cross platform.

AWS Security with open source – Cloud Custodian is a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tool. CSPM tools evaluate your cloud configuration and identify common configuration mistakes. They also monitor cloud logs to detect threats and configuration changes.

When the Gatekeeper validatingwebhook came up, I was really worried that'd be the issue! Regardless I'd recommend anyone who cares about their cluster not collapsing to change the gatekeeper webhook to only intercept resources you care about: https://github.com/open-policy-agent/gatekeeper/pull/1806

Kyverno adds an extra layer of security where only the allowed type of manifest is deployed onto kubernetes, otherwise, it will reject or we can set validationFailureAction to audit which only logs the policy violation message for reporting. Kubewarden and Gatekeeper are alternative tools available to enforce policies on Kubernetes CRD.

Now, we have the hardest part resolved and let's turn our attention to the OPA Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper uses the OPA Constraint Framework to describe and enforce policy. Right now there are mainly 3 parts we should pay attention:

They enable you to establish the policies and regulations that govern cluster deployments and applications. Using predefined policies, policy engines can dynamically modify or create configurations. Policy engines such as Gatekeeper and Kyverno can be leveraged to meet legal and compliance requirements while maintaining operational flexibility and development speed.

Setup policy around what resource requirements can be requested by an app per environment. OPA and gatekeeper or kyverno can help. Setup access control for who can create or modify apps.

OPA Gatekeeper is an open source, general purpose policy engine. OPA decouples policy decisions from other responsibilities of an application, like those commonly referred to as business logic. OPA works equally well making decisions for Kubernetes, Microservices, functional application authorization and more, thanks to its single unified policy language.