Automating Infrastructure Management at Darden Restaurants with Terraform

Introduction

Darden Restaurants, a leader in the dining industry with renowned brands such as Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, operates a state-of-the-art Tier 4 datacenter in Orlando, Florida. Recently, Darden made headlines with its acquisition of Chuy’s Tex-Mex, signifying the company’s commitment to expanding its diverse portfolio of restaurant brands. This strategic move necessitates a robust and flexible infrastructure capable of supporting new operations.

Darden contracted my services to lead the transformation of its networking and infrastructure operations, focusing on automation and enhancing operational efficiency across its teams. The goal was to streamline processes, improve security postures, and enable agile development cycles through modern tools and established best practices.

This project encompasses the automation of network policies, provisioning of Azure infrastructure, VMware automation, and the implementation of a comprehensive catalog of Terraform modules aimed at improving agility and operational efficiency across Darden’s teams.

The Challenge

Darden faced several challenges as it expanded its restaurant portfolio, including:

• Streamlining Basic Network Policy Deployments: There was a clear need to automate fundamental network configurations, such as opening ports and adding static routes, to ensure consistent security and performance across the entire infrastructure.

• Provisioning Virtual Firewalls: The organization required a systematic and repeatable automation framework for deploying complete virtual FortiGate firewalls in Azure, aligning with security best practices essential for protecting sensitive data.

• Centralizing Network Information: Establishing a reliable source of truth for network information and IP Address Management (IPAM) was critical for maintaining visibility and control across diverse systems.

• Enabling Self-Service for Developers: Darden aimed to provide developers with the capability to provision their own resources independently, significantly reducing reliance on the infrastructure team and speeding up deployment times.

• Automating VMware Infrastructure: The integration of VMware into the automation frameworks was necessary to manage virtual machines effectively within the existing infrastructure.

• Conducting Staff Training: Educating the networking staff on how to effectively utilize the new automation tools was crucial for the long-term success and sustainability of these implementations.

What is Terraform?

Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool created by HashiCorp. It allows users to define and provision data center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language known as HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). This powerful tool streamlines the management of resources across various cloud providers (like AWS, Azure, and GCP) and on-premises solutions, enabling organizations to maintain consistent practices throughout their technology stack.

Key Features of Terraform

One core principle of Terraform is its facilitation of infrastructure as code, which allows for infrastructure configurations to be version-controlled alongside application code. This approach promotes consistency and repeatability while enhancing collaboration between development and operations teams.

Terraform’s execution plan feature allows users to preview changes that will occur before they are applied, providing key insights into the potential impact of modifications. This capability helps teams understand dependencies and avoid unintended consequences.

Moreover, Terraform builds a resource graph that visualizes the dependencies between resources, enabling the tool to execute tasks in parallel where applicable, significantly reducing deployment time. The automation capabilities offered by Terraform further mitigate the risks associated with manual configuration errors and accelerate deployment processes.

Implementing HashiCorp Sentinel for Governance

Given the importance of governance in managing the vast and complex infrastructure at Darden, the implementation of HashiCorp Sentinel became a critical facet of the transformation. Sentinel is a policy-as-code framework that integrates seamlessly with Terraform, enabling organizations to write custom policies that govern infrastructure provisioning and configurations.

For Darden’s leadership, maintaining strict controls over the variables inputted into Terraform modules was paramount. They recognized that mistakes or malicious actions during provisioning and deprovisioning could have serious implications for security and compliance. Therefore, comprehensive Sentinel policies were developed to ensure that all infrastructure changes adhered to organizational guidelines.

These policies were not only designed to validate inputs but also to enforce multi-level approval processes integrated with Darden’s existing ticketing system. For every new infrastructure request, the Sentinel framework triggered policies that assessed compliance and security postures. If a proposed change did not meet these predefined criteria, it would be flagged for review, requiring approval from multiple stakeholders before any resources could be provisioned.

This governance layer gave Darden’s leadership confidence that all changes to the infrastructure were transparent, controlled, and compliant with internal security policies, thus fostering a culture of security and accountability.

The Transformation Journey with Terraform

A significant component of this initiative was the development of over 25 Terraform modules tailored to Darden’s networking requirements. This comprehensive catalog enabled automation of a wide range of tasks, significantly improving operational efficiency. Each module was carefully crafted to perform specific functions, allowing for streamlined execution that enhanced the overall management of Darden’s infrastructure.

1. Developing a Comprehensive Catalog of Modules

The module catalog included several critical areas aimed at improving the IT infrastructure:

• Basic Networking Operations:

  • Open Port Module: Automates the management of port openings in firewalls, enabling quick and secure communication for applications.
  • Static Route Module: Simplifies the addition of static routes, optimizing traffic flow across different network segments.
  • Access Control List (ACL) Module: Automates the creation and management of ACLs for effective traffic filtering.
  • Network Interface Module: Facilitates the management and configuration of network interfaces across devices, streamlining setup and modification tasks.

• Security and Policy Management:

  • Firewall Rule Module: Automates the creation and management of firewall rules, ensuring compliance with security policies.
  • VPN Configuration Module: Simplifies the setup of secure VPN connections between on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments.
  • Intrusion Detection System (IDS) Module: Configures settings for IDS policies, enabling detection and logging of potential intrusions or anomalies in network traffic.
  • Threat Intelligence Feed Module: Integrates with external threat intelligence services to keep firewall policies updated based on current threats.

• Provisioning Comprehensive Assets:

  • Virtual FortiGate Deployment Module: Automates the provisioning of virtual FortiGate firewalls in Azure, including configurations for interfaces and security policies.
  • Network Security Group (NSG) Module: Streamlines the management of NSGs in Azure for controlling traffic effectively.
  • Load Balancer Module: Facilitates the deployment of load balancers to distribute traffic uniformly across servers, enhancing resilience and performance.
  • Endpoint Protection Module: Automates the deployment of endpoint protection solutions on servers to secure the infrastructure.

• Monitoring and Logging:

  • Monitoring Tool Integration Module: Integrates monitoring tools for real-time performance tracking and incident management.
  • Logging Configuration Module: Automates the configuration of logging for network devices.
  • Performance Metrics Module: Gathers and visualizes performance metrics from network devices.
  • Alerting System Module: Automates alerts based on predefined thresholds for critical network metrics.

• Advanced Networking Solutions:

  • DNS Management Module: Automates DNS record management for efficient resolution of domain names.
  • Service Discovery Module: Implements protocols for automatic identification of network services.
  • Configuration Drift Detection Module: Monitors for policy deviations to ensure compliance with defined standards.
  • IP Address Management (IPAM) Module: Automates management of IP address allocations to avoid conflicts and ensure optimal utilization of resources.

2. Automating VMware Infrastructure

In addition to automating the Azure environment, significant efforts were concentrated on VMware automation. By leveraging Terraform’s capabilities in VMware environments, the project aimed to streamline the management of virtual resources.

Rapid provisioning of virtual machines was a key focus, with Terraform automating the configuration of essential parameters such as CPU, memory, networking settings, and storage allocation. This uniformity not only accelerated the setup time but also minimized potential configuration errors.

Automating VMware networking configurations contributed to a cohesive virtual environment, as it allowed for dynamic management of networking components, such as distributed switches and VLAN assignments. These automation efforts ensured consistent application of security policies and facilitated easier future adjustments.

3. Automating Developer Workspaces and Landing Zones

Terraform was instrumental in enhancing workflow efficiency for development teams. Key aspects included rapid scaling of resources and enabling self-service provisioning. With pre-defined Terraform modules in place, developers gained the ability to independently provision their workspaces, which greatly reduced downtime and fostered a more agile development process.

4. Implementing Nautobot as a Source of Truth

As part of the broader transformation strategy, Nautobot was integrated with Terraform to function as Darden’s Network Source of Truth and IPAM solution. This integration streamlined the management of configurations, allowing for real-time updates and increased accuracy across the infrastructure.

5. Streamlining Policy Automation with Terraform and Ansible

The combination of Terraform and Ansible proved invaluable for automating network policies. This integration enabled consistent deployments, significantly reducing the time and effort required to maintain security compliance. Tasks that once required hours became streamlined into quick, repeatable actions.

6. Training and Empowerment Initiatives

To ensure long-term success, comprehensive training sessions were organized. These hands-on workshops equipped the networking staff with the necessary skills to utilize Terraform effectively, fostering a sense of ownership over the infrastructure.

Conclusion

Darden Restaurants’ initiatives to integrate Terraform, Ansible, Nautobot, VMware, and HashiCorp Sentinel into their networking infrastructure have led to significant operational improvements. The comprehensive catalog of Terraform modules automates a wide array of tasks, facilitating efficient resource management and consistent security practices. The automation of VMware environments and development workspaces further solidifies Darden’s infrastructure by expediting virtual machine management and deployment processes.

The implementation of Sentinel provided a governance framework that ensured all provisioning and deprovisioning processes were controlled and compliant, enhancing security and minimizing risks. These strategic advancements not only support Darden’s commitment to excellence but also position the organization to address future challenges in an ever-evolving digital landscape, especially as it integrates new brands like Chuy’s Tex-Mex into its portfolio. The deployment of these technologies exemplifies a proactive approach to modernizing infrastructure in the dining industry.