🏗️ Detailed Design Document

Automated Configuration Management Architecture

Document Classification: Technical Reference
Author: Adrian Johnson | Email: adrian207@gmail.com

📊 Executive Summary

This document provides the complete technical blueprint required to deploy the Automated Configuration Management Architecture across development, test, and production environments.

Implementation teams will find environment-specific network designs, IP addressing schemes, server specifications, and working configuration examples that eliminate architectural ambiguity and accelerate deployment timelines from months to weeks.

🎯 What This Document Delivers

🌐 Networks

🔗 L2/L3 diagrams
📡 VLAN isolation
🛡️ Firewall rules
🎯 IP addressing

💻 Servers

📊 Specs by tier
🗄️ Storage sizing
🔧 OS requirements
⚙️ CPU/Memory

📜 Code Samples

🏗️ Terraform IaC
⚙️ Ansible plays
🪟 DSC configs
🔐 Vault policies

🔗 Integration

🔌 API endpoints
🔑 Auth methods
📊 Data flows
🔒 TLS configs

🌍 Environments

💻 Dev (small)
🧪 Test (small)
🚀 Prod (medium)
📋 Drift prevention

🏛️ Architecture Overview

🎯 Three-Tier Design:

graph TB
    subgraph "🎛️ Management Tier"
        A[🗄️ Terraform] -->|Provisions| B[⚙️ Ansible]
        B -->|Configures| C[🔐 Vault]
        C -->|Secrets| B
    end
    
    subgraph "📊 Monitoring Tier"
        D[📈 Prometheus] -->|Metrics| E[📊 Grafana]
        E -->|Alerts| F[🚨 AlertManager]
    end
    
    subgraph "💻 Node Tier"
        G[🐧 Linux Nodes]
        H[🪟 Windows Nodes]
    end
    
    B -->|Ansible| G
    B -->|DSC| H
    D -->|Scrape| G
    D -->|Scrape| H
    
    style A fill:#e1f5ff
    style C fill:#ffe1e1
    style E fill:#d4edda

🎯 Environment Strategy Summary

Environment	Tier	Purpose	Data	Refresh
💻 Dev	Small	Rapid iteration, unit testing	Synthetic	On-demand
🧪 Test/Staging	Small	Integration testing, CI/CD	Anonymized	Weekly
🚀 Production	Medium	Live workloads	Real production	N/A

👥 Intended Audience

Role	Primary Use
🏗️ Implementation Team	Authoritative reference during deployment
🔧 Infrastructure Engineers	Server provisioning and network configuration
🔐 Security Engineers	Firewall rules, encryption, access controls
🛠️ Operations Team	Production architecture for ongoing support

1. Document Purpose

This Detailed Design Document (DDD) translates the high-level architecture specification into concrete, actionable implementation details. Every component, network segment, and configuration parameter is specified to enable predictable, repeatable deployments across all environments.

Scope: This document covers architecture for:

Development Environment (Small Tier, Ansible-Native)
Test/Staging Environment (Small Tier, Ansible-Native)
Production Environment (Medium Tier, Hybrid Pull Model)

Out of Scope: Application-specific configurations, managed node applications, end-user workstation management

2. Environment Overview

2.1 Environment Strategy

Our multi-environment approach ensures changes are thoroughly validated before reaching production while maintaining consistent architecture patterns that simplify operations.

Environment	Purpose	Change Approval	Deployment Frequency	Architecture Model
Development	Development and initial testing	Automatic from feature branches	Continuous (multiple times daily)	Ansible-Native (Small Tier)
Test/Staging	Integration testing, UAT, performance testing	Approval from development lead	Daily (scheduled)	Ansible-Native (Small Tier)
Production	Live production workloads	CAB approval required	Weekly (maintenance windows)	Hybrid Pull (Medium Tier)

2.2 Architecture Model Rationale

Development & Test: Ansible-Native Model

Why: Flexibility for rapid iteration, lower cost (no SQL Server licensing)
Trade-off: No continuous drift enforcement (acceptable for non-production)
Benefit: Matches operational model preferred by development team

Production: Hybrid Pull Model

Why: Continuous configuration enforcement, autonomous operation, proven stability
Trade-off: Higher infrastructure investment (SQL Server licensing, additional VMs)
Benefit: Meets compliance requirements for continuous audit and drift detection

3. Network Architecture

3.1 Network Topology

Production Environment Network Diagram

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Corporate Network                         │
│                         10.0.0.0/8                              │
└────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                             │
                  ┌──────────┴──────────┐
                  │   Bastion/Jump Host  │
                  │   10.10.1.10         │
                  └──────────┬───────────┘
                             │
        ┌────────────────────┼────────────────────┐
        │                    │                    │
┌───────▼────────┐  ┌────────▼───────┐  ┌───────▼────────┐
│ Management Tier│  │ Monitoring Tier│  │   Data Tier    │
│  10.10.10.0/24 │  │  10.10.20.0/24 │  │ 10.10.30.0/24  │
└────────────────┘  └────────────────┘  └────────────────┘
        │                    │                    │
        └────────────────────┼────────────────────┘
                             │
                  ┌──────────▼──────────┐
                  │  Managed Node Tier  │
                  │   10.10.100.0/22    │
                  └─────────────────────┘

3.2 IP Addressing Scheme

3.2.1 Production Environment

Management Tier (10.10.10.0/24):

10.10.10.10 - DSC Pull Server 01 (Primary)
10.10.10.11 - DSC Pull Server 02 (Secondary)
10.10.10.15 - DSC Pull Server VIP (Load Balancer)
10.10.10.20 - HashiCorp Vault 01
10.10.10.21 - HashiCorp Vault 02
10.10.10.22 - HashiCorp Vault 03
10.10.10.25 - Vault VIP (Load Balancer)
10.10.10.50 - Git Server (if self-hosted)

Monitoring Tier (10.10.20.0/24):

10.10.20.10 - Prometheus Server 01
10.10.20.11 - Prometheus Server 02
10.10.20.12 - Prometheus Server 03
10.10.20.20 - Grafana Server
10.10.20.30 - Alertmanager 01
10.10.20.31 - Alertmanager 02

Data Tier (10.10.30.0/24):

10.10.30.10 - SQL Server Primary (DSC Pull Server DB)
10.10.30.11 - SQL Server Secondary
10.10.30.20 - DFS-R File Server 01
10.10.30.21 - DFS-R File Server 02

Managed Nodes (10.10.100.0/22):

10.10.100.0 - 10.10.103.255 (1,024 IP addresses)
Dynamically assigned via DHCP or static assignment

3.2.2 Development Environment

Simplified Addressing (10.20.0.0/16):

10.20.10.10 - Ansible AWX Server
10.20.10.20 - HashiCorp Vault (single node)
10.20.20.10 - Prometheus/Grafana (co-located)
10.20.30.10 - PostgreSQL (for AWX)
10.20.100.0/24 - Managed nodes

3.2.3 Test Environment

Simplified Addressing (10.30.0.0/16):

10.30.10.10 - Ansible AWX Server
10.30.10.20 - HashiCorp Vault (single node)
10.30.20.10 - Prometheus/Grafana (co-located)
10.30.30.10 - PostgreSQL (for AWX)
10.30.100.0/24 - Managed nodes

3.3 DNS Configuration

3.3.1 DNS Records Required

Production:

dsc.corp.contoso.com              A    10.10.10.15 (VIP)
dsc-01.corp.contoso.com           A    10.10.10.10
dsc-02.corp.contoso.com           A    10.10.10.11
vault.corp.contoso.com            A    10.10.10.25 (VIP)
vault-01.corp.contoso.com         A    10.10.10.20
vault-02.corp.contoso.com         A    10.10.10.21
vault-03.corp.contoso.com         A    10.10.10.22
prometheus.corp.contoso.com       A    10.10.20.10
grafana.corp.contoso.com          A    10.10.20.20

Development:

awx-dev.corp.contoso.com          A    10.20.10.10
vault-dev.corp.contoso.com        A    10.20.10.20
grafana-dev.corp.contoso.com      A    10.20.20.10

Test:

awx-test.corp.contoso.com         A    10.30.10.10
vault-test.corp.contoso.com       A    10.30.10.20
grafana-test.corp.contoso.com     A    10.30.20.10