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+---
+date: 2025-07-02
+title: What is "Infrastructure as code"?
+permalink: /daily/2025/07/02/what-infrastructure-code
+---
+
+What are the usual steps you need to follow to create and provision a server to host a website?
+
+First, if you don't have hardware, you need to purchase a VPS through a site like DigitalOcean, Linode or Amazon AWS.
+
+You need to select an operating system to install and provide your SSH keys so you can log in.
+
+Once installed, you should apply any software updates and upgrades, and perform any initial configuration steps, so things are up to date and secure.
+
+Then, you can install a web server like Apache, Nginx or Caddy, as well as any other software you need, such as a database server.
+
+These all need to be configured, too, such as creating a virtual host for each website and declaring which services should start automatically when the server boots.
+
+Because this is done manually, you need to document or remember everything, in case you need to repeat the same process in the future.
+
+But, what if it didn't need to be manual?
+
+## Introducing "Infrastructure as Code"
+
+Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools, such as Ansible, Terraform and NixOS, allow you to define your configuration in code and apply it to your server or other infrastructure.
+
+The code acts as living documentation that you can apply over and over again.
+
+It speeds up the process and makes it more robust than re-typing or copying and pasting commands.
+
+But, you aren't limited to web servers.
+
+I use IaC to manage the DNS for my domains rather than using UIs.
+
+You can even use it to provision the hardware, if you need to configure a new server.
+
+If you have an API key for a provider, you can define in code how many servers you want, what specifications they have and what roles they perform.