Securing AI Applications with Gandi SSL Certificates.

Question

Pulumi · Accepted Answer

To secure AI applications, SSL certificates are critical as they encrypt data in transit between the server and clients, ensuring that sensitive information remains private and secure. Gandi.net offers SSL certificates, and using Pulumi, you can programmatically manage SSL certificates for your applications.

I'll walk you through a Pulumi program that sets up Gandi SSL certificates for a simple application. Pulumi is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that lets you define and manage cloud infrastructure using code in several languages, including Python. The following program focuses on the use of the Gandi Pulumi provider.

### What the Program Does

1. **Gandi Instance**: Sets up a Gandi simple hosting instance where your AI application will be deployed.
2. **Gandi Virtual Host (VHost)**: Configures a VHost on the simple hosting instance and installs an SSL certificate for your domain.

Before you run this code, ensure you have the Pulumi CLI installed, the Gandi Pulumi provider configured with necessary credentials, and Pulumi set up to use Python.

Now, let's start with the Pulumi program written in Python:

```python
import pulumi
import pulumi_gandi as gandi

# Create a simple instance on Gandi where your AI applications will be hosted
instance = gandi.simplehosting.Instance("my-ai-app-instance",
    name="aiapp-instance",
    size="S",
    location="FR-SD3",
    database_name="aiappdb",
    language_name="python" # assuming your AI app is built in Python
)

# Specify your fully qualified domain name for your AI application
fqdn = "ai-app.yourdomain.com"

# Now, set up a VHost on the Gandi instance for your application
vhost = gandi.simplehosting.VHost("ai-app-vhost",
    fqdn=fqdn,
    instance_id=instance.id, # reference the instance we created above
    application="app", # specify the type of application
    linked_dns_zone_alteration=True # automatically alter linked DNS zone if necessary
)

# Export the fqdn to access later which will be secured by SSL by default
pulumi.export('fqdn', vhost.fqdn)
```

### How to Run This Program

Here are the steps to run the Pulumi program you just saw:

1. Save the code to a file named `__main__.py`.
2. Open a terminal or command line.
3. Navigate to the directory where the `__main__.py` file is saved.
4. Run `pulumi up` and follow the prompt to create the infrastructure.

Pulumi will then provide you with a preview of the resources it will create. After you confirm, it proceeds to set up the infrastructure described in the code. Once it's complete, Pulumi will output the fully qualified domain name (fqdn), which you'll use to access your AI application securely over HTTPS.

### Conclusion and Next Steps

The program shown begins the process of securing your AI application with a Gandi SSL certificate. After this infrastructure is provisioned, you would typically install your application code onto the instance and start up any services necessary. Any traffic to the fully qualified domain name of your AI application would then be protected by SSL encryption, thanks to Gandi's automatic provision of SSL certificates.

If you plan to use this program, remember to replace `"ai-app.yourdomain.com"` with your actual domain. If your AI application isn't built in Python, change the `language_name` parameter accordingly.

The next steps could involve adding a CI/CD pipeline for deploying your application code to the Gandi Simple Hosting instance or using additional Pulumi components to manage other aspects of your cloud infrastructure.