28 March 2024/Pulumi

Simplifying Resource Management With Parent Option in Pulumi

Introduction

In the world of infrastructure as code (IaC), managing dependencies and relationships between resources is crucial for maintaining an efficient and organized infrastructure. Pulumi, a powerful IaC tool, offers a feature called the “Parent Option” to streamline resource management within its ecosystem. In this post, we’ll explore the Parent Option in Pulumi and understand how it simplifies resource orchestration through a practical example.

What is the Parent Option?

The Parent Option in Pulumi allows developers to specify the parent-child relationship between resources. When creating resources within Pulumi, specifying a parent resource helps in organizing and managing dependencies effectively. By defining parent-child relationships, Pulumi can automate resource lifecycle management, ensuring proper ordering of resource creation, updates, and deletion.

Practical Example: Custom Storage Account

Let’s consider a scenario where we need to create a custom storage account in Azure using Pulumi. We’ll create a custom component resource called CustomStorageAccount that encapsulates the creation of a storage account. Initially, we’ll create the resource without specifying a parent, and then we’ll refactor the code to utilize the Parent Option.

public class CustomStorageAccount : ComponentResource
{
    public CustomStorageAccount(string name,
        CustomStorageAccountArgs args,
        ComponentResourceOptions? options = null)
        : base("CommonComponent:CustomStorageAccount", name, options)
    {
        // Creating storage account without specifying a parent
        var storageAccount = new StorageAccount("sa", new StorageAccountArgs
        {
            ResourceGroupName = args.ResourceGroupName,
            Sku = new SkuArgs
            {
                Name = SkuName.Standard_LRS
            },
            Kind = Kind.StorageV2,
            Tags = new InputMap<string> {
                { "Purpose", args.Purpose },
                { "Owner", args.Owner }
            }
        });
    }
}

When previewing this configuration, resources will be created independently, without any parent-child relationship:

pulumi preview --stack stacknamedev01
Previewing update (stacknamedev01):
     Type                                     Name                            Plan
 +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack                      stackname-stacknamedev01  create
 +   ├─ CommonComponent:CustomStorageAccount  sa                              create
 +   ├─ azure-native:resources:ResourceGroup  resourceGroup                   create
 +   └─ azure-native:storage:StorageAccount   sa                              create
Resources:
    + 4 to create

Utilizing the Parent Option

Now, let’s refactor the code to utilize the Parent Option by specifying the component resource (CustomStorageAccount) as the parent for the storage account resource. Note the new CustomResourceOptions { Parent = this }.

public class CustomStorageAccount : ComponentResource
{
    public CustomStorageAccount(string name,
        CustomStorageAccountArgs args,
        ComponentResourceOptions? options = null)
        : base("CommonComponent:CustomStorageAccount", name, options)
    {
        // Creating storage account with parent specified
        var storageAccount = new StorageAccount("sa", new StorageAccountArgs
        {
            ResourceGroupName = args.ResourceGroupName,
            Sku = new SkuArgs
            {
                Name = SkuName.Standard_LRS
            },
            Kind = Kind.StorageV2,
            Tags = new InputMap<string> {
                { "Purpose", args.Purpose },
                { "Owner", args.Owner }
            }
        }, new CustomResourceOptions { Parent = this });
    }
}

When previewing this configuration, the parent-child relationship is correctly inferred, and resources will be organized accordingly:

pulumi preview --stack stacknamedev01
Previewing update (stacknamedev01):
     Type                                       Name                            Plan
 +   pulumi:pulumi:Stack                        stackname-stacknamedev01  create
 +   ├─ CommonComponent:CustomStorageAccount    sa                              create
 +   │  └─ azure-native:storage:StorageAccount  sa                              create
 +   └─ azure-native:resources:ResourceGroup    resourceGroup                   create
Resources:
    + 4 to create

Conclusion

The Parent Option in Pulumi simplifies resource management by allowing developers to define parent-child relationships between resources. This feature enhances the organization and maintainability of infrastructure code, leading to more robust and scalable infrastructure deployments.