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Haripriya Veluchamy
Haripriya Veluchamy

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Python for DevOps (Part 3): IaC & Kubernetes Automation

In the earlier parts of this series, I started small log parsing, system monitoring, security audits. Each step gave me more confidence to use Python as a real DevOps tool.

In Part 3, I moved into areas that are at the core of DevOps:

  • Week 4 → Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  • Week 5 → Kubernetes automation

This part was a real eye-opener, because I wasn’t just running Terraform or Ansible or kubectl commands manually I was controlling them through Python, which makes automation pipelines more flexible and customizable. for code refer https://github.com/Harivelu0/python-for-devops


🔧 Week 4: Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Python

The goal was to see how Python can tie together provisioning and configuration.

What I did

  • Automated Terraform from Python to provision a VPC, EC2, and S3 bucket
  • Ran Ansible playbooks directly from Python and parsed the output

What I learned

  • Python can act as a wrapper to IaC tools, making it easier to embed Terraform and Ansible into larger automation workflows.
  • Instead of treating IaC tools as separate, Python can become the “glue” that coordinates them.
  • This approach helps when you want infrastructure + configuration management in one flow, without manual steps.

👉 The main takeaway for me: IaC becomes more powerful when Python orchestrates it.


☸️ Week 5: Kubernetes Automation with Python

Here I switched focus to Kubernetes not with kubectl commands, but by interacting directly with the API using the Python SDK.

What I did

  • Created and deleted namespaces programmatically
  • Built an RBAC Auditor to check ServiceAccounts and their bindings
  • Flagged if any ServiceAccount had dangerous cluster-admin privileges

What I learned

  • The Kubernetes API is powerful, and Python makes it accessible in a clean way.
  • Automating namespace management showed me how cluster operations can be scripted, not just clicked in a dashboard.
  • Writing the RBAC auditor gave me real insight into security risks — it’s easy to accidentally give applications more power than they need.

👉 The main takeaway for me: with Python, I can turn Kubernetes operations into repeatable scripts that also catch security issues early.

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