Infrastructure as Code: Treating your Varnish, Nginx and Apache Configurations like your PHP

If you're running Drupal, you're likely running Nginx, Apache, Varnish or some other web server/proxy/cache in front of it (or often more than one!).  These essential tools are inherently in the critical path of delivering high-quality website experiences, and have hundreds or thousands of different configuration options, each one of which could mean the difference between a singing website or a sad trombone.  

Version control, testing, and continuous integration are well-known best practices for programmed software; applying these best practices to complicated configurations is a natural extension that can help you have more confidence in your web stack, enabling you to reliably deliver improvements.  These  practices reduce the risk of experimenting with different configuration options, and help you optimize your website for performance and reliability.   

We'll go over a few strategies for testing Apache / Nginx / Varnish configurations and some useful tools, from the most basic configuration syntax checking to more advanced testing methods.  Everyone will leave the session with at least one concrete measure they can use for a more reliable stack, and hopefully some ideas of how to take it much further.