4 Ways to Get Help Managing OPA

Open Policy Agent (OPA) can be a mighty tool for users looking to embrace a policy-as-code approach to authorization. 

However, learning to decouple policy decisions from your applications with OPA can be a challenge on its own — not to mention deploying and managing those OPA instances at scale. For many, learning to master OPA and implement policy as code can at first seem daunting, Thankfully, with OPA and its robust and colorful community, you are never alone in your journey toward effective policy as code. 

Across the open-source and cloud-native worlds are thousands of OPA users engaging in OPA education, ranging from amateurs to experts. These users have contributed several use cases for OPA, many of which are being used by major enterprises across multiple industries. These fine folks, along with the OPA founders here at Styra, have contributed a multitude of ways to learn how to use it effectively. Below, we will cover four different methods to try if you are currently having trouble.

One of the most popular methods for learning how to use OPA is to put a message out to the community. OPA’s community is extremely diverse, as mentioned earlier. Amateurs work alongside experienced developers, all working for a range of enterprises, from two-person startups to well-established businesses. Together, they generate fascinating use cases, finding integrations with tools even its creators hadn’t envisioned.

The community is a welcoming place with many seasoned OPA users who are actively engaged — answering any user question you may have, no matter how small. One community hub for these types of requests is on the official OPA Slack, where you can ask questions in a channel about your specific integration.

Alternatively, you can ask questions on GitHub, where users can also file bugs and share their custom configurations; or StackOverflow, where you can ask the global developer community at large for help with OPA. All of these options provide their own benefits, so make sure to consider which group you may gain the most from by asking!

While asking questions to the community provides immense benefit, it isn’t quite the place you’ll find step-by-step instructions to basic OPA lessons. That’s why we at Styra created the Styra Academy, a place to learn OPA and its basic principles for the betterment of its user base. With courses covering such topics as policy authoring and performance, the Academy is a great tool for the aspiring OPA user.

The Styra Academy is created by our education team here at Styra, tailored for both Styra Declarative Authorization Service users as well as OPA users. As the creators and maintainers of OPA, our team has a deep, well-rounded knowledge of the tool, and are able to build intuitive courses for its users’ most pressing needs. The academy is always expanding, so check back often for new courses to sharpen your OPA skills!

For users who need more of a helping hand, or perhaps have specific questions the community can’t answer, OPA Support is an excellent solution to your needs. We at Styra want to help OPA users in need, offering tiered support for training, Rego policy development, architecture reviews and more. Our Support offerings provide 24/7 coverage of your OPA instances, with the Styra Customer Success team on the case within hours depending on the severity of any issues.

Another key feature of OPA Support from Styra is the training sessions which can be attended by multiple members of your enterprise. These regular training sessions cover a variety of topics perfect for getting your team onboarded and using OPA at maximum efficiency, and are available at all support tiers. 

If you’d rather cut out the middleman and jump right into managing OPA at scale as quickly as possible, then Styra DAS is the answer for you. Built by the creators and maintainers of OPA, Styra DAS manages OPA for several different integrations, giving you the flexibility needed for the modern cloud-native ecosystem. Styra DAS allows least-privilege access through APIs, identities, systems and services for context-rich authorization.

Beyond providing authorization by managing OPA at scale, Styra DAS grants users several other useful abilities, such as policy impact analysis. Developers can validate changes they’ve made to authorization policy, and see any vulnerabilities which may be brought about by their changes. Styra DAS also provides its users decision logs and real-time compliance monitoring, ensuring OPAs are running smoothly and ready for audit at all times.

Already using Styra DAS? At our free tier, Styra DAS Free, we provide Styra DAS documentation, as well as the Styra Academy. The Academy comes packaged with courses built for Styra DAS, alongside the aforementioned OPA courses. At the Styra DAS Team tier, you gain access to web-based support, a portal through which our support team will take your tickets for help and bugs. 

With Styra DAS Enterprise, you have access to 24/7 live support with a personal customer success manager. This CSM will help to ensure Styra DAS is up and managing whatever OPA instances your enterprise needs, no matter the scale. 

To learn more about how to get started with OPA and operationalize it within your organization, read our ebook, OPA at Scale.