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Ahkar Swe
Ahkar Swe

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🖥️Deploy Your First EC2 with Terraform (Step-by-Step Guide) — Part 3

#aws #beginners #terraform #tutorial

In the previous post, you set up Terraform and AWS CLI.

Now it’s time to do what really matters:

👉 Build real infrastructure using code

By the end of this guide, you’ll launch an EC2 instance using Terraform — no AWS Console clicks required.

🎯 What You’ll Build

We’ll create:

  • An EC2 instance
  • Using Terraform
  • In just a few lines of code

📁 Step 1 — Create Project Structure

Create a new folder:

mkdir terraform-ec2
cd terraform-ec2
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Create files:

touch provider.tf main.tf
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🔹 Step 2 — Configure AWS Provider

Open provider.tf:

provider "aws" {
  region = "ap-southeast-1"
}
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🔹 Step 3 — Create EC2 Instance

Open main.tf:

resource "aws_instance" "web_server" {
  ami           = "ami-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "terraform-server"
  }
}
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⚠️ Replace the AMI with a valid one from your AWS region.

🔹 Step 4 — Initialize Terraform 

terraform init
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This downloads the AWS provider and prepares your project.

🔹 Step 5 — Preview Changes 

terraform plan
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Terraform will show something like:

Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.
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👉 This means Terraform is about to create 1 resource (your EC2).

🔹 Step 6 — Apply (Create Infrastructure) 

terraform apply
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Type:

yes
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🔍 Verify in AWS Console

Go to:

👉 AWS Console → EC2 → Instances

You should see:

👉 Your instance running 🎉

🧠 What Just Happened?

Terraform just:

  1. Read your .tf files
  2. Compared desired state vs current state
  3. Called AWS API
  4. Created your EC2 instance

👉 This is Infrastructure as Code in action.

⚠️ Common Issue — AMI Not Found

You might see this error:

InvalidAMIID.NotFound
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Why?

AMI IDs are region-specific.

✅ Fix

  • Go to AWS Console → EC2 → AMIs
  • Copy a valid AMI ID for your region
  • Replace it in your code

💡 DevOps Insight

Right now, we are using a hardcoded AMI.

This works for learning, but in production:

❌ Not reusable
❌ Not flexible

👉 In the next posts, we’ll fix this using:

  • Variables
  • Data sources (dynamic AMI selection)

🧹 Clean Up (Important)

To delete your infrastructure:

terraform destroy
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Always clean up to avoid unnecessary AWS charges.

🎯 What You Just Learned

  • How to create an EC2 with Terraform
  • How init, plan, and apply work
  • How Terraform interacts with AWS

💡 Final Thought

You just replaced:

clicking in AWS Console

with:

writing infrastructure as code

That’s a major step toward becoming a DevOps engineer 🚀

👨‍💻 About the Author

Hi, I’m Ahkar — sharing DevOps, AWS, and Infrastructure knowledge to help others grow 🚀

I publish bilingual content (Myanmar 🇲🇲 + English 🇺🇸) focused on real-world cloud learning.

🌐 Blog: https://mindgnite.com

If you found this helpful, consider following for more Terraform & DevOps content 🔥

📚 Terraform Learning Series

  • Part 1: Why Terraform
  • Part 2: Setup Guide
  • Part 3: First EC2 Deployment (this post)
  • Part 4: Variables, Outputs & State (coming next)

👉 Follow to continue the journey 🚀

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