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Cheulong Sear
Cheulong Sear

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Setup Terraform for AWS

#terraform #aws #devops #iac

Before we start, let me talk briefly about each tools and what is it used for:

  • Terraform is Infrastructure as Code(IaC) tool from HashiCorp that automates the provisioning, updating, and destruction of infrastructure resources.
  • AWS is a cloud computing platform. AWS offers a wide range of cloud services, including compute, storage, networking, analytics, and AI.

Let start

Install Terraform

Here we use Ubuntu, Install Terraform - Ubuntu

sudo wget -O - https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(grep -oP '(?<=UBUNTU_CODENAME=).*' /etc/os-release || lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hashicorp.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install terraform
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Then run terraform -v

Terraform v1.11.4
on linux_amd64

Your version of Terraform is out of date! The latest version
is 1.12.1. You can update by downloading from https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/install
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Install AWS CLI

We can just follow the official instruction, Install AWS CLI

curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install
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Then run aws --version

aws-cli/2.27.30 Python/3.13.3 Linux/6.11.0-26-generic exe/x86_64.ubuntu.24
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Setup AWS Profile

We need to create the access key in AWS first.
Go to AWS Console > IAM > Users and click the user (create one if there is not)

aws-user

Click on Security credentials, scroll down and click Create access key

aws-accesskey

Click Command Line Interface (CLI) > Next > Copy or Download the key (Access key and Secret access key) > Done

aws-copy-accesskey

Config AWS Credentials

type aws configure in terminal to config AWS credentials via CLI, paste Access Key and Secret Access Key

aws-config

To verify if you setup correctly you can type aws configure list

aws-list

Terraform Configuration

Create main.tf and config aws provider as in the document AWS Provider

# main.tf
# We strongly recommend using the required_providers block to set the
# AWS Provider source and version being used
terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

# Configure the AWS Provider
provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

# Create a VPC
resource "aws_vpc" "example" {
  cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
}
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type terraform init to initializing the backend

aws-tf-init

then, type terraform validate to validate the code

tfvalidate

next, we run terraform plan, this will compare the actual state and desire state and show the plan what is the config will do.

aws-tf-plan

Finally, terraform apply to apply to Azure cloud

aws-tf-apply

aws-tf-apply1

Terraform also allows you to modify the config code. 

# Add name to vpc
resource "aws_vpc" "example" {
  tags = {
    Name = "example-vpc"
  }
  cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
}
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type terraform validate, then terraform plan, then terraform apply

aws-tf-change

aws-tf-change1

We also can destroy resources via terraform destroy command

aws-tf-destroy

aws-tf-destroy1

Caution terraform destroy will remove all resources that mention in the config, you should modify the config and use terraform apply instead.

Common commands

  • terraform init: to initializing the backend
  • terraform fmt: to format the terraform code
  • terraform validate: to validate the terraform code
  • terraform plan: to compare the actual state and desire state
  • terraform apply: to apply change to the actual infrastructure
  • terraform destroy: to remove the resource from the cloud infrastructure

Best practice

  • Manipulate state only through TF commands
  • Remote State
  • State Locking
  • Back up State File
  • Use 1 State per Environment
  • Host TF code in Git repository
  • CI for TF Code
  • Execute TF only in an automated build

Repo of this code

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Leave a comment if you have any questions.

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