DEV Community: Dawood

Terraform vs Ansible: What I Learned as a DevOps Fresher

Dawood — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:52:34 +0000

Terraform vs Ansible: What I Learned as a DevOps Fresher

Introduction

As part of my DevOps learning journey, I recently explored two important automation tools: Terraform and Ansible. At first, I was confused because both tools are used in automation, but after learning and practicing, I understood that they solve different problems.

In this blog, I’ll share what I learned about Terraform vs Ansible, their differences, and when to use each one.

What is Terraform?

Terraform is an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool developed by HashiCorp.

It helps us create and manage cloud infrastructure using code instead of manually creating resources in cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP.

Using Terraform, we can create:

EC2 Instances
IAM Users
S3 Buckets
VPCs
RDS Databases

Terraform uses configuration files written in HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language).

Example Terraform workflow:

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply

Caption:
Terraform provisioning AWS infrastructure

What is Ansible?

Ansible is an automation and configuration management tool.

It helps configure servers, install software, automate tasks, and manage application deployments.

For example, Ansible can:

Install Nginx or Apache
Configure Linux servers
Deploy applications
Automate repetitive tasks
Manage multiple servers

Ansible uses YAML playbooks for automation.

Example command:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

Caption:
Ansible automating server configuration

Terraform vs Ansible

Terraform	Ansible
Infrastructure provisioning	Configuration management
Creates cloud resources	Configures servers
Uses HCL language	Uses YAML
Agentless	Agentless
Best for cloud infrastructure	Best for automation & configuration

Real Example

If I want to create an EC2 instance in AWS, I can use Terraform.

Once the EC2 instance is created, I can use Ansible to:

Install software
Configure the server
Deploy applications

This means both tools can work together.

Terraform creates infrastructure → Ansible configures it

Caption:
Terraform and Ansible working together in DevOps

Key Differences I Learned

Terraform

✅ Best for cloud resource provisioning
✅ Works well with AWS, Azure, and GCP
✅ Uses Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Ansible

✅ Best for server configuration
✅ Easy automation using YAML
✅ Useful for deployment and administration

Challenges I Faced

While learning both tools, I faced a few challenges:

Understanding the difference between provisioning and configuration
Terraform syntax errors
YAML indentation mistakes in Ansible
AWS permission-related issues

After practicing hands-on, the concepts became much clearer.

My Learning

After learning both tools, I understood:

Terraform is used to create infrastructure, while Ansible is used to configure infrastructure.

Both tools are important in DevOps and often work together in real projects.

Conclusion

Learning Terraform and Ansible helped me better understand DevOps automation. Instead of manually creating and configuring infrastructure, these tools help automate everything efficiently.

I’m continuing to explore more DevOps tools through hands-on learning and projects.

Thank you for reading!

How I Created an EC2 Instance, IAM User, and S3 Bucket Using Terraform on AWS

Dawood — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 15:42:14 +0000

Introduction

As part of my DevOps learning journey, I recently explored Terraform, an Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that helps automate cloud resource provisioning. Instead of manually creating resources in AWS, Terraform allows us to define infrastructure using code.

In this blog, I’ll share how I used Terraform to create an EC2 instance, IAM user, and S3 bucket in AWS.

What is Terraform?

Terraform is an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool developed by HashiCorp. It helps automate cloud infrastructure creation using configuration files.

With Terraform, we can:

Automate infrastructure setup
Manage cloud resources efficiently
Reduce manual work
Maintain consistent environments

Instead of creating resources manually in AWS Console, Terraform allows us to create them using code.

AWS Resources I Created

In this project, I created:

EC2 Instance – To launch a virtual server in AWS
IAM User – To manage permissions securely
S3 Bucket – To store files and objects in AWS

Prerequisites

Before starting, I completed the following setup:

AWS Account
AWS CLI configured
Terraform installed
IAM permissions for resource creation

Step 1: Configure AWS Credentials

First, I configured AWS credentials using AWS CLI:

aws configure

Then I entered:

AWS Access Key
Secret Access Key
Region
Output format

This allows Terraform to communicate with AWS.

Step 2: Write Terraform Configuration

I created Terraform configuration files to define AWS resources.

The configuration included:

Provider configuration for AWS
EC2 instance setup
IAM user creation
S3 bucket configuration

Terraform uses .tf files to define infrastructure.

Step 3: Initialize Terraform

To initialize Terraform, I used:

terraform init

This command downloads required provider plugins.

Step 4: Review Infrastructure Changes

Before creating resources, I checked the execution plan:

terraform plan

This command shows what resources Terraform will create.

Step 5: Create AWS Resources

Finally, I applied the configuration:

terraform apply

After confirmation, Terraform successfully created:

✅ EC2 Instance
✅ IAM User
✅ S3 Bucket

Challenges I Faced

While working on this project, I encountered a few issues such as:

Incorrect AMI ID
Permission-related errors
Terraform syntax mistakes

By checking error messages and updating configurations, I was able to resolve them.

Key Learnings

Through this project, I learned:

Basics of Terraform
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
AWS resource automation
Terraform commands like init, plan, and apply

Conclusion

This hands-on project helped me understand how Terraform simplifies cloud infrastructure management. Instead of manually creating AWS resources, I learned how to automate everything using code.

I’m continuing to explore more DevOps tools and cloud technologies as part of my learning journey.

Thank you for reading!