Deploying Your First Server with Terraform: A Beginner's Guide"

Welcome to Day 3 of my Terraform learning journey! Today, I will walk through deploying your first server on AWS using Terraform. This guide is designed for beginners, so don’t worry if you’re new to infrastructure as code I've got you covered.

Why Terraform?

Terraform simplifies infrastructure management by using code to provision and manage resources. Instead of manually creating servers in the AWS console, Terraform automates this process, ensuring consistency and repeatability

What We’ll Achieve
By the end of this guide, you’ll have:

Deployed an AWS EC2 instance running a simple web server.
Configured the instance with an HTTP server (Apache) using a startup script.
Accessed your web server via a public IP.

Prerequisites:

AWS Account: Ensure you have an AWS account.
Terraform Installed: Make sure you have Terraform installed on your local machine.
AWS CLI Installed: Optional, but recommended for managing AWS resources.

Step 1: Configure AWS Credentials
Set Up AWS CLI :
Open your terminal and run the following command to configure your AWS credentials:

Enter your AWS Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, region, and output format.

Note: When you are working with AWS using Terraform, you need the Access keys and Secret Access key unlike when you are working on the AWS Console where you require passwords.

To get the Access Keys,

login into your AWS Console as IAM user
Go to your name and select security credentials
Go to access keys and click on create Access key
Select the use case as Command Line Interface
Enter the description tag, then go on to create the access key. P.S: Ensure you don't share the access keys with anyone

Step 2: Set Up Your Project

Create Project Directory
Create a new directory for your Terraform project:

mkdir terraform_project
cd terraform_project

Step 3: Create Configuration Files

main.tf: This file will contain the main configuration for your infrastructure.
variables.tf: This file is for defining variables.
outputs.tf: This file will contain outputs to display after deployment.

File Structure

terraform_project/
├── main.tf
├── variables.tf
└── outputs.tf

Write Your Terraform Configuration

main.tf

provider "aws" {
region = "us-east-1"
}

Create a VPC

resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
}

Create a Public Subnet

resource "aws_subnet" "public" {
vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id
cidr_block = "10.0.1.0/24"
map_public_ip_on_launch = true
}

Create an Internet Gateway

resource "aws_internet_gateway" "igw" {
vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id
}

Create a Route Table for Public Subnet

resource "aws_route_table" "public" {
vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

route {
cidr_block = "0.0.0.0/0"
gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.igw.id
}
}

Associate the Route Table with the Public Subnet

resource "aws_route_table_association" "public_association" {
subnet_id = aws_subnet.public.id
route_table_id = aws_route_table.public.id
}

Create a Security Group

resource "aws_security_group" "allow_ssh" {
vpc_id = aws_vpc.main.id

ingress {
from_port = 22
to_port = 22
protocol = "tcp"
cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
}

egress {
from_port = 0
to_port = 0
protocol = "-1"
cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
}
}

Create an EC2 Instance

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0" # Example AMI ID for Amazon Linux 2
instance_type = "t2.micro"
subnet_id = aws_subnet.public.id
security_groups = [aws_security_group.allow_ssh.name]

user_data = <<-EOF
#!/bin/bash
echo "Hello, World!" > /var/www/html/index.html
apt-get update
apt-get install -y apache2
systemctl start apache2
systemctl enable apache2
EOF

tags = {
Name = "WebServer"
}
}