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Tej Tandel
Tej Tandel

Posted on • Edited on

"Automate EC2 Web Server Deployment on AWS with Terraform and Remote S3 State: true

#aws #terraform #devops #cloud

Automate EC2 Web Server Deployment on AWS with Terraform and Remote S3 State

Managing infrastructure manually is error-prone and inefficient. In this project, I use Terraform to automate the provisioning of an EC2 instance that serves a static website — with terraform state pushed to S3.

What This Project Does

This Terraform project sets up:

  • An EC2 instance
  • Security Group allowing HTTP & SSH
  • User-data to install and serve a website
  • S3 bucket for Terraform state storage
  • IAM Role & Policy for EC2 access to S3

Step-by-Step Breakdown

1. Initialize AWS Provider 

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}
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2. Create S3 Bucket 

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "web_backup" {
  bucket = var.bucket_name
}
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Used to store Terraform state.

3. Security Group 

resource "aws_security_group" "web_sg" {
  name        = "web-sg"
  description = "Allow HTTP and SSH"

  ingress {
    from_port   = 22
    to_port     = 22
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["your-ip/32"]
  }

  ingress {
    from_port   = 80
    to_port     = 80
    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"]
  }
}
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4. Launch EC2 Instance + User Data Script 

resource "aws_instance" "web_server" {
  ami                    = var.ami
  instance_type          = var.instance_type
  key_name               = var.key_name
  security_groups        = [aws_security_group.web_sg.name]
  user_data              = file("web_install.sh")
  iam_instance_profile   = aws_iam_instance_profile.s3_profile.name
}
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The web_install.sh script:

  • Installs Apache
  • Deploys static site from website/ directory
  • Uploads a backup to S3 using AWS CLI

5. IAM Role to Access S3 

resource "aws_iam_role_policy" "s3_access" {
  name = "s3-access-policy"
  role = aws_iam_role.ec2_role.name

  policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17",
    Statement = [{
      Action   = ["s3:PutObject"],
      Effect   = "Allow",
      Resource = "arn:aws:s3:::${var.bucket_name}/*"
    }]
  })
}
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This gives the EC2 instance permission to upload files to your bucket.

How to Deploy

Run the following commands:

terraform init
terraform plan
terraform apply
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After deployment, Terraform will output:

  • Public IP of the EC2 instance
  • S3 bucket name
  • Live website hosted on EC2 (via Apache)

What I Learned

  • Terraform resource structuring for real-world infrastructure
  • Using user-data to bootstrap EC2 after provisioning
  • Connecting EC2 and S3 securely with IAM
  • Uploading backups automatically to S3
  • Practical usage of AWS CLI in automation scripts

Git Repository

https://github.com/tej6667/terraform-ec2-web-s3

Clone it, customize it, and deploy your own cloud-hosted website in minutes.

About Me

I'm Tej Tandel, a Cloud & DevOps enthusiast building hands-on AWS projects and sharing my journey.

Let’s build the cloud — one project at a time ☁️

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