Lab Information
The Nautilus DevOps team wants to provision multiple EC2 instances in AWS using Terraform. Each instance should follow a consistent naming convention and be deployed using a modular and scalable setup.
Use Terraform to:
Create 3 EC2 instances using the count parameter.
Name each EC2 instance with the prefix devops-instance (e.g., devops-instance-1).
Instances should be t2.micro.
The key named should be devops-key.
Create main.tf file (do not create a separate .tf file) to provision these instances.
Use variables.tf file with the following:
KKE_INSTANCE_COUNT: number of instances.
KKE_INSTANCE_TYPE: type of the instance.
KKE_KEY_NAME: name of key used.
KKE_INSTANCE_PREFIX: name of the instnace.
Use the locals.tf file to define a local variable named AMI_ID that retrieves the latest Amazon Linux 2 AMI using a data source.
Use terraform.tfvars to assign values to the variables.
Use outputs.tf file to output the following:
kke_instance_names: names of the instances created.
Lab Solutions
1️⃣ main.tf
ONLY resource definitions here
resource "aws_instance" "devops_ec2" {
count = var.KKE_INSTANCE_COUNT
ami = local.AMI_ID
instance_type = var.KKE_INSTANCE_TYPE
key_name = var.KKE_KEY_NAME
tags = {
Name = "${var.KKE_INSTANCE_PREFIX}-${count.index + 1}"
}
}
2️⃣ variables.tf
Use exact variable names
variable "KKE_INSTANCE_COUNT" {
type = number
}
variable "KKE_INSTANCE_TYPE" {
type = string
}
variable "KKE_KEY_NAME" {
type = string
}
variable "KKE_INSTANCE_PREFIX" {
type = string
}
3️⃣ locals.tf
Retrieve latest Amazon Linux 2 AMI
data "aws_ami" "amazon_linux_2" {
most_recent = true
owners = ["amazon"]
filter {
name = "name"
values = ["amzn2-ami-hvm-*-x86_64-gp2"]
}
}
locals {
AMI_ID = data.aws_ami.amazon_linux_2.id
}
📌 This satisfies:
✅ Data source usage
✅ Latest Amazon Linux 2
✅ Local variable named AMI_ID
4️⃣ terraform.tfvars
Assign values here
KKE_INSTANCE_COUNT = 3
KKE_INSTANCE_TYPE = "t2.micro"
KKE_KEY_NAME = "devops-key"
KKE_INSTANCE_PREFIX = "devops-instance"
5️⃣ outputs.tf
Output instance names
output "kke_instance_names" {
value = [
for instance in aws_instance.devops_ec2 :
instance.tags["Name"]
]
}
6️⃣ Terraform Commands (REQUIRED FOR KODEKLOUD)
Run in this exact order:
terraform init
terraform validate
terraform apply
# Type:
yes
✨ (simplified explanation)
🔹 Why use count?
Instead of writing EC2 3 times, count tells Terraform:
“Create this same resource multiple times.”
Terraform creates:
devops-instance-1
devops-instance-2
devops-instance-3
🔹 Why count.index + 1?
count.index starts at 0
Humans start counting at 1
So we add +1 for clean naming
🔹 Why locals.tf for AMI?
AMI IDs change often
Data source finds the latest Amazon Linux 2
locals stores it once and reuses it
Cleaner + safer than hardcoding
🔹 What happens on terraform apply?
Terraform checks AWS
Finds latest AMI
Creates 3 EC2s
Tags them
Saves everything in state
Outputs instance names
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