Mastering Terraform with AWS EC2

On Day 3 of TerraWeek, we delve into the practical use of Terraform to manage infrastructure as code. Today’s focus is on creating and managing resources like AWS EC2 instances, Azure storage accounts, or Google Compute Engine resources using Terraform. We’ll cover writing configuration files, validating them, and using provisioners and lifecycle management configurations.

Task 1: Create a Terraform Configuration File

For this example, we'll create an AWS EC2 instance. Start by defining the resource in a .tf file.

Example main.tf:

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "TerraWeek-EC2"
  }
}

This configuration sets up an AWS EC2 instance in the us-west-2 region using a specific Amazon Machine Image (AMI) and tags the instance with the name "TerraWeek-EC2."

Task 2: Check State Files and Validate Configuration

Before running the plan and apply commands, it’s essential to check the state files and validate the configuration.

Check State Files:

To inspect state files, you can use:

terraform state list

This command lists the resources currently managed by Terraform in your state file.

Validate Configuration:

Use the validate command to check your configuration file for syntax errors.

terraform validate

Expected Output:

If everything is correct, you should see:

Success! The configuration is valid.

Now, you can proceed with the plan and apply commands:

terraform plan
terraform apply

Task 3: Add a Provisioner

Provisioners in Terraform execute scripts on a local or remote machine as part of resource creation or destruction. Here, we’ll add a simple file provisioner to copy a file to the EC2 instance.

Updated main.tf:

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "TerraWeek-EC2"
  }

  provisioner "file" {
    source      = "script.sh"
    destination = "/tmp/script.sh"
  }

  provisioner "remote-exec" {
    inline = [
      "chmod +x /tmp/script.sh",
      "/tmp/script.sh"
    ]
  }
}

Apply the Changes:

After adding the provisioner, run:

terraform apply

Destroy the Resources:

To remove the resources:

terraform destroy

Task 4: Lifecycle Management

Terraform’s lifecycle management lets you control when and how resources are created, updated, or destroyed. We’ll add lifecycle rules to prevent the EC2 instance from being accidentally killed.

Updated main.tf:

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "TerraWeek-EC2"
  }

  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true
  }

  provisioner "file" {
    source      = "script.sh"
    destination = "/tmp/script.sh"
  }

  provisioner "remote-exec" {
    inline = [
      "chmod +x /tmp/script.sh",
      "/tmp/script.sh"
    ]
  }
}

Apply Lifecycle Changes:

Run:

terraform apply

Testing Lifecycle Configuration:

Attempting to destroy the resource should now trigger a warning due to the prevent_destroy lifecycle setting:

terraform destroy

Expected Output:

Error: Instance cannot be destroyed

This prevents accidental destruction of critical infrastructure.

Thank you for taking the time to read! 💚