Automate Cloud Infrastructure Deployment with Terraform
Even though I simplified the experience of creating an environment by providing screenshots and the Linux commands in advance, there are many screens to point and click through and many commands to run. This translates to numerous opportunities to introduce human error to the equation and potentially cause a vulnerability from a misconfiguration.
How do we avoid those complications? Enter Infrastructure as Code (IaC). The most popular tool on the market is HashiCorp Terraform
Terraform uses a domain-specific language (DSL) called the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL).
Here is a very simple example of how to get an EC2 instance up and running:
# main.tf
provider "aws" {
region = "us-east-2"
}
# EC2 Instance
resource "aws_instance" "hello_world" {
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0" # Amazon Linux 2 AMI (Change as needed)
instance_type = "t2.micro"
user_data = <<-EOF
#!/bin/bash
yum install -y httpd
echo "Hello, World!" > /var/www/html/index.html
systemctl start httpd
systemctl enable httpd
EOF
tags = {
Name = "HelloWorldInstance"
}
}
If you want to try out this Terraform script, make a new subdirectory on your computer and save this content to a filename main.tf
In that same directory, run this command to prepare your computer to run the script
terraform init
Initializing the backend...
Initializing provider plugins...
- Finding latest version of hashicorp/aws...
- Installing hashicorp/aws v5.88.0...
- Installed hashicorp/aws v5.88.0 (signed by HashiCorp)
Terraform has created a lock file .terraform.lock.hcl to record the provider
selections it made above. Include this file in your version control repository
so that Terraform can guarantee to make the same selections by default when
you run "terraform init" in the future.
Terraform has been successfully initialized!
You may now begin working with Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see
any changes that are required for your infrastructure. All Terraform commands
should now work.
If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform,
rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other
commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary.
Next, run this command to apply the Terraform manifest.
terraform apply
Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following
symbols:
+ create
Terraform will perform the following actions:
# aws_instance.hello_world will be created
+ resource "aws_instance" "hello_world" {
+ ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
+ arn = (known after apply)
+ associate_public_ip_address = (known after apply)
+ availability_zone = (known after apply)
+ cpu_core_count = (known after apply)
+ cpu_threads_per_core = (known after apply)
+ disable_api_stop = (known after apply)
+ disable_api_termination = (known after apply)
+ ebs_optimized = (known after apply)
+ enable_primary_ipv6 = (known after apply)
+ get_password_data = false
+ host_id = (known after apply)
+ host_resource_group_arn = (known after apply)
+ iam_instance_profile = (known after apply)
+ id = (known after apply)
+ instance_initiated_shutdown_behavior = (known after apply)
+ instance_lifecycle = (known after apply)
+ instance_state = (known after apply)
+ instance_type = "t2.micro"
+ ipv6_address_count = (known after apply)
+ ipv6_addresses = (known after apply)
+ key_name = (known after apply)
+ monitoring = (known after apply)
+ outpost_arn = (known after apply)
+ password_data = (known after apply)
+ placement_group = (known after apply)
+ placement_partition_number = (known after apply)
+ primary_network_interface_id = (known after apply)
+ private_dns = (known after apply)
+ private_ip = (known after apply)
+ public_dns = (known after apply)
+ public_ip = (known after apply)
+ secondary_private_ips = (known after apply)
+ security_groups = (known after apply)
+ source_dest_check = true
+ spot_instance_request_id = (known after apply)
+ subnet_id = (known after apply)
+ tags = {
+ "Name" = "HelloWorldInstance"
}
+ tags_all = {
+ "Name" = "HelloWorldInstance"
}
+ tenancy = (known after apply)
+ user_data = "4c434995ac652805d4de830dbcacaf3155ef7be5"
+ user_data_base64 = (known after apply)
+ user_data_replace_on_change = false
+ vpc_security_group_ids = (known after apply)
}
Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.
Do you want to perform these actions?
Terraform will perform the actions described above.
Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.
Enter a value:
Enter yes to proceed
There you have it, an automated deployment of a Terraform server
Before we move on, let's destroy what we created.
terraform destroy
Make sure to type yes at the prompt!
Let's see what a Terraform file looks like to deploy our infrastructure on AWS and on GCP!