AWS

Terraform and AWS EC2

Mediocre Developer

• 1 min read
Terraform and AWS EC2

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has revolutionized the way we deploy and manage cloud resources. At the forefront of this revolution are tools like Terraform and cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS). This article focuses on using Terraform to provision and manage EC2 instances running Amazon Linux 2023 on AWS.

Terraform, developed by HashiCorp, is an open-source IaC tool that allows you to define and provide data center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language. It enables consistent, version-controlled, and repeatable deployments across various cloud providers.

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a core service of AWS, offering resizable compute capacity in the cloud. EC2 instances are virtual servers that can run applications and services, providing a flexible and cost-effective solution for businesses of all sizes.

Amazon Linux 2023 is the latest iteration of Amazon's Linux distribution, specifically optimized for use in the AWS cloud environment. It offers a modern, secure, and high-performance operating system that's ideal for a wide range of workloads.

In this article, we'll walk through the process of using Terraform to provision EC2 instances running Amazon Linux 2023. We'll cover everything from basic setup to more advanced configurations, providing you with the knowledge to effectively manage your AWS infrastructure using Terraform.

Whether you're new to infrastructure as code or looking to optimize your existing AWS deployments, this guide will help you harness the power of Terraform and Amazon Linux 2023 to create efficient, scalable, and maintainable cloud infrastructure.

  1. Introduction
    • Brief overview of Terraform and AWS EC2
    • Benefits of infrastructure as code
  2. Prerequisites
    • AWS account setup
    • Terraform installation
    • AWS CLI configuration
  3. Terraform configuration
    • Provider block for AWS
    • Resource block for EC2 instance
    • Key components: AMI, instance type, security group, key pair
  4. Creating the EC2 instance
    • Terraform init, plan, and apply commands
    • Verifying instance creation in AWS console
  5. Customizing the EC2 instance
    • User data for initial configuration
    • Attaching an Elastic IP
    • Adding tags
  6. Managing multiple instances
    • Using count or for_each
    • Creating an Auto Scaling Group
  7. Destroying resources
    • Terraform destroy command
  8. Best practices
    • Using variables and outputs
    • Modularizing your code
    • Version control and collaboration