Terraform for aws(1)

Environment

AWS Provider
Terraform v1.14.3
Terraformer v0.8.30

Introduction

For a long time, my workflow was based on the AWS Management Console. While it’s intuitive, it is hard to replicate and prone to human error. Recently, I decided to automate my entire environment—including Server—using Terraform. This post covers what I have learned and how I transitioned to a ‘one-click’ automated deployment.

Technical Implementation (The Code)

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# Login in aws account and access in with your access key and password made from aws IAM account
aws configure

# Terraform launch
terraform init

# Give you some recommend configurations
terraform plan

# Deploy in your local environment
terraform apply

# Cancel your deployment in your local environment
terraform destory

# Login in your terraform cloud and you need to input a token that you can get from your terraform cloud on browser, and also you can make several workplace to work individually
terraform login

# Check that if you connected to the aws cli
cat ~/.aws/credentials

# Check your iam identity
aws sts get-caller-identity

About backend

Local Backend

Storage location:

Your local computer folder, named terraform.tfstate.

Advantages:

Simple setup with no extra configuration needed, ideal for beginners experimenting on their own machines.

Disadvantages:

No collaboration: Your colleagues can’t access your local file, so when they run the code, it will assume the cloud is empty.
Insecure: If your computer crashes or you accidentally delete the folder, you lose control over cloud resources (requiring manual deletion via the console).
Sensitive data: This file stores plaintext configuration details, posing a leakage risk when stored locally.

Remote Backend

Storage location:

Your Terraform cloud plateform(free up to 5 users) or S3.

Advantages:

Team Collaboration: Anyone with permissions can read the same state file, enabling collaborative work.
High Security: With S3 versioning enabled, accidentally deleted states can be recovered.
Locking Mechanism: When paired with AWS DynamoDB, it prevents two users from simultaneously running apply commands and causing environment chaos (similar to conflicts when multiple people edit the same Word document).

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# To contruct a remote backend environment(terraform cloud)
terraform {
  backend "remote" {
    organization = "develop-directive"

    workspaces {
        name = "terraform-course"
    }
  }
}

# To contruct a remote backend environment(S3)
# Using S3 to store DynamoDB state and share it with colleagues
# Contrcut a bucket
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "terraform_state" {
  bucket = "develop-directive-bucket"
}

# Dedicated version control (standalone resource)
resource "aws_s3_bucket_versioning" "enabled" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.terraform_state.id
  versioning_configuration {
    status = "Enabled"
  }
}

# Specifically configured encryption
resource "aws_s3_bucket_server_side_encryption_configuration" "default" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.terraform_state.id

  rule {
    apply_server_side_encryption_by_default {
      sse_algorithm = "AES256"
    }
  }
}

resource "aws_dynamodb_table" "terraform_locks" {
    name       = "terraform-state-locking"
    billing_mode    = "PAY_PER_REQUEST"
    hash_key   = "LockID"
    attribute {
        name = "LockID"
        type = "S"
    }
}

Convert AWS resources into configuration files

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# Use the terraformer not officially but have efficiency
terraformer import aws -r vpc,subnet,sg,ec2_instance --regions=ap-northeast-1

Or you want to convert by id

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resource "aws_instance" "my_server" {
  # Leave this blank for now. Terraform will prompt you to complete it after import.
}

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terraform import aws_instance.my_server i-1234567890abcdef0
terraform plan

Or you want to convert by tags

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terraformer import aws -r ec2_instance --filter="Name=tags.Team;Value=DevOps" --filter="Name=tags.Project;Value=MyProject"

If you have so many instance ids

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$instances = @(
  "i-0123456789abcdef0",
  "i-0123456789abcdef1",
  "i-0123456789abcdef2"
)

foreach ($id in $instances) {
  terraform import "aws_instance.instance_$id" $id
}

Error

To enable one-click import of terraformer configurations, they must match Terraform configurations and be AMD64-compatible; otherwise, errors will occur.

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open \.terraform.d/plugins/windows_amd64: The system cannot find the path specified.

Additionally, this folder is required to store the terraform-provider-aws_v4.51.0_x5.exe file.

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C:\Users\XXXXX\.terraform.d\plugins\windows_amd64

Additional words

Switching to Terraform changed my perspective on cloud management. It’s no longer about ‘where to click,’ but about ‘how to architect.’