CloudAcademy Terraform 1.x AWS Course

This repo contains example Terraform configurations for building AWS infrastructure.

AWS Exercises

The exercises directory contains 4 different AWS infrastructure provisioning exercises.

Exercise 1

Create a simple AWS VPC spanning 2 AZs. Public subnets will be created, together with an internet gateway, and single route table. A t3.micro instance will be deployed and installed with Nginx for web serving. Security groups will be created and deployed to secure all network traffic between the various components.

https://github.com/cloudacademy/terraform-aws/tree/main/exercises/exercise1

Project Structure

├── main.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── terraform.tfvars
└── variables.tf

TF Variable Notes

• workstation_ip: The Terraform variable workstation_ip represents your workstation's external perimeter public IP address, and needs to be represented using CIDR notation. This IP address is used later on within the Terraform infrastructure provisioning process to lock down SSH access on the instance(s) (provisioned by Terraform) - this is a security safety measure to prevent anyone else from attempting SSH access. The public IP address will be different and unique for each user - the easiest way to get this address is to type "what is my ip address" in a google search. As an example response, lets say Google responded with 202.10.23.16 - then the value assigned to the Terraform workstation_ip variable would be 202.10.23.16/32 (note the /32 is this case indicates that it is a single IP address).

  • When it comes to setting the Terraform workstation_ip variable - this can be accomplished multiple ways, one of which is to prefix the variable name with TF_VAR_ and have it then set as an environment variable within your shell, something like:

  • Linux: export TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

  • Windows: set TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

• key_name: The Terraform variable key_name represents the AWS SSH Keypair name that will be used to allow SSH access to the Bastion Host that gets created at provisioning time. If you intend to use the Bastion Host - then you will need to create your own SSH Keypair (typically done within the AWS EC2 console) ahead of time, and then replace the name within the Terraform key_name variable located within the terraform.tfvars file.

• Terraform environment variables are documented here: https://www.terraform.io/cli/config/environment-variables

Exercise 2

Create an advanced AWS VPC spanning 2 AZs with both public and private subnets. An internet gateway and NAT gateway will be deployed into it. Public and private route tables will be established. An application load balancer (ALB) will be installed which will load balance traffic across an auto scaling group (ASG) of Nginx web servers. Security groups will be created and deployed to secure all network traffic between the various components.

https://github.com/cloudacademy/terraform-aws/tree/main/exercises/exercise2

Project Structure

├── ec2.userdata
├── main.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── terraform.tfvars
└── variables.tf

TF Variable Notes

• workstation_ip: The Terraform variable workstation_ip represents your workstation's external perimeter public IP address, and needs to be represented using CIDR notation. This IP address is used later on within the Terraform infrastructure provisioning process to lock down SSH access on the instance(s) (provisioned by Terraform) - this is a security safety measure to prevent anyone else from attempting SSH access. The public IP address will be different and unique for each user - the easiest way to get this address is to type "what is my ip address" in a google search. As an example response, lets say Google responded with 202.10.23.16 - then the value assigned to the Terraform workstation_ip variable would be 202.10.23.16/32 (note the /32 is this case indicates that it is a single IP address).

  • When it comes to setting the Terraform workstation_ip variable - this can be accomplished multiple ways, one of which is to prefix the variable name with TF_VAR_ and have it then set as an environment variable within your shell, something like:

  • Linux: export TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

  • Windows: set TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

• key_name: The Terraform variable key_name represents the AWS SSH Keypair name that will be used to allow SSH access to the Bastion Host that gets created at provisioning time. If you intend to use the Bastion Host - then you will need to create your own SSH Keypair (typically done within the AWS EC2 console) ahead of time, and then replace the name within the Terraform key_name variable located within the terraform.tfvars file.

• Terraform environment variables are documented here: https://www.terraform.io/cli/config/environment-variables

Exercise 3

Same AWS architecture as used in Exercise 2. This exercise demonstrates a different Terraform technique, using the Terraform "count" meta argument, for configuring the public and private subnets as well as their respective route tables.

https://github.com/cloudacademy/terraform-aws/tree/main/exercises/exercise3

Project Structure

├── ec2.userdata
├── main.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── terraform.tfvars
└── variables.tf

TF Variable Notes

• workstation_ip: The Terraform variable workstation_ip represents your workstation's external perimeter public IP address, and needs to be represented using CIDR notation. This IP address is used later on within the Terraform infrastructure provisioning process to lock down SSH access on the instance(s) (provisioned by Terraform) - this is a security safety measure to prevent anyone else from attempting SSH access. The public IP address will be different and unique for each user - the easiest way to get this address is to type "what is my ip address" in a google search. As an example response, lets say Google responded with 202.10.23.16 - then the value assigned to the Terraform workstation_ip variable would be 202.10.23.16/32 (note the /32 is this case indicates that it is a single IP address).

  • When it comes to setting the Terraform workstation_ip variable - this can be accomplished multiple ways, one of which is to prefix the variable name with TF_VAR_ and have it then set as an environment variable within your shell, something like:

  • Linux: export TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

  • Windows: set TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

• key_name: The Terraform variable key_name represents the AWS SSH Keypair name that will be used to allow SSH access to the Bastion Host that gets created at provisioning time. If you intend to use the Bastion Host - then you will need to create your own SSH Keypair (typically done within the AWS EC2 console) ahead of time, and then replace the name within the Terraform key_name variable located within the terraform.tfvars file.

• Terraform environment variables are documented here: https://www.terraform.io/cli/config/environment-variables

Exercise 4

Create an advanced AWS VPC to host a fully functioning cloud native application.

The VPC will span 2 AZs, and have both public and private subnets. An internet gateway and NAT gateway will be deployed into it. Public and private route tables will be established. An application load balancer (ALB) will be installed which will load balance traffic across an auto scaling group (ASG) of Nginx web servers installed with the cloud native application frontend and API. A database instance running MongoDB will be installed in the private zone. Security groups will be created and deployed to secure all network traffic between the various components.

For demonstration purposes only - both the frontend and the API will be deployed to the same set of ASG instances - to reduce running costs.

https://github.com/cloudacademy/terraform-aws/tree/main/exercises/exercise4

The auto scaling web application layer bootstraps itself with both the Frontend and API components by pulling down their latest respective releases from the following repos:

• Frontend: https://github.com/cloudacademy/voteapp-frontend-react-2020/releases/latest

• API: https://github.com/cloudacademy/voteapp-api-go/releases/latest

The bootstrapping process for the Frontend and API components is codified within a template_cloudinit_config block located in the application module's main.tf file:

data "template_cloudinit_config" "config" {
  gzip          = false
  base64_encode = false

  #userdata
  part {
    content_type = "text/x-shellscript"
    content      = <<-EOF
    #! /bin/bash
    apt-get -y update
    apt-get -y install nginx
    apt-get -y install jq

    ALB_DNS=${aws_lb.alb1.dns_name}
    MONGODB_PRIVATEIP=${var.mongodb_ip}
    
    mkdir -p /tmp/cloudacademy-app
    cd /tmp/cloudacademy-app

    echo ===========================
    echo FRONTEND - download latest release and install...
    mkdir -p ./voteapp-frontend-react-2020
    pushd ./voteapp-frontend-react-2020
    curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/cloudacademy/voteapp-frontend-react-2020/releases/latest | jq -r '.assets[0].browser_download_url' | xargs curl -OL
    INSTALL_FILENAME=$(curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/cloudacademy/voteapp-frontend-react-2020/releases/latest | jq -r '.assets[0].name')
    tar -xvzf $INSTALL_FILENAME
    rm -rf /var/www/html
    cp -R build /var/www/html
    cat > /var/www/html/env-config.js << EOFF
    window._env_ = {REACT_APP_APIHOSTPORT: "$ALB_DNS"}
    EOFF
    popd

    echo ===========================
    echo API - download latest release, install, and start...
    mkdir -p ./voteapp-api-go
    pushd ./voteapp-api-go
    curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/cloudacademy/voteapp-api-go/releases/latest | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name | contains("linux-amd64")) | .browser_download_url' | xargs curl -OL
    INSTALL_FILENAME=$(curl -sL https://api.github.com/repos/cloudacademy/voteapp-api-go/releases/latest | jq -r '.assets[] | select(.name | contains("linux-amd64")) | .name')
    tar -xvzf $INSTALL_FILENAME
    #start the API up...
    MONGO_CONN_STR=mongodb://$MONGODB_PRIVATEIP:27017/langdb ./api &
    popd

    systemctl restart nginx
    systemctl status nginx
    echo fin v1.00!

    EOF    
  }
}

ALB Target Group Configuration

The ALB will configured with a single listener (port 80). 2 target groups will be established. The frontend target group points to the Nginx web server (port 80). The API target group points to the custom API service (port 8080).

Project Structure

├── main.tf
├── modules
│   ├── application
│   │   ├── main.tf
│   │   ├── outputs.tf
│   │   └── vars.tf
│   ├── bastion
│   │   ├── main.tf
│   │   ├── outputs.tf
│   │   └── vars.tf
│   ├── network
│   │   ├── main.tf
│   │   ├── outputs.tf
│   │   └── vars.tf
│   ├── security
│   │   ├── main.tf
│   │   ├── outputs.tf
│   │   └── vars.tf
│   └── storage
│       ├── install.sh
│       ├── main.tf
│       ├── outputs.tf
│       └── vars.tf
├── outputs.tf
├── terraform.tfvars
└── variables.tf

TF Variable Notes

• workstation_ip: The Terraform variable workstation_ip represents your workstation's external perimeter public IP address, and needs to be represented using CIDR notation. This IP address is used later on within the Terraform infrastructure provisioning process to lock down SSH access on the instance(s) (provisioned by Terraform) - this is a security safety measure to prevent anyone else from attempting SSH access. The public IP address will be different and unique for each user - the easiest way to get this address is to type "what is my ip address" in a google search. As an example response, lets say Google responded with 202.10.23.16 - then the value assigned to the Terraform workstation_ip variable would be 202.10.23.16/32 (note the /32 is this case indicates that it is a single IP address).

  • When it comes to setting the Terraform workstation_ip variable - this can be accomplished multiple ways, one of which is to prefix the variable name with TF_VAR_ and have it then set as an environment variable within your shell, something like:

  • Linux: export TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

  • Windows: set TF_VAR_workstation_ip=202.10.23.16/32

• key_name: The Terraform variable key_name represents the AWS SSH Keypair name that will be used to allow SSH access to the Bastion Host that gets created at provisioning time. If you intend to use the Bastion Host - then you will need to create your own SSH Keypair (typically done within the AWS EC2 console) ahead of time, and then replace the name within the Terraform key_name variable located within the terraform.tfvars file.

• Terraform environment variables are documented here: https://www.terraform.io/cli/config/environment-variables