AWS S3 and Terraform Exercise

This exercise is designed to give you hands-on experience with managing AWS S3 buckets through both the AWS Management Console and Terraform. It will cover creating and deleting buckets manually, uploading files, and then automating these processes with Terraform, including enabling encryption.

Part 1: Using the AWS Management Console

Step 1: Creating an S3 Bucket

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console with your credentials.
2. Navigate to the S3 service page.
3. Click on Create bucket.
4. For the bucket name, use a unique name that can be easily identified as yours (e.g., your AWS credentials or a variation of your name).
5. Select the eu-west-1 region to you for the bucket.
6. Leave the default settings, and click Create at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Uploading a File to the Bucket

1. After creating your bucket, click on its name to open it. Or Press the "View details" in he green confirmation bar on the top of the screen.
2. Click on Upload.
3. Click on Add files, and select a file from your computer to upload.
4. After adding the file, click on Upload at the bottom of the page.

Step 3: Deleting the Bucket

1. Navigate back to the main S3 page where all buckets are listed.
2. Select the bucket you created by clicking the checkbox next to its name.
3. Click on Delete.
4. Take not of the warning "This bucket is not empty", click the "Empty bucket"
5. You will be asked to confirm the bucket deletion by entering its name. Or "Permanently delete". Do so, then click Confirm.

Part 2: Automating with Terraform

• You will do this part in your Cloud9 environment. From the AWS menu, find the "Services" Icon, and find Cloud 9
• You will see an environment with your seat number on it. Clik the "open" link

Spend a few moments to familirise yourself with Cloud9, a capable web based IDE.

Step 0: Install terraform

Unfortunately Cloud9 no longer comes with Terraform installed, so we have to install it

wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.6.4/terraform_1.6.4_linux_amd64.zip
unzip terraform_1.6.4_linux_amd64.zip
sudo mv terraform /usr/local/bin/

Step 1: Writing Terraform Code for the S3 Bucket

Instead of creating a bucket manually, we'll now see how we can do the same from Terraform. Create a new Terraform file (s3_bucket.tf) in your Cloud 9 editor with the following content:

provider "aws" {
  region = "eu-west-1"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "my_bucket" {
  bucket = "your-unique-bucket-name"
}

Step 2: Initializing and Planning with Terraform

1. Go to the terminal window on the bottom of the Cloud 9 environment.
2. Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform workspace.
3. Run terraform plan to see the actions Terraform will take based on your configuration.

Step 3: Applying the Terraform Configuration

1. Run terraform apply and type yes when prompted to create the bucket.
2. Run terraform plan again, and see that there is no change

Step 4: Testing the Bucket

1. To navigate to the AWS Management Console from Cloud 9, press the Cloud9 Icon in the upper left corner and press "Go to your Dashboard"
2. Manually upload a file to the bucket through the AWS Management Console, as described in Part 1, Step 2.

Step 5: Do changes to the bucket

In AWS all resources can have Tags, key value pairs that can make it easier to find and categorise resources

1. Modify the s3_bucket.tf file to enable server-side encryption by adding the following block inside the aws_s3_bucket resource:

  tags = {
    Environment = "Dev"
  }

You can also add this resource to get autmatic deletion and transitions to colder storage over time

resource "aws_s3_bucket_lifecycle_configuration" "my_bucket_lifecycle" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.my_bucket.id

  rule {
    id     = "my-lifecycle-rule"
    status = "Enabled"

    transition {
      days          = 30
      storage_class = "STANDARD_IA"
    }

    expiration {
      days = 365
    }

    noncurrent_version_transition {
      noncurrent_days = 30
      storage_class   = "STANDARD_IA"
    }

    noncurrent_version_expiration {
      noncurrent_days = 365
    }
  }
}

2. Run terraform plan and terraform apply to add the tags

Observe that during the plan phase, Terraform wil output the changes needed to reach the desired state. The ~ sign means that a resource will change, a +/- means that a resource will be replaced. a + means that a resource will be removed, and a + that a resource will be created.

Step 6: Emptying the Bucket Using the CLI

1. Use the AWS CLI to empty the bucket:

aws s3 rm s3://your-unique-bucket-name --recursive

Step 7: Destroying the Bucket with Terraform

1. Run terraform destroy to remove the bucket and all its configurations.