presentations/terraform-workshop/index.md

Terraform Workshop

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What is Terraform

IaC (Infrastructure as Code) framework which enables programatic definition, deployment and management of infrastructure resources for cloud and on-premises in a declarative manner. It targets all major cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure, DO etc.)

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Why do We Need it

• Standardization of deployment to ensure a consistent state

  • Version control
  • Deploying an additional clone env for testing

• Easier auditability to improve quality and security

  • Modular - reuse & ease of understanding
  • Resource Graph (dependency graph + parallel execution when possible)
  • Version control

• Enables use of hardened deployment pipelines

• Enables immutable infrastructure

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Human-Readible Configuration Language

HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) or JSON

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"  # Amazon Linux 2 AMI ID
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  tags = {
    Name = "HelloWorldEC2Instance"
  }
}

output "instance_public_ip" {
  value = aws_instance.example.public_ip
}

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Workflow

• Write your configuration file

• Use terraform init to initialize a Terraform workspace

• Use the the terraform plan action to simulate deployment of resources and assess the outcome

• Use terraform apply to actually deploy resources

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Exercise

• Set up local credentials for your cloud platform of choice

• Write a file that deploys an EC2 instance

• Use terraform plan and terraform apply in order to deploy the resource

• Remove the resource by using terraform destroy

• Take advantage of terraform docs and providers:

  • https://registry.terraform.io/

  • https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform

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Solution

# Specify the provider
provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

# Create an EC2 instance
resource "aws_instance" "my_ec2" {
  ami           = "ami-03e383d33727f4804"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"


  tags = {
    Name = "TestEC2Instance"
  }
}

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Extend Configuration

• Add a VPC

• Define security group that limits ingress and egress to port 22

• Add SSH key(s) which may connect to the instance

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Solution

# Specify the provider
provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

# Create a security group
resource "aws_security_group" "allow_ssh" {
  name        = "allow_ssh"
  description = "Allow SSH access"

  ingress {
    from_port   = 22
    to_port     = 22
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }

  egress {
    from_port   = 0
    to_port     = 0
    protocol    = "-1"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }
}

# Specify the provider
provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

# Create an EC2 instance
resource "aws_instance" "my_ec2" {
  ami           = "ami-03e383d33727f4804"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  security_groups = [aws_security_group.allow_ssh.name]

  tags = {
    Name = "TestEC2Instance"
  }
}

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Additional Notes

• Typically the terraform state is stored online in a manner that makes it retrievable by others

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SOPS for Secrets Management

• Download from https://github.com/getsops/sops

• Encrypt config file: sops -e --pgp <key_id> credentials > credentials.enc

• Decrypt and set: eval $(sops -d credentials.enc | sed 's/: /=/g')