A starter guide to integrating Terraform with CI/CD pipelines on AWS, covering benefits, prerequisites, pipeline stages, AWS services, Terraform Cloud setup, best practices, and more.
If you're diving into managing AWS cloud infrastructure, integrating Terraform with CI/CD pipelines will revolutionize how you deploy and manage resources. Here's a quick guide to get you started:
This guide simplifies the setup process, from creating IAM roles to configuring AWS services and Terraform Cloud, ensuring you have a robust pipeline ready for deployment. Whether you're a beginner or looking to refine your CI/CD process with Terraform on AWS, this starter guide has you covered.
CI/CD pipelines are about making the process of getting your code and infrastructure updates out there smoother and faster:
When you use Terraform with AWS's tools for CI/CD, it brings a bunch of good things:
First, you'll need an AWS account to work with Terraform on AWS. If you don't have one yet, you can sign up for a free account on the AWS website. This free tier lets you try out some AWS services for 12 months without paying.
After setting up your account, you must create AWS access keys. These keys let Terraform talk to your AWS account and manage things. AWS has a guide on how to do this — just remember to keep these keys safe.
You can download the newest version of Terraform from its website. They offer versions for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Just follow the instructions for your computer. If you're using Linux, you might be able to get Terraform through your package manager.
To check if Terraform is ready to go, type this in your terminal:
terraform -v
If it works, you'll see the version number of Terraform.
It's good to know a bit about AWS before you start using Terraform with it. Here are some AWS basics:
AWS has lots of resources to learn more about these services. Knowing them will make it easier to use Terraform to manage your AWS resources.
A CI/CD pipeline for Terraform on AWS goes through a few important steps:
The pipeline uses these main AWS services:
plan and apply in a separate environment.Terraform is used here to manage AWS resources with code. Here's how it fits into the workflow:
terraform apply.This setup makes sure that teams can update their cloud setup in a way that's consistent and follows rules.
First, we need to make some special roles that let our pipeline do its job. Here's what we need:
AWSCodePipelineServiceRole policy to it.AWSCodeBuildDeveloperAccess policy here.AWSCodeCommitReadOnly policy.You can create these roles through the IAM section in AWS, either using the console or the CLI. Remember to keep track of their ARNs for later.
We need a spot to keep our Terraform files, and CodeCommit is perfect for this:
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"codecommit:GitPull"
],
"Resource": "arn:aws:codecommit:us-east-1:123456789012:MyDemoRepo"
}
]
}
Next, we use CodeBuild to run Terraform commands. Here's how to get it ready:
This setup lets CodeBuild automatically run commands like terraform plan and terraform apply.
Last, we'll put together our CI/CD pipeline in CodePipeline:
With this, our pipeline will start running automatically whenever there are changes in the Git repo, managing everything from checking to deploying.
Terraform Cloud is a tool that helps teams work together on setting up their cloud infrastructure. It connects to your AWS account and offers features like keeping your setup files safe, managing who can change what, and making sure rules are followed. Here's how to get it ready and hook it up with AWS.
Starting with Terraform Cloud is easy. Go to app.terraform.io and sign up. You'll get a free account that comes with features for storing your setup files online, tools for teamwork, and a private place for your setup modules.
After signing up, you can make organizations and workspaces. Workspaces are like separate projects for different environments, such as testing or live. You can set who has permission to make changes.
To let Terraform Cloud work with your AWS account, you need to add your AWS access keys. Go to your organization settings, find Credentials, then AWS, and put in your access key and secret key.
It's important to use keys that don't have too much access. You can attach an IAM policy to the user that only lets it read from services like EC2, S3, VPC, etc.
Now, create a workspace in Terraform Cloud. This is where your AWS setup files will live. When setting it up, connect it to your AWS credentials and pick 'Version Control Workflow'.
Make sure to turn on remote state storage in the settings. This means Terraform will keep the setup state in the cloud instead of on your computer. You can also turn on checks for security, costs, and more.
Next, link your workspace to your AWS CodeCommit repo. When you update your Terraform files there, it will automatically start Terraform to apply the changes. You can watch the progress, see logs, and work with your team on updates.
The first thing we need to do is set up a way for our pipeline to grab the Terraform files from our CodeCommit repository. Here's how:
With these steps, any new commits to the chosen branch in CodeCommit will automatically start the pipeline.
Now, we need a part in our pipeline that will run Terraform commands to make or change our cloud setup.
Here's what to do:
terraform init, terraform plan, and terraform apply.This way, when the pipeline runs, it will use your Terraform files from CodeCommit to manage your cloud stuff.
It's smart to have a step where someone checks and OKs the plan before it makes any changes, especially for live environments.
To add this check:
This step lets you see what changes Terraform plans to make and approve them before anything happens.
For better teamwork and to keep track of our Terraform setup, we can connect our pipeline to Terraform Cloud:
This setup means our Terraform info is safely stored outside the pipeline, but CodePipeline can still do its job. Plus, it makes working together on cloud setups easier.
To start your Terraform CI/CD pipeline, you have a few options:
While your pipeline is running, you can see how it's doing in the CodePipeline console:
There's a visual layout of the pipeline stages, showing where things are at the moment. This gives you a quick overview of progress.
Click on any stage to see more details like how long it took, any messages, and what was produced. This is useful for understanding what's happening at each step.
The top of the page shows a summary of the whole pipeline, including how long each part took and the current status.
You'll also get alerts for important events, like when something needs your approval or if there's a problem that needs fixing.
If something goes wrong, here's how to check the logs for clues:
Go to the part of CodePipeline that didn't work and look at the logs there. You'll find detailed information.
Look for specific words related to the problem, like "permission" or "timeout." This can help you figure out what went wrong.
You can also try running Terraform commands like plan and apply directly in CodeBuild to see if the logs there give you more info.
If you're stuck, ask for help from people who know about security, networking, or Terraform. They might see something you missed.
Once you know what's wrong, you might need to change permissions, fix network settings, or update your Terraform code to solve the problem and avoid it in the future.
When it comes to keeping your Terraform setup safe and running smoothly, there are a few key things to do:
| Approach | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Store state locally | You're in control, can use it offline | Risky if something goes wrong, no automatic backup |
| Store state remotely in S3 | Safe, keeps versions, can back up | A bit more work, need to set up state locking |
| Store state in Terraform Cloud | Comes with security features, controls who can see it | Relying on another service, what if it goes down? |
Following these tips can help you keep things secure, meet rules, and make sure your Terraform setup works well. Being careful with your setup and who can access it lays a strong foundation.
Using Terraform to manage your AWS setup with CI/CD pipelines makes a big difference:
To get these benefits, plan your pipeline and permissions well, keep an eye on your Terraform setup, use tools like Terraform Cloud when they can help, and focus on keeping things secure and simple. Start with the basics, learn as you go, and you'll find ways to work better and more reliably.
The official Terraform documentation is like a huge guidebook made by HashiCorp, the people behind Terraform. It covers everything you need to know about using Terraform, from start to finish. Here’s a quick overview of what you can find there:
Installation - Instructions on how to get Terraform set up on your computer, whether you're using Windows, Linux, or macOS.
Getting Started - A beginner-friendly introduction to the basics of Terraform, like what providers and resources are, how to manage your setup's state, and the ins and outs of workspaces.
Configuration - A deep dive into how to write Terraform code using its special language, HCL. This includes how to use variables, make your code do what you want, and organize your code with modules.
Commands - A handy reference for the different commands you can use in the Terraform command line, like init to get started, plan to see what changes you're about to make, apply to make those changes, and destroy to take everything down.
Providers - Detailed info on all the different services and tools Terraform works with, like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes.
Best Practices - Tips and advice for using Terraform in the real world, especially when you're working on important projects. This covers how to keep your setup secure, work well with your team, test your code, and more.
Plus, there’s a bunch of other helpful stuff like a guide to the Terraform API, a glossary of terms, and a way to search through all the documentation.
The Terraform documentation is super detailed and always kept up-to-date. It's the go-to place for finding out how to do anything with Terraform. Whether you're just starting out or you've been using Terraform for a while, it's worth checking out to make sure you're doing things the right way and to get answers to any questions you might have.
The AWS blog is packed with helpful tips and step-by-step guides on using AWS services, like how to set up and manage your code and infrastructure automatically. Here are some key takeaways:
Overall, the AWS blog is a great place to find information on making the most of CodePipeline and setting up your infrastructure using code. It's full of advice from AWS experts that can help you understand and use these tools better.
