Description

Hands-on Challenge Day - Terraform on AWS

Introduction

What is Terraform?

Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool created by HashiCorp. It allows users to define and provision a datacenter infrastructure using a high-level configuration language known as HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL), or optionally JSON. Terraform manages external resources (such as public cloud infrastructure, private cloud infrastructure, network appliances, software as a service, and platform as a service) with a 'provider' model. Common providers include major technology companies such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and others.

Features of Terraform:

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Infrastructure is described using a high-level configuration syntax. This allows a blueprint of your datacenter to be versioned and treated as you would with application code.
• Execution Plans: Terraform generates an execution plan. This shows what it will do when you call terraform apply. This lets you review what will happen before it makes any changes.
• Resource Graph: Terraform builds a graph of all your resources, and parallelizes the creation and destruction of non-dependent resources.
• Change Automation: With the execution plan, Terraform can automate changes with minimal human interaction. This reduces the potential for human error.

AWS as a Provider

AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery, and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Terraform can manage a wide array of resources in AWS, making it a powerful tool for configuring and managing infrastructure in AWS cloud.

Challenge Scenario

Imagine StartupTech Inc., an innovative tech startup focused on developing a cloud-based application for financial services. As their user base grows, so does their infrastructure complexity. They're looking to automate the provisioning and management of their AWS cloud infrastructure to ensure scalability, reliability, and efficiency.

Problem Statement: StartupTech Inc. has several environments (development, testing, production) that need to be replicated with the same configuration but scaled according to the environment's demand. They are seeking a solution to manage their AWS infrastructure as code to streamline deployments and updates.

Your Mission: Utilize Terraform to define and provision a fully functional infrastructure on AWS for StartupTech Inc., which includes compute instances, networking, and storage tailored for a web application.

Challenge: Infrastructure Automation for StartupTech Inc. with Terraform and AWS

Requirements:

AWS Account: Access to an Amazon Web Services account.