This document provides an overview of using Terraform to provision infrastructure on AWS. It discusses how Terraform allows defining infrastructure as code through configuration files, enabling reliable and repeatable deployments. Key points include: - Terraform can provision AWS services like Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway to build a serverless REST API on AWS. - Managing infrastructure through graphical interfaces becomes complex and error-prone for non-trivial configurations. - Terraform addresses this by defining resources and dependencies through configuration files, then deploying the necessary infrastructure. - This allows defining a standard structure for environments like development, test, and production through variables and modules.

1. Provisioning
Infrastructure To AWS
Using Terraform
Eero Lempiö

2. Introduction

3. So what is AWS?
Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary
of Amazon,
“offers reliable, scalable, and
inexpensive cloud computing
services”
A fancy way of saying “do
stuff in the cloud”

4. Broad range of services (over 160)
AWS services
Storage Compute Networking Database
S3 Lambda Api Gateway RDS
EFS EC2 Route 53 DynamoDB
... ... ... ...

5. Example
project

6. It needs to be:
● Authenticated
● Fetch and update customer
data
Implement a
REST API on
AWS

7. What we will need
● Lambda: Function as a service
○ The code for our API
● DynamoDB: AWS’s NoSQL database system
○ All of our data
● Api Gateway: Publish and maintain APIs
○ Connect to our Lambda and authenticate
● Route 53: Cloud Domain Name System
○ Routing to our Api Gateway from our domain
● IAM: Identity and Access Management
○ Manage access rights to the AWS-services in our use

8. But there is a
problem..

9. Graphical interfaces

10. So many interfaces...

11. Emerging issues
● At this point we need a complex readme for setup
● Changes require more clicking around in the
interface
● Deployment for different stages means redoing the
whole process
Who can save us now?

12. Terrafor
m

13. Terraform
● Infrastructure as code
● Define and provision infrastructure from files
● High-level configuration language

14. ● Terraform will create an
execution plan based on
configuration files
● Terraform will adapt to
changes and create
incremental execution
plans which can be applied.
How does it work?

15. ● We define our architecture
in modules
● Modules have input and
output values
○ Can be used for example to
control the deployment stage
with variables or to expose
parts of an other module

16. ● Resource blocks describe
resources terraform will
create for us
● Data block reads from a
given source and exports
the data for our use
Structure of a module

17. With clever use of variables, we
can easily deploy to different
stages
● For example we can prefix
every resource with the
environment name
Deploying
And now we have
deployed !

18. Afterwords

19. Terraform can be difficult
● Something will break
● You will be angry
But it will all be worth it...

20. ...with our finished API

21. FIN.