These are steps on how I created an AWS EC2 using Github Actions and Terraform.

Create a Terraform Cloud account

• Create Terraform Cloud Account using this link
• Create a workspace - remember the name you called it
• In your AWS portal
  • Create a new AWS IAM user
  • Give this IAM User full AWS EC2 access
  • Store AWS Access Credentials in the Terraform cloud workspace under variables named
    • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
    • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

Create Terraform Cloud token

• Go to this link which will take you to terraform tokens page
  • https://app.terraform.io/app/settings/tokens?utm_source=learn
• Create an API token Copy this token we will store this in Gitub Repo

Create a new GitHub repo

• Follow these instructions on how to create a GitHub repo if you havent before
• Add above Terraform Cloud API token secret
  • In your GitHub repo
  • Settings > Secrets > Actions
  • Create repository secret named TF_API_TOKEN

Pull repo down locally to modify code

Add Terraform files

• Copy this file to your repo main.tf

Add GitHub Action file

• Copy this terraform.ym to your repo as well https://github.com/hashicorp/learn-terraform-github-actions/blob/main/.github/workflows/terraform.yml
• See this for more info to what it does https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/terraform/github-actions?in=terraform/automation

Change main.tf

• Configure these lines to suit what you have created in terraform cloud
• Change ADD_TERRAFORM_ORGANISATION_NAME & ADD_TERRAFORM_WORKSPACE_NAME

  cloud {
    organization = "ADD_TERRAFORM_ORGANISATION_NAME"

    workspaces {
      name = "ADD_TERRAFORM_WORKSPACE_NAME"
    }
  }
}

• Change this line to where you want your EC2 to be created (us-west-2)

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

Create a branch and push changes up

git branch NewEC2
git checkout NewEC2
git push NewEC2

Create a in GitHub PR to merge into main

• Create PR in GitHub Repo
• GitHub Action Check will kick off and check if everything is ok
• If you get errors like

  Error: No valid credential sources found for AWS Provider.
  

• Double check your organization and workspace in terraform or Terraform API key we added into secrets in github
• If checks succeed you are ready to create your EC2 from Terraform code
• Merge pull request into main
• Wait for GitHub action to run

Check if EC2 got provisioned

• Go to your Github Action in your repo and click under Terraform Apply step you should have a url to check server
• Copy it and go to the site and check it should respond to hello world.
• You also could login to your AWS account and find the server

Congrats you have created a server with GitHub Actions and Terraform 🎉

Now delete resources

• Open your Terraform Cloud
• Find your workspace
• Click settings
• Queue destroy plan
• You will see triggers running to destroy it
• You have to confirm you want to accept deleting
• Check your url before is broken
• Check your EC2 server is removed in the AWS portal or via AWS CLI command

Credits

• Hashicorp Terraform Github Actions
• Learn Hashicorp Terraform Github Actions
• Github Action image
• Terraform AWS image

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Feel free to comment with questions or feedback✌️

Happy coding,

Az 👨🏾‍💻