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

Shameless Plugs

Feel free to comment with questions or feedback✌️

Happy coding,

Az 👨🏾‍💻

Creating a AWS EC2 using Github Actions and Terraform Cloud

Comments (1)

More from this blog

Creating database tables and adding data in Magento 2 Adobe Commerce

Automatically Tweet Hashnode blogs using GitHub Actions

Setup GitHub SSH key using Windows

Installing the AWS EB CLI command on Debian 11 (WSL2)

Create a Terraform Cloud account

Create Terraform Cloud token

Create a new GitHub repo

Pull repo down locally to modify code

Add Terraform files

Add GitHub Action file

Change main.tf

Create a branch and push changes up

Create a in GitHub PR to merge into main

Check if EC2 got provisioned

Now delete resources

Credits

Shameless Plugs

Command Palette

Comments (1)

More from this blog

Create a Terraform Cloud account

Create Terraform Cloud token

Create a new GitHub repo

Pull repo down locally to modify code

Add Terraform files

Add GitHub Action file

Change main.tf

Create a branch and push changes up

Create a in GitHub PR to merge into main

Check if EC2 got provisioned

Now delete resources

Credits

Shameless Plugs