🧩 Setting up Infrastructure on AWS using Terraform

This project demonstrates how I automated the setup of a complete AWS infrastructure using Terraform. The goal was to learn Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts and understand how Terraform can provision AWS resources automatically.

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🚀 Project Overview

The architecture I built includes the following components:

• VPC — Custom Virtual Private Cloud for isolating the network.
• Subnets — Two public subnets across different availability zones for high availability.
• Internet Gateway (IGW) — To allow instances to communicate with the internet.
• Route Table — Configured to route external traffic through the internet gateway.
• Security Group — Allows inbound HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443) traffic.
• EC2 Instances — Two web servers launched in the public subnets with Apache installed using user data scripts.
• S3 Bucket — Created to store and retrieve static content (like images or project files).
• Application Load Balancer (ALB) — Distributes traffic between the two web servers.

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⚙️ Tools & Technologies

• Terraform (IaC tool)
• AWS (EC2, S3, VPC, ALB)
• VS Code (for editing .tf files)
• AWS CLI (for basic verification)

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🧱 Steps I Followed

1. Created a VPC and Subnets – Defined CIDR blocks for the VPC and public subnets.
2. Attached an Internet Gateway – To enable internet access for the public subnets.
3. Added a Route Table – Connected subnets with IGW for outbound access.
4. Created a Security Group – Opened HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443) ports.
5. Provisioned EC2 Instances – Used Ubuntu AMI and attached user data to automatically install and start Apache.
6. Created an S3 Bucket – For storing static assets (like images used in my web page).
7. Set Up an Application Load Balancer – To route traffic across both EC2 instances.
8. Tested Everything – Accessed the ALB DNS name to see my custom HTML page showing the Instance ID and Server name.

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💻 User Data Script Summary

Each EC2 instance uses a userdata.sh script that:

• Updates the system
• Installs Apache and AWS CLI
• Fetches instance metadata using IMDSv2
• Generates a simple animated HTML portfolio page with the instance ID displayed

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🧩 Terraform Features Used

• Variables for CIDR blocks and region
• Outputs to display public IPs and DNS names
• Provisioners (user data scripts)
• State management with Terraform CLI
• Plan & Apply workflow for safe deployments

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✅ Commands I Used

terraform init
terraform validate
terraform plan
terraform apply
terraform destroy

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📸 Architecture Diagram

Below is the architecture of my setup:

This diagram shows:

• One VPC
• Two public subnets
• Two EC2 instances
• One ALB
• One S3 bucket

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🔍 Learnings

• Understood how Terraform state tracks resource changes.
• Learned about IMDSv2 (for EC2 metadata security).
• Got hands-on with networking concepts like VPCs, subnets, and route tables.
• Practiced automating infrastructure instead of using the AWS console manually.

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📚 Reference

Inspired by Abhishek Veeramalla’s YouTube Tutorial I customized and built my own version of the project.

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