Static Website Hosting with Terraform and AWS

Objective

Deploy a static website on AWS S3 using Terraform. This exercise will cover using modules from the Terraform Registry, managing resources with the AWS CLI, and utilizing variables and outputs in Terraform.

Exercise Steps

Step 0; Log into your Cloud 9 environment and familiarize yourself with the IDE

This guide will walk you through the process of accessing AWS Cloud9, a cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE) that lets you write, run, and debug your code with just a browser.

Sign in to the AWS Management Console

• Navigate to the AWS Management Console.
• Sign in with your AWS account credentials.

Access the Cloud9 Service

• Once signed in, locate the Services dropdown menu at the top of the console.
• Search for Cloud9 by typing "Cloud9" into the search bar or navigating through the services list.
• Select AWS Cloud9 from the results to open the Cloud

Open Your Existing Cloud9 Environment

• Within the AWS Cloud9 dashboard, you'll see a list of your existing Cloud9 environments.
• Find the environment you wish to work with from the list. These are environments you've previously created.
• Click on the name of the environment you want to open. This action will take you to the Cloud9 IDE where you can start working on your projects.

Start Working

• Once your Cloud9 environment opens, you'll be in the IDE where you can begin coding, running, and debugging your projects.
• The environment comes with a terminal, a code editor, and other tools pre-configured for your development needs.

Remember, Cloud9 environments are cloud-based, so you can access your development environment from any computer with internet access, allowing for a flexible and portable coding experience.

Go to the Terminal, this is where you will perform most actions

Step 1: Setup and Initialization

1. Clone the Repository: Clone the provided repository to get the static website files. Run these commands in the Cloud 9 terminal.

   git clone https://github.com/glennbechdevops/terraform-s3-website.git
   cd terraform-s3-website

   this will create a terraform-s3-website folder on your file system. This will also be your working directory from now on.

Step 1.1 Install Terraform

wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.6.4/terraform_1.6.4_linux_amd64.zip
unzip terraform_1.6.4_linux_amd64.zip
sudo mv terraform /usr/local/bin/

Step 2: Terraform Configuration

It is important to create the file within your terraform-s3-website folder, not in the root folder.

1. Create a main.tf File: Define the infrastructure for hosting the static website in an S3 bucket.
2. Use a Module for S3 Website: Incorporate a module for creating an S3 bucket configured for website hosting.

module "website" {
   source = "github.com/glennbechdevops/s3-website-module?ref=1.0.0"
   bucket_name = var.bucket_name
}

• This will use the Terraform module located in GitHub here https://github.com/glennbechdevops/s3-website-module
• Also notice that you're using a specific version of the module

3. Variables File: Define necessary variables in a variables.tf file.

   variable "bucket_name" {
     description = "The name of the bucket"
     type        = string
   }

4. Outputs File: Create an outputs.tf file to extract the domain name of the bucket.

   output "website_url" {
     value = module.website.s3_website_url
   }

Step 3: Deployment

In this step, you will see that you can provide values for variables on the Terraform command line. Replace with for example your name, initials or something that is unique

1. Initialize Terraform and download the necessary modules.
2. Plan and Apply: Execute the infrastructure deployment.

   terraform init
   terraform apply 

If you get an error message saying something like

│ Error: putting S3 Bucket (bech-final) Policy: operation error S3: PutBucketPolicy, https response error StatusCode: 403, RequestID: J1K4KCMHADJMZMV1, HostID: dUSuqDOOUzLsUCp2OVqZmFKnYX4tsQdEwaxZiQZe76/uRhPTuKILLw7PFjtW5J/z4T6G7f1uduM=, api error AccessDenied: Access Denied```

Retry the operation. Ask the instructor why this happens if you have time and are interested :)

Step 4: Upload Files to S3 Bucket

1. AWS CLI: Use the AWS CLI to upload the website files to the S3 bucket.

   aws s3 sync s3_demo_website s3://<bucket-name> 

Step 5: Inspect the bucket in the AWS Console

1. AWS CLI: Use the AWS Console UI to look at objects and bucket properties.

Step 6: Accessing the Website

• Retrieve Website URL: Use Terraform to get the S3 bucket website endpoint.

  terraform output website_url

• Access the website through the provided URL.

Manipulate HTML and / or CSS files

You can try to modify the CSS and HTML files and re-run the sync command to change how it looks.

Look at the Terraform code for the module we're using

https://github.com/glennbechdevops/terraform-module-s3-website-

Tasks

• Use terraform destroy to remove the infrastructure
• Look at the variable bucket_name, it has no value. This is why you were prompted for it when you ran apply. Try running apply with terraform apply -var 'bucket_name=<unique-bucket-name>' reflect over why you did not have to enter a value
• Use terraform destroy to remove the infrastructure
• Look at the variable again, insert a default value for it (Find out how)
• Run terraform applyone more time, you are not asked for the value for bucket_name. Why?
• FlipClass: Look at Terraform modules https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/language/modules
• FlipClass: Look at the module you used in this module in github
• FlipClass: Look at the S3 resource documentation https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/3.36.0/docs/resources/s3_bucket
• FlipClass: an you make your own S3 Website module, based on mine, make it a bit different?

Conclusion This exercise demonstrates deploying and managing web resources on the cloud using Terraform and AWS CLI.