Remote-exec provisioner in Terraform - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using Terraform Remote-exec Provisioner

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a cloud server and want to run a simple command on it right after it is created. This helps you install software or configure the server automatically.

🎯 Goal: Build a Terraform configuration that creates a virtual machine and uses the remote-exec provisioner to run a command on the server after creation.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create an AWS EC2 instance resource named aws_instance.example

Add a remote-exec provisioner inside the instance resource

Use the provisioner to run the command echo Hello, Terraform! on the instance

Configure connection details for the provisioner using SSH

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Automating server setup by running commands immediately after the server is created saves time and reduces manual errors.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and DevOps professionals use remote-exec provisioners to automate configuration and deployment tasks on cloud instances.

1

Create AWS EC2 instance resource

Create a resource block named aws_instance.example with ami set to "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0" and instance_type set to "t2.micro".

Terraform

# Your code here to create aws_instance.example resource

Need a hint?

The resource block defines the EC2 instance with the given AMI and instance type.

2

Add SSH connection configuration

Add a connection block inside aws_instance.example with type set to "ssh", user set to "ec2-user", and private_key set to file("~/.ssh/id_rsa").

Terraform

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  # Add connection block here
}

Need a hint?

The connection block tells Terraform how to connect to the instance via SSH.

3

Add remote-exec provisioner to run a command

Inside aws_instance.example, add a provisioner "remote-exec" block that runs the command echo Hello, Terraform! using the inline argument.

Terraform

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  connection {
    type        = "ssh"
    user        = "ec2-user"
    private_key = file("~/.ssh/id_rsa")
  }

  # Add remote-exec provisioner here
}

Need a hint?

The remote-exec provisioner runs commands on the remote instance after creation.

4

Add public IP to connect to the instance

Add associate_public_ip_address = true inside the aws_instance.example resource to ensure the instance gets a public IP for SSH connection.

Terraform

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"

  connection {
    type        = "ssh"
    user        = "ec2-user"
    private_key = file("~/.ssh/id_rsa")
  }

  provisioner "remote-exec" {
    inline = ["echo Hello, Terraform!"]
  }

  # Add associate_public_ip_address here
}

Need a hint?

Setting associate_public_ip_address to true allows SSH access to the instance.