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Getting set up

Akuda solutions come packaged as production-ready Terraform Modules. This documentation will guide you through the prerequisites, setting up repositories, deploying infrastructure, and link you to useful resources along the way.

You’ll be in control of the Terraform infrastructure code and empowered to make customizations and optimizations to meet your specific business needs.

Prerequisites

To use the infrastructure code successfully, you’ll need working knowledge of Terraform, Git Source Control, and your Cloud providers technologies.

  • Terraform installed on your local machine or CI/CD host.
  • AWS, Azure, or GCP cloud provider account and credentials with permissions to provision infrastructure.
  • Source Control System and credentials with permissions to create repositories and commit code. (E.g. GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and Bitbucket).
  • A purchased solution from Akuda.

Create a repository for a module

  1. Create a private repository in your Git Source Control System with the same name as your downloaded solution from Akuda.
  2. Initialize the repository and copy the contents of your downloaded zip file into the root of the repository.
  3. In each of the examples main.tf files, update all module sources to use your repositories Git URL instead of the local path. Helpful information on module sources can be found here.
  4. Review the code, and make any changes you require.
  5. Commit and push the code to your remote repository.
  6. Tag your initial Release according to your organization’s standards. We recommend Semantic Versioning and starting at version v0.1.0-alpha.

Create a configuration that uses a module

  1. Create another private repository in your Source Control System for your Terraform Configuration.
  2. Structure the configuration repository according to your organization’s preferences. Refer to Terraform Recommended Practices guide.
  3. Copy the contents of an example directory from the Module repository to your Terraform Configuration directory.
  4. Review the code and make any changes you require.
  5. Commit and push the code to your remote repository in line with your organization’s practices.

Deploy infrastructure with Terraform

For this guide, we will focus on deploying infrastructure locally via the Terraform CLI.

  1. Ensure you have Terraform installed and your cloud provider dependencies met.
  2. Clone your Terraform Configuration repository locally
  3. In your terminal, ensure your working directory matches your Terraform Configuration directory.
  4. Run the following command to initialize Terraform.
    terraform init
  5. Run the following command to generate a Terraform Plan. Review the plan and type yes to authorize and start the deployment.
    terraform apply

Note: You can make changes to your Terraform configuration and rerun terraform apply command. Terraform will perform the minimum amount of changes required to bring the real-world infrastructure in line with your infrastructure configuration defined in code.

Destroy infrastructure with Terraform

Excellent, you can now provision and manage infrastructure with ease. If only you had a reliable way to destroy it, especially your development and testing environments. You don’t want to be responsible for bill shock.

  1. In your terminal, ensure your working directory matches your Terraform Configuration directory.
  2. Run the following command to generate a Terraform Destroy Plan. Review the plan and type yes to authorize the destroy.
    terraform destroy

Using Amazon Web Services

Installing dependencies

When running Terraform locally, we recomend installing the AWS CLI which can be used to handle authentication. Note that this is not required when running Terraform non-interactively in a CI/CD pipeline.

Authenticating

When running Terraform locally, we recommend authenticating with the AWS CLI by following this simple two step process.

  1. Create a new Access Key. This can be done on this page.
  2. Configure the AWS CLI from your terminal by running the following command. Follow the prompts to input your AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.
    aws configure

When running Terraform non-interactively in a CI/CD pipeline, we recommend providing your credentials via the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, environment variables, representing your AWS Access Key and AWS Secret Key, respectively.

Using Microsoft Azure

Installing dependencies

When running Terraform locally, we recomend installing the Azure CLI which can be used to handle authentication. Note that this is not required when running Terraform non-interactively in a CI/CD pipeline.

Authenticating

When running Terraform locally, we recommend authenticating with the Azure CLI. When running Terraform non-interactively in a CI/CD pipeline, we recommend using a Managed Service Identity or Service Principal.

Using Google Cloud Platform

Installing dependencies

When running Terraform locally, we recomend installing the Google Cloud SDK which can be used to handle authentication. Note that this is not required when running Terraform non-interactively in a CI/CD pipeline.

Authenticating

When running Terraform locally, we recommend authenticating with the gcloud CLI by running the command in your terminal and following the prompts.

gcloud auth application-default login

When running Terraform non-interactively on Google Cloud, we recommend using a Google Service Account. This will allow Terraform to authenticate to Google Cloud without having to bake in a separate credential/authentication file. Ensure that the scope of the VM/Cluster is set to or includes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform.

When running Terraform non-interactively in a CI/CD pipeline outside of Google Cloud, we recomend you create a service account, ensure the key is placed onto the file system where Terraform resides, and set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environment variable to the path of the service account key.

Resources

Terraform Language

All of the code we create is written in Terraform Configuration Language. We consider it to be the primary user interface. It’s a language that’s easy to read, easy to write, and the defacto standard in Infrastructure as Code. Developing an intermediate understanding of the language will increase your confidence in our solutions and empower you to make customizations to suite your specific needs.

Terraform CLI

The code we create is intended to be driven by the Terraform CLI. Wether you intend to use your own machine or execute Terraform via CI/CD pipelines, it’s important to develop working knowledge of the Terraform CLI.

Terraform Backends

By default, the Terraform CLI uses local state storage to keep track off and manage infrastructure provisioned by Terraform. While this may work fine for a solo engineer without intentions to use CI/CD pipelines, it will not work in a team setting. This link provides information for configuring a Terraform Backend.

Terraform Modules

The solutions we sell are packaged as Terraform Modules and intended to be stored in your organizations private source control (GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, etc). This link will help you develop an understanding of the standard module structure, usage, and best practices which all Akuda solutions employ.

Achieving state-of-the-art provisioning practices is a journey with several steps along the way. Akuda accelerates this journey by getting you started with production-ready Terraform Infrastructure Code, but their are still practices you’ll need to adopt to advance your maturity. This guide for Terraform Recommended Practices will walk you through them.

Cloud Architecture Frameworks

Having Infrastructure Code that follows all the best practices is great but it’s only half of the equation. You still need to ensure the make up of your cloud infrastructure is secure, high-performing, resilient, and efficient. This is where Cloud Architecture Frameworks come in. They provide this guidance which we employ, and their is one for every major cloud provider.