Setup infrastructure as code environment

What is infrastructure as code?

It’s 2020, I shouldn’t have to explain this…instead here’s a good post explaining it. What I’m going to say is that Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a must, no debate needed! Let’s setup infrastructure as code environment using homebrew, terragrunt, terraform CLI, the AWS CLI, git, and GitLab.

I know that’s a lot of tools, but it’s worth it in the long run! Do make sure you have an AWS account already. Follow this guide to sign up.

Mac OS: Install homebrew

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

https://brew.sh/

Install Terragrunt

brew install terragrunt

Verify install

terragrunt --version

If you know Terraform, I’m going to wrap that with Terragrunt.

“Terragrunt is a thin wrapper that provides extra tools for keeping your configurations DRY, working with multiple Terraform modules, and managing remote state.” – Gruntwork

Install AWS CLI

brew install awscli

or

pip install awscli

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-chap-install.html

Verify install

aws --version

Install git

Code source management: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-Installing-Git

git –version

GitLab sign up

I’m going to also use GitLab for code repositories and pipelines. GitLab has a free version on the cloud. Sign up and create a new project.

You’ll have to add your ssh keys to your project. Follow the instructions on that page on how to create or add existing keys.

Let’s copy down (clone) the empty project into our workstation

Here’s another blog about git commands

Pre-commit

Lastly add this awesome utility to your toolbox. Pre-commit allows you git code to be checked for various types of error or formatting issues before it commits your code to the server. For example it can fix your trailing whitespaces or end of line formatting or check if your Terraform is formatted correctly and so on. Here’s a full list of the the various checks.

Next we’ll setup our AWS access keys, setup Terragrunt, setup Terraform, and manage AWS from code! Finally I’ll push the code to GitLab. Sign up below to get notified when that blog gets posted!

As always if you see any errors, mistakes, have suggestions or questions please comment below. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe for more!

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