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Creating Key Pairs Using Terraform

Creating Key Pairs Using Terraform

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Vaibhav Parekh
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3 min read

Creating key pairs using Terraform is a straightforward process that involves defining a resource in your Terraform configuration file. Key pairs are essential for securely accessing EC2 instances in AWS, as they allow you to authenticate without using a password.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Key Pairs Using Terraform

Prerequisites

  1. AWS Account: You need an AWS account with the necessary permissions to create key pairs.

  2. Terraform Installed: Ensure that Terraform is installed on your machine. You can download it from the Terraform website.

  3. AWS CLI Configured: Configure your AWS CLI with your credentials by running aws configure.

Step 1: Create a Directory for Your Terraform Project

Open your terminal and create a new directory for your Terraform project:

mkdir terraform-keypair
cd terraform-keypair

Step 2: Create a Terraform Configuration File

Create a file named main.tf in your project directory. This file will contain the Terraform configuration to create a key pair. Here’s an example configuration:

# Specify the AWS provider
provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1" # Change this to your preferred region
}

# Create a key pair
resource "aws_key_pair" "my_key" {
  key_name   = "my-key" # Change this to your desired key name
  public_key = file("~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub") # Path to your public SSH key
}

# Output the private key to a file
resource "local_file" "private_key" {
  content  = aws_key_pair.my_key.private_key
  filename = "${path.module}/my-key.pem" # Path where the private key will be saved
}

output "private_key_path" {
  value = local_file.private_key.filename
}

Step 3: Initialize Terraform

In your terminal, run the following command to initialize Terraform:

terraform init

This command will download the necessary provider plugins.

Step 4: Review the Configuration

You can run the following command to see the execution plan and verify the resources that Terraform will create:

terraform plan

Step 5: Apply the Configuration

Once you’re satisfied with the plan, apply the configuration to create the key pair:

terraform apply

You will be prompted to confirm the action. Type yes and hit Enter.

Step 6: Access Your Key Pair

After applying the configuration, the key pair will be created, and the private key will be saved to the specified path (my-key.pem). Ensure that you set the correct permissions on your private key file:

chmod 400 my-key.pem

Step 7: Clean Up Resources

If you no longer need the key pair, you can remove it by destroying the resources created by Terraform:

terraform destroy

Again, you will be prompted to confirm the destruction. Type yes to proceed.

Conclusion

Creating key pairs using Terraform simplifies the process of managing access to your EC2 instances. This approach allows you to automate the creation and management of key pairs as part of your infrastructure as code strategy. With Terraform, you can easily reproduce your infrastructure and ensure consistency across environments.

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