This folder contains a one server example of a Terraform file on Microsoft Azure.

This Terraform file create a single web server on Microsoft Azure by provisioning the necessary infrastructure, and using an Azure Virtual Machine. The web server returns "Hello, World" for the URL / listening on port 8080, which is defined as a variable.

• You must have a Microsoft Azure subscription.

• You must have the following installed:

  • Terraform CLI
  • Azure CLI tool

• The code was written for:

  • Terraform 0.14 or later

• It uses the Terraform AzureRM Provider v 3.1 that interacts with the many resources supported by Azure Resource Manager (AzureRM) through its APIs.

• Configure your access to Azure.

  • Authenticate using the Azure CLI.

    Terraform must authenticate to Azure to create infrastructure.

    In your terminal, use the Azure CLI tool to setup your account permissions locally.

    az login  

    Your browser will open and prompt you to enter your Azure login credentials. After successful authentication, your terminal will display your subscription information.

    You have logged in. Now let us find all the subscriptions to which you have access...

    [
      {
        "cloudName": "<CLOUD-NAME>",
        "homeTenantId": "<HOME-TENANT-ID>",
        "id": "<SUBSCRIPTION-ID>",
        "isDefault": true,
        "managedByTenants": [],
        "name": "<SUBSCRIPTION-NAME>",
        "state": "Enabled",
        "tenantId": "<TENANT-ID>",
        "user": {
          "name": "<[email protected]>",
          "type": "user"
        }
      }
    ]

    Find the id column for the subscription account you want to use.

    Once you have chosen the account subscription ID, set the account with the Azure CLI.

    az account set --subscription "<SUBSCRIPTION-ID>"

  • Create a Service Principal.

    A Service Principal is an application within Azure Active Directory with the authentication tokens Terraform needs to perform actions on your behalf. Update the <SUBSCRIPTION_ID> with the subscription ID you specified in the previous step.

    Create a Service Principal:

    az ad sp create-for-rbac --role="Contributor" --scopes="/subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>"
    
    Creating 'Contributor' role assignment under scope '/subscriptions/<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>'
    The output includes credentials that you must protect. Be sure that you do not include these credentials in your code or check the credentials into your source control. For more information, see https://aka.ms/azadsp-cli
    {
      "appId": "xxxxxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx",
      "displayName": "azure-cli-2022-xxxx",
      "password": "xxxxxx~xxxxxx~xxxxx",
      "tenant": "xxxxx-xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxxxx"
    }

  • Set your environment variables.

    HashiCorp recommends setting these values as environment variables rather than saving them in your Terraform configuration.

    In your terminal, set the following environment variables. Be sure to update the variable values with the values Azure returned in the previous command.

    • For MacOS/Linux:

      export ARM_CLIENT_ID="<SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_APPID>"
      export ARM_CLIENT_SECRET="<SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_PASSWORD>"
      export ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID="<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>"
      export ARM_TENANT_ID="<TENANT_ID>"

    • For Windows (PowerShell):

      $env:ARM_CLIENT_ID="<SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_APPID>"
      $env:ARM_CLIENT_SECRET="<SERVICE_PRINCIPAL_PASSWORD>"
      $env:ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID="<SUBSCRIPTION_ID>"
      $env:ARM_TENANT_ID="<TENANT_ID>"

• Initialize Terraform configuration.

  The first command that should be run after writing a new Terraform configuration is the terraform init command in order to initialize a working directory containing Terraform configuration files. It is safe to run this command multiple times.

  If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform, rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary.

  Run command:

  terraform init

• Modify server port configuration.

  The web server is listening on port 8080, which is defined as an input variable server_port in vars.tf file.

  If you want to modify the server port you will be able to do it in several ways, but be sure to replace the value of <SERVER_PORT> by your server port:

  • Loading variables from command line option.

    Run Terraform commands in this way:

    terraform plan -var 'server_port=<SERVER_PORT>'

    terraform apply -var 'server_port=<SERVER_PORT>'

  • Loading variables from a file.

    When Terraform runs it will look for a file called terraform.tfvars. You can populate this file with variable values that will be loaded when Terraform runs. An example for the content of the terraform.tfvars file:

    server_port = "<SERVER_PORT>"

  • Loading variables from environment variables.

    Terraform will also parse any environment variables that are prefixed with TF_VAR. You can create an environment variable TF_VAR_server_port:

    export TF_VAR_server_port=<SERVER_PORT>

  • Variable defaults.

    Change the value of the default attribute of server_port input variable in vars.tf file.

    variable "server_port" {
      description = "The port the server will use for HTTP requests"
      default     = "<SERVER_PORT>"
    }

• Validate the changes.

  The terraform plan command lets you see what Terraform will do before actually making any changes.

  Run command:

  terraform plan

• Apply the changes.

  The terraform apply command lets you apply your configuration and it creates the infrastructure.

  Run command:

  terraform apply

• Test the web server.

  When the terraform apply command completes, it will output the public IP address of the web server.

  You can test it in two ways, but be sure to replace the value of <SERVER_PUBLIC_IP> by the public IP address that you have got in the previous command:

  • Running this command:

    curl http://<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:8080/

  • Writing in your browser this URL: http://<SERVER_PUBLIC_IP>:8080/

  You should get a Hello, World response message.

• Clean up the resources created.

  When you have finished, the terraform destroy command destroys the infrastructure you created.

  Run command:

  terraform destroy