Terraform Lab on AWS Free Tier — Beginner to Real-World DevOps

Introduction:

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is one of the most important skills in modern DevOps and Cloud Engineering.

In this hands-on lab, we’ll build a complete AWS infrastructure using Terraform while staying within the AWS Free Tier.

This guide is designed for:

Beginners learning Terraform System Administrators moving into Cloud/DevOps Students and homelab users Anyone wanting practical AWS automation experience

Goal:

Build a safe AWS Free Tier Terraform lab that Creates infrastructure automatically Uses only Free Tier eligible resources Avoids unexpected AWS charges Teaches real-world Terraform basics Can be destroyed easily after testing

What You Will Learn:

In this lab you will learn how to:

Install and configure Terraform Connect Terraform with AWS Create infrastructure using code Deploy: VPC Public Subnet Security Group EC2 Instance (Free Tier) Use Terraform commands Modify infrastructure safely Destroy infrastructure to avoid billing

⚠️ Important AWS Free Tier Safety Rules:

Use ONLY these:

Region: ap-south-1 or us-east-1
EC2 Type: t2.micro or t3.micro One instance only
Small EBS disk (8GB)
Avoid Load Balancers
Avoid NAT Gateway
Avoid RDS for now
Always destroy lab after use Recommended
Create billing alarms
Enable MFA on AWS account
Never use root account for Terraform

Architecture: Terraform will create the following infrastructure:

Internet │ Internet Gateway │ Public Subnet │ EC2 Instance (Ubuntu)

Step 1 — Install Terraform on Windows

Download Terraform: https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/downloads
Steps:
Download Windows AMD64 zip
Extract terraform.exe Move it to: C:\terraform
Add the folder to Environment Variables → PATH
Verify Installation terraform -version

Step 2 — Install AWS CLI

Download: https://aws.amazon.com/cli/

Verify AWS CLI
aws --version

Step 3 — Create AWS IAM User for Terraform

⚠️ DO NOT use the root account.

Go to:

AWS Console → IAM → Users → Create User

Username terraform-user

Permissions For lab purposes only: AdministratorAccess

Create Access Key

Click on Save.

Step 4 — Configure AWS CLI

Run:

aws configure

Now Enter:
1. AWS Access Key ID
2. AWS Secret Access Key
3. Region: ap-south-1
4. Output format: json
5. Test AWS Access:
aws sts get-caller-identity

Successful AWS CLI authentication

Step 5 — Create Terraform Project

Create folder:

terraform-aws-lab

Inside create file:

main.tf

Project folder structure

Step 6 — Terraform Configuration

download main.tf file from this link:

https://github.com/sanchitpandit/Devops/blob/main/terraform/terraform-lab-aws-free-tier/main.tf

Step 7 — Initialize Terraform

Open PowerShell inside the project folder.

Run:

terraform fmt

terraform init

Expected output:

Terraform has been successfully initialized

Step 8 — Validate Configuration terraform validate

RUN: terraform validate

Step 9 — View Execution Plan terraform plan

Terraform will show all resources it plans to create.
RUN: terraform plan

Step 10 — Deploy Infrastructure

Run:

terraform apply

Type:

yes

Terraform will create:

VPC Public Subnet Route Table Security Group EC2 Instance

Step 11 — Verify in AWS Console

Open:

AWS Console → EC2

Verify:

Running EC2 instance Public IP assigned Security group attached VPC created

Created VPC

Step 12 — Connect to EC2

Windows users can use:

PuTTY Windows Terminal SSH

Example:

ssh ubuntu@PUBLIC-IP

Successful SSH login

Step 13 — Modify Infrastructure

Change:

instance_type = "t3.micro"

To:

instance_type = "t2.micro"

Then run:

terraform plan terraform apply

Terraform will update the infrastructure automatically.

Terraform detecting infrastructure changes

**
Step 14 — Destroy Infrastructure**

⚠️ VERY IMPORTANT

Always destroy lab resources after testing.

terraform destroy

Type:

yes

This prevents unexpected AWS charges.

📌 Important Terraform Commands Command Purpose terraform init Initialize project terraform validate Validate syntax terraform plan Preview changes terraform apply Create/update resources terraform destroy Delete resources terraform fmt Format files terraform state list Show managed resources 🔥

🏢 Real Business Usage of Terraform

Terraform is widely used for:

AWS infrastructure automation Disaster recovery setup Dev/Test environment provisioning Kubernetes infrastructure Multi-cloud deployment Standardized infrastructure Infrastructure version control CI/CD automation 📈 Suggested Learning Path Terraform Basics Variables Modules Remote State Workspaces Terraform Cloud CI/CD Integration Kubernetes with Terraform Production Infrastructure Design ✅ Cleanup Checklist

Before ending the lab:

Run terraform destroy Verify EC2 deleted
- Verify EBS deleted
- Verify VPC deleted
- Verify no Elastic IP remains
- Check AWS Billing Dashboard

🎉 Conclusion:

You now have a working Terraform AWS Free Tier lab environment.

This is the same core workflow used in real-world DevOps and Cloud Engineering environments.

If you’re a Sysadmin or beginner entering DevOps, Terraform is one of the best tools to start with because it teaches:

Cloud infrastructure Automation Version-controlled infrastructure Repeatable deployments Real production workflows

Happy Learning 🚀