Day 4: Setting Up AWS for Terraform

2 min readDec 23, 2024

Welcome to Day 4 of the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) series! Terraform supports a wide range of providers to manage infrastructure across multiple platforms. You can find the full list of providers in the Terraform Documentation.

For this tutorial series, we’ll focus on using AWS as our cloud provider. Before we start provisioning infrastructure with Terraform, we need to set up an AWS account.

Why AWS?

AWS is one of the most popular cloud providers and offers a 12-month free tier account — perfect for learning and experimenting without incurring charges (if you stay within the free-tier limits).

Important Notes About the AWS Free Tier

The free tier includes various services like EC2, S3, and RDS with usage limits.

Example: 750 hours of t2.micro instances (EC2) per month.
You can find detailed limits on the AWS Free Tier Limits page.

2. Service expiration and cleanup: After the free-tier period (12 months), AWS does not automatically delete provisioned services. Be sure to manually clean up resources you no longer need to avoid unexpected charges.

Steps to Set Up Your AWS Account

Follow these steps to create an AWS account:

1. Sign Up on AWS

Visit the AWS Signup Page.
Enter your email address, set up a password, and choose an account name.

2. Add a Credit/Debit Card

AWS requires a valid credit or debit card during signup.
Note: You won’t be billed if you stay within the free-tier usage limits.

3. Verify Your Account

Provide contact information and verify your identity via phone or SMS.
Select the Basic Support Plan (free of charge).

4. You’re All Set!

Once your account is verified, your AWS account is ready to use. You can start exploring services and integrating them with Terraform!

Next Steps

In the upcoming posts, we’ll set up Terraform to work with your AWS account by configuring the required credentials and permissions. Stay tuned as we dive deeper into provisioning AWS resources with Terraform.

Have any questions or need help setting up AWS? Drop them in the comments below! 🚀