Managing AWS Resources with Flux and KubeVela Terraform Controller

Overview

In today’s cloud environments, GitOps has become the preferred method for managing cloud resources, offering a declarative approach where Git acts as the central source of truth. This article will guide you through managing AWS resources directly from a Kubernetes cluster using KubeVela’s Terraform Controller alongside Terraform.
Git Repo: https://github.com/abhi-188/flux-tf-k8s

Prerequisites

• An operational Kubernetes cluster
• The kubectl command-line tool installed and configured to communicate with your cluster.
• The Helm CLI (version 3 or newer) installed.
• Flux deployed and running in your Kubernetes cluster.
• Terraform installed and ready to use on your system.
• Access to a Git repository where you’ll store your configuration files.
• AWS credentials are available for authentication and are ideally stored as a Kubernetes secret for security.

Make sure you have all these components in place before proceeding.

Installing Flux

Flux is an open-source tool that allows you to synchronize Kubernetes resources directly from a Git repository and apply Terraform configurations. It can be installed either with Helm or with Kubectl applied.

1. Installation with Helm (recommended): This method allows easy management of updates and configurations via Helm.

2. Installation with kubectl apply (alternative method): If Helm isn’t available or shouldn’t be used, you can also install Flux directly with kubectl apply:

3. Status of Flux: After installation, check the status of Flux:

Installing KubeVela Terraform Controller

The KubeVela Terraform Controller is a modern replacement for the now-archived Rancher Terraform Controller, allowing you to run Terraform directly within Kubernetes to manage AWS resources. To install the controller, use Helm:

Storing AWS credentials as a K8s secret

To securely manage authentication, save your AWS credentials as a secret within your Kubernetes cluster:

Enabling Automatic Application of Terraform Configuration Changes

To guarantee that updates to your Terraform configuration are applied automatically, perform these checks before and after making changes.

1. Check the Current Configuration: Before making any modifications, review the existing instance configuration:

Expected output:

2. Change the Instance Type in Terraform: Update the instance type in terraform/ec2.yaml from t3.nano to t3.micro in your Git repository. Once you’ve made the change, stage, commit, and push your update with a clear message.

• Save the change in terraform/ec2.yaml.
• Stage the modified file:

• Commit the update with a descriptive message:

• Push your commit to the remote repository:

3. After-Check in AWS: After Flux and Terraform have applied the change, check the instance configuration again:

Expected output:

Conclusion

By leveraging Flux and the KubeVela Terraform Controller, you can provision and manage AWS resources directly from your Kubernetes cluster.

When compared to traditional CI/CD-based deployments, adopting a GitOps workflow with Terraform delivers several key benefits:

• Automated synchronization: Any changes made in your Git repository are instantly picked up and applied without manually invoking a pipeline.
• Centralized source of truth: Infrastructure definitions are maintained declaratively in Git, streamlining version control, rollbacks, and audit trails.
• Enhanced consistency: GitOps guarantees that your infrastructure’s actual state always aligns with the intended configuration.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding KubeVela and we will get back to you quickly.

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