Enabling Multiple RDP Sessions on Windows Server via Terraform

Overview

Shared storage is a cornerstone for building scalable and efficient applications in cloud computing. Amazon S3 is a durable and scalable object storage service often paired with Amazon EC2 instances to separate compute from storage, enabling cloud-native applications. In this blog, we will explore how to provision an Amazon S3 bucket and mount it across three Amazon EC2 instances using Terraform as the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool.

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Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides powerful cloud services like Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 that help build scalable and efficient applications. Amazon S3 is a highly durable and scalable object storage service designed to store and retrieve any amount of data. Amazon EC2 offers resizable compute capacity, allowing users to run virtual servers on demand. Combining Amazon S3 with Amazon EC2 enables separation of storage and compute, supporting flexible, cloud-native architectures.

Why use Amazon S3 with Amazon EC2 instances?

Integrating Amazon S3 with Amazon EC2 offers several benefits:

Scalability: Amazon S3 provides unlimited storage, allowing applications to scale seamlessly.
Durability: Data stored in Amazon S3 is replicated across multiple facilities, ensuring high availability.
Cost Efficiency: With pay-as-you-go pricing, Amazon S3 minimizes costs for storing large datasets.
Flexibility: Amazon EC2 instances can access Amazon S3 buckets to store application data, make backups, or host static assets.

Prerequisites

AWS Account: Ensure you have an AWS account with the necessary permissions to create resources like Amazon VPCs, Amazon EC2 instances, Amazon S3 buckets, and AWS IAM roles.
Terraform: Install Terraform on your machine to manage infrastructure as code.

Solution Overview

The goal is to create a shared storage system where three Amazon EC2 instances in separate availability zones can access a single Amazon S3 bucket. Each instance will mount the bucket using s3fs, an open-source FUSE file system that enables Amazon S3 buckets to appear as local file systems.

Infrastructure Setup

Terraform Scripts

VPC.tf: Creates Amazon VPC with three subnets in different availability zones.
EC2.tf: Provisions three Amazon EC2 instances and attaches AWS IAM roles for Amazon S3 access.
S3.tf: Creates an Amazon S3 bucket for shared storage.
Variable.tf: Centralizes configuration variables for easy management.
Userdata.sh: Configures each Amazon EC2 instance to mount the Amazon S3 bucket during boot.

VPC.tf

variable "availability_zones" {
  default = ["us-east-1a", "us-east-1b", "us-east-1c"]
}

resource "aws_vpc" "hts-l2-vpc" {
  cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"

  tags = {
    Name = "hts-l2-vpc"
  }
}

resource "aws_internet_gateway" "igw" {
  vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id
  tags = {
    Name = "hts-l2 Internet Gateway"
  }
}

resource "aws_subnet" "my_subnet" {
  count             = length(var.availability_zones)
  vpc_id            = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id
  cidr_block        = cidrsubnet("10.0.0.0/16", 8, count.index)
  availability_zone = var.availability_zones[count.index]

  tags = {
    Name = "hts-l2-subnet-${count.index}"
  }
}

resource "aws_route_table" "ig_rt" {
  vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id
  route {
    cidr_block = "0.0.0.0/0"
    gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.igw.id
  }

  tags = {
    Name = "hts-l2 ig rt"
  }
}

resource "aws_route_table_association" "ig-assoc" {
  count          = length(var.availability_zones)
  subnet_id      = aws_subnet.my_subnet[count.index].id
  route_table_id = aws_route_table.ig_rt.id
}

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variable "availability_zones" {

default = ["us-east-1a", "us-east-1b", "us-east-1c"]

}

resource "aws_vpc" "hts-l2-vpc" {

cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"

tags = {

Name = "hts-l2-vpc"

}

resource "aws_internet_gateway" "igw" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id

tags = {

Name = "hts-l2 Internet Gateway"

}

resource "aws_subnet" "my_subnet" {

count = length(var.availability_zones)

vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id

cidr_block = cidrsubnet("10.0.0.0/16", 8, count.index)

availability_zone = var.availability_zones[count.index]

tags = {

Name = "hts-l2-subnet-${count.index}"

}

resource "aws_route_table" "ig_rt" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id

route {

cidr_block = "0.0.0.0/0"

gateway_id = aws_internet_gateway.igw.id

}

tags = {

Name = "hts-l2 ig rt"

}

resource "aws_route_table_association" "ig-assoc" {

count = length(var.availability_zones)

subnet_id = aws_subnet.my_subnet[count.index].id

route_table_id = aws_route_table.ig_rt.id

}

step1

EC2.tf

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "s3_access_policy_attachment" {
  role       = aws_iam_role.ec2-role.name
  policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.s3_access_policy.arn
}

resource "aws_security_group" "ec2-sg" {
  vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id
  dynamic "ingress" {
    for_each = var.inbound_ports
    content {
      from_port   = ingress.value
      to_port     = ingress.value
      protocol    = "tcp"
      cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    }
  }
  egress {
    from_port   = 0
    to_port     = 0
    protocol    = "-1"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }
}
resource "aws_instance" "hts-l2-instance" {
  count                       = length(var.availability_zones)
  ami                         = "ami-04b70fa74e45c3917"
  instance_type               = "t2.micro"
  key_name                    = "hts-l2-key-pair"
  subnet_id                   = aws_subnet.my_subnet[count.index].id
  iam_instance_profile        = "ec2-s3-access"
  vpc_security_group_ids      = ["${aws_security_group.ec2-sg.id}"]
  associate_public_ip_address = true
  user_data                   = file("./userdata.sh")
  tags = {
    Name = "hts-l2-instance-${count.index}"
  }

  depends_on = [aws_iam_role.ec2-role, aws_s3_bucket.hts-l2-bucket1111]
}

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resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "s3_access_policy_attachment" {

role = aws_iam_role.ec2-role.name

policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.s3_access_policy.arn

}

resource "aws_security_group" "ec2-sg" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.hts-l2-vpc.id

dynamic "ingress" {

for_each = var.inbound_ports

content {

from_port = ingress.value

to_port = ingress.value

protocol = "tcp"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

egress {

from_port = 0

to_port = 0

protocol = "-1"

cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]

}

resource "aws_instance" "hts-l2-instance" {

count = length(var.availability_zones)

ami = "ami-04b70fa74e45c3917"

instance_type = "t2.micro"

key_name = "hts-l2-key-pair"

subnet_id = aws_subnet.my_subnet[count.index].id

iam_instance_profile = "ec2-s3-access"

vpc_security_group_ids = ["${aws_security_group.ec2-sg.id}"]

associate_public_ip_address = true

user_data = file("./userdata.sh")

tags = {

Name = "hts-l2-instance-${count.index}"

}

depends_on = [aws_iam_role.ec2-role, aws_s3_bucket.hts-l2-bucket1111]

}

step2

S3.tf

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "hts-l2-bucket1111" {
  bucket = "hts-l2-bucket111"
}

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resource "aws_s3_bucket" "hts-l2-bucket1111" {

bucket = "hts-l2-bucket111"

}

step3

Variable.tf

variable "inbound_ports" {
  default = [80, 443, 22]
}

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variable "inbound_ports" {

default = [80, 443, 22]

}

Userdata.sh

#!/usr/bin/bash
sudo apt-get update -y

sudo apt-get install -y docker.io
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

sudo apt install unzip
sudo curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
sudo unzip awscliv2.zip
sudo ./aws/install

sudo apt-get install s3fs -y

sudo mkdir /mnt/s3-bucket
cd /mnt/s3-bucket ;touch test1.txt test2.txt 

aws s3 sync /mnt/s3-bucket s3://hts-l2-bucket111

sudo s3fs hts-l2-bucket111 /mnt/s3-bucket -o iam_role=ec2-s3-access -o use_cache=/tmp -o allow_other -o uid=1001 -o mp_umask=002 -o multireq_max=5 -o use_path_request_style -o url=https://s3.amazonaws.com

sudo s3fs hts-l2-bucket111 /mnt/s3-bucket -o iam_role=ec2-s3-access -o use_cache=/tmp -o allow_other -o uid=1001 -o mp_umask=002 -o multireq_max=5 -o use_path_request_style -o url=https://s3.amazonaws.com -o dbglevel=info -f -o curldbg

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#!/usr/bin/bash

sudo apt-get update -y

sudo apt-get install -y docker.io

sudo systemctl start docker

sudo systemctl enable docker

sudo apt install unzip

sudo curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"

sudo unzip awscliv2.zip

sudo ./aws/install

sudo apt-get install s3fs -y

sudo mkdir /mnt/s3-bucket

cd /mnt/s3-bucket ;touch test1.txt test2.txt

aws s3 sync /mnt/s3-bucket s3://hts-l2-bucket111

sudo s3fs hts-l2-bucket111 /mnt/s3-bucket -o iam_role=ec2-s3-access -o use_cache=/tmp -o allow_other -o uid=1001 -o mp_umask=002 -o multireq_max=5 -o use_path_request_style -o url=https://s3.amazonaws.com

sudo s3fs hts-l2-bucket111 /mnt/s3-bucket -o iam_role=ec2-s3-access -o use_cache=/tmp -o allow_other -o uid=1001 -o mp_umask=002 -o multireq_max=5 -o use_path_request_style -o url=https://s3.amazonaws.com -o dbglevel=info -f -o curldbg

AWS IAM role

An AWS IAM role is attached to each Amazon EC2 instance to grant permissions for accessing the Amazon S3 bucket. This ensures secure and seamless integration without hardcoding credentials.

Attached is the AWS IAM role to Amazon EC2 instances:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "AllowS3Access",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:PutObject",
        "s3:DeleteObject",
        "s3:ListBucket"
      ],
      "Resource": [
        "arn:aws:s3:::${BUCKET_NAME}",
        "arn:aws:s3:::${BUCKET_NAME}/*"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

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{

"Version": "2012-10-17",

"Statement": [

{

"Sid": "AllowS3Access",

"Effect": "Allow",

"Action": [

"s3:GetObject",

"s3:PutObject",

"s3:DeleteObject",

"s3:ListBucket"

],

"Resource": [

"arn:aws:s3:::${BUCKET_NAME}",

"arn:aws:s3:::${BUCKET_NAME}/*"

]

}

]

}

Solution verification

Checking the Amazon EC2 instance has mounted the Amazon S3 bucket:

step4

Create a new file named test3.txt, add content, and verify its presence in the Amazon S3 bucket.

step5

step6

step7

step8

Key Benefits

High Availability: Deploying instances in separate availability zones ensures resilience against failures.
Centralized Storage: The Amazon S3 bucket is a single source of truth for all instances.
Automation: Terraform simplifies resource provisioning and ensures repeatability.

Common use cases

Hosting static website assets like HTML, CSS, and images directly from Amazon S3
Backing up application data from Amazon EC2 instances into durable Amazon S3 storage.
Storing large datasets for processing by containerized applications running on Amazon EC2.

Conclusion

By leveraging Terraform and AWS services like Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3, you can build resilient, cost-effective, scalable shared storage solutions. This architecture empowers developers to focus on application logic while benefiting from the scalability and durability of Amazon’s cloud infrastructure.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 or Terraform and we will get back to you quickly.

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