Ansible Playbook Execution with Extra Variables

Access and Permissions

• The Terraform user requires programmatic access to connect to AWS resources, which allows the user to access AWS resources programmatically using access keys.
• Programmatic access allows the Terraform user to perform actions such as deploying EC2 instances and managing IAM policies.
• In a production environment, the Terraform user should be given the minimum permission level required to perform the necessary actions, following the principle of least privilege.
• The minimum permission level required to deploy an EC2 instance is the ability to create and manage EC2 instances, which is typically granted by the EC2FullAccess policy.

Assigning Permissions

• The recommended approach for assigning permissions in a production environment is to use the principle of least privilege, where the Terraform user is given only the necessary permissions to perform the required actions.
• In the lab exercises, the Terraform user can be assigned the AdministratorAccess policy, which grants all permissions.

Managing IAM Policies

• IAM policies can be managed in Terraform using the IAM policy resource.
• The principle of least privilege should be followed when assigning permissions in a production environment, by granting only the necessary permissions to the Terraform user.
• A custom IAM policy may be needed to deploy only the required resources in a production environment.

Terraform Installation and Usage

• Terraform can be installed using AWS CloudShell, which provides a managed environment for Terraform.
• The terraform --version command can be used to check the version of Terraform installed on the staging server.
• One advantage of using the staging server to perform Terraform work is that it provides a separate environment for testing and validation.

Additional Notes

• Before deploying a FortiGate VM from Terraform, the necessary permissions and dependencies must be in place.
• An IAM user with the required permission must be assigned explicit permissions to access AWS resources.
• The terraform init command is used to initialize the Terraform working directory.
• The purpose of the IAM user with the required permission on AWS is to provide a secure and managed way to access AWS resources.
• One advantage of using CloudShell to run Terraform is that it provides a managed environment for Terraform.