A concise reference to a basic setup of Terraform

A reference for getting Terraform ready to manage AWS resources on a fresh machine. Covers installing dependencies, configuring the AWS CLI, and running the basic Terraform workflow of init, plan, and apply.

📦Prerequisites

Before running Terraform you need:

An AWS account with programmatic access enabled.
The AWS CLI installed and configured.
Terraform installed on your machine.
An IAM user for Terraform with appropriate permissions.

🛠️Install Tools

Install AWS CLI

Download from AWS or install via your package manager.

bash

# Linux/macOS
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o awscliv2.zip
unzip awscliv2.zip && sudo ./aws/install
aws --version

# Windows (PowerShell, with Chocolatey)
choco install awscli
aws --version

Install Terraform

bash

# macOS with Homebrew
brew tap hashicorp/tap
brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform

# Windows (PowerShell, with Chocolatey)
choco install terraform

terraform -version

🔑Configure AWS Profile

Set up a dedicated profile for Terraform. This keeps its credentials isolated from other AWS use.

bash

aws configure --profile terraform-user
# Paste Access Key + Secret
# Default region: af-south-1 (or your chosen region)
# Output format: json

ℹ️

Use aws sts get-caller-identity to confirm the profile works and shows the correct account ID.

🚀Run Terraform

Set environment variables

bash

# Bash
export AWS_PROFILE=terraform-user
export AWS_REGION=af-south-1

# PowerShell
$env:AWS_PROFILE = "terraform-user"
$env:AWS_REGION  = "af-south-1"

2
Initialize Terraform
bash
```
terraform init -reconfigure
```
3
Review the plan
bash
```
terraform plan
```
4
Apply the changes
bash
```
terraform apply
# Confirm with "yes"
```

🐛Troubleshooting

waiting for S3 Bucket ... create: empty result: Often a propagation delay in opt-in regions. Check if the bucket exists with aws s3api list-buckets.
Cannot import non-existent remote object: Usually region/profile mismatch or missing IAM permissions (add s3:GetBucket* actions).
AccessDenied: The error text names the missing IAM action - add it to your Terraform user policy.

Filed under: Terraform, AWS, Infrastructure as Code, S3, Setup Guide