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Website on a LAMP or LEMP stack using Terraform

Written by
Updated at June 20, 2024

To create an infrastructure for a website on a LAMP or LEMP stack using Terraform:

  1. Prepare your cloud.
  2. Create an infrastructure.
  3. Upload the website files.
  4. Check that the website is running.

We will use the example.com domain name as an example.

If you no longer need the resources you created, delete them.

Prepare your cloud

Sign up for Yandex Cloud and create a billing account:

  1. Go to the management console and log in to Yandex Cloud or create an account if you do not have one yet.
  2. On the Yandex Cloud Billing page, make sure you have a billing account linked and it has the ACTIVE or TRIAL_ACTIVE status. If you do not have a billing account, create one.

If you have an active billing account, you can go to the cloud page to create or select a folder for your infrastructure to operate in.

Learn more about clouds and folders.

The cost of supporting the website infrastructure includes:

Create an infrastructure

Terraform allows you to quickly create a cloud infrastructure in Yandex Cloud and manage it using configuration files. Configuration files store the infrastructure description in the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). Terraform and its providers are distributed under the Business Source License.

For more information about the provider resources, see the documentation on the Terraform website or the mirror.

If you change the configuration files, Terraform automatically detects which part of your configuration is already deployed, and what should be added or removed.

To create an infrastructure using Terraform:

  1. Install Terraform and get the authentication data.

  2. Specify the source for installing the Yandex Cloud provider (see Configure a provider, step 1).

  3. Prepare files with the infrastructure description:

    1. Create a directory for files.
    2. Download the archive (1 KB).
    3. Unpack the archive to the directory. As a result, it should contain the lamp-lemp.tf configuration file and the lamp-lemp.auto.tfvars file with user data.

    1. Create a directory for the file with the infrastructure description.

    2. Create the lamp-lemp.tf configuration file in the directory:

      lamp-lemp.tf
      # Declaring variables for user-defined parameters

variable "zone" {
  type = string
}

variable "folder_id" {
  type = string
}

variable "vm_image_family" {
  type = string
}

variable "vm_user" {
  type = string
}

variable "ssh_key_path" {
  type = string
}

variable "dns_zone" {
  type = string
}

# Adding other variables

locals {
  network_name       = "web-network"
  subnet_name        = "subnet1"
  sg_vm_name         = "sg-web"
  vm_name            = "lamp-vm"
  dns_zone_name      = "example-zone"
}

# Provider configuration

terraform {
  required_providers {
    yandex    = {
      source  = "yandex-cloud/yandex"
      version = ">= 0.47.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "yandex" {
  folder_id = var.folder_id
}

# Creating a cloud network

resource "yandex_vpc_network" "network-1" {
  name = local.network_name
}

# Creating a subnet

resource "yandex_vpc_subnet" "subnet-1" {
  name           = local.subnet_name
  v4_cidr_blocks = ["192.168.1.0/24"]
  zone           = var.zone
  network_id     = yandex_vpc_network.network-1.id
}

# Creating a security group

resource "yandex_vpc_security_group" "sg-1" {
  name        = local.sg_vm_name
  network_id  = yandex_vpc_network.network-1.id
  egress {
    protocol       = "ANY"
    description    = "any"
    v4_cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
  }
  ingress {
    protocol       = "TCP"
    description    = "ext-http"
    v4_cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    port           = 80
  }
  ingress {
    protocol       = "TCP"
    description    = "ext-https"
    v4_cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    port           = 443
  }
}

# Adding a ready-to-use VM image

resource "yandex_compute_image" "lamp-vm-image" {
  source_family = var.vm_image_family
}

resource "yandex_compute_disk" "boot-disk" {
  name     = "bootvmdisk"
  type     = "network-hdd"
  zone     = "ru-central1-a"
  size     = "20"
  image_id = yandex_compute_image.lamp-vm-image.id
}

# Creating a VM

resource "yandex_compute_instance" "vm-lamp" {
  name        = local.vm_name
  platform_id = "standard-v3"
  zone        = var.zone
  resources {
    core_fraction = 20
    cores         = 2
    memory        = 1
  }
  boot_disk {
    disk_id = yandex_compute_disk.boot-disk.id
  }
  network_interface {
    subnet_id          = yandex_vpc_subnet.subnet-1.id
    nat                = true
    security_group_ids = [yandex_vpc_security_group.sg-1.id]
  }
  metadata = {
    user-data = "#cloud-config\nusers:\n  - name: ${var.vm_user}\n    groups: sudo\n    shell: /bin/bash\n    sudo: 'ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL'\n    ssh-authorized-keys:\n      - ${file("${var.ssh_key_path}")}"
  }
}

# Creating a DNS zone

resource "yandex_dns_zone" "zone1" {
  name    = local.dns_zone_name
  zone    = var.dns_zone
  public  = true
}

# Creating a type A resource record

resource "yandex_dns_recordset" "rs-a" {
  zone_id = yandex_dns_zone.zone1.id
  name    = var.dns_zone
  type    = "A"
  ttl     = 600
  data    = [ yandex_compute_instance.vm-lamp.network_interface.0.nat_ip_address ]
}

# Creating a CNAME resource record

resource "yandex_dns_recordset" "rs-cname" {
  zone_id = yandex_dns_zone.zone1.id
  name    = "www"
  type    = "CNAME"
  ttl     = 600
  data    = [ var.dns_zone ]
}

    3. In the directory, create the lamp-lemp.auto.tfvars file with user data:

      lamp-lemp.auto.tfvars
      zone               = "<availability_zone>"
folder_id          = "<folder_ID>"
vm_image_family    = "<VM_image_family>"
vm_user            = "<VM_username>"
ssh_key_path       = "<path_to_public_SSH_key>"
dns_zone           = "<DNS_zone>"

    For more information about the parameters of resources used in Terraform, see the provider documentation:

  4. In the lamp-lemp.auto.tfvars file, set the user-defined parameters:

    • zone: Availability zone that will host the VM.
    • folder_id: Folder ID.
    • family_id: Specify the family of one of the VM images with a relevant set of components:
      • lamp: LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL®, and PHP)
      • lemp: LEMP (Linux, Nginx, MySQL®, and PHP)
    • vm_user: VM username.
    • ssh_key_path: Path to the file with a public SSH key to authenticate the user on the VM. For more information, see Creating an SSH key pair.
    • dns_zone: DNS zone. Specify your registered domain with a period at the end, e.g., example.com..
      To get access to public zone domain names, you need to delegate the domain. Specify the addresses of the ns1.yandexcloud.net and ns2.yandexcloud.net servers in your personal dashboard at your registrar.

  5. Create resources:

    1. In the terminal, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.

    2. Make sure the configuration file is correct using the command:

      terraform validate

      If the configuration is correct, the following message is returned:

      Success! The configuration is valid.

    3. Run the command:

      terraform plan

      The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes are made at this step. If the configuration contains errors, Terraform will point them out.

    4. Apply the configuration changes:

      terraform apply

    5. Confirm the changes: type yes in the terminal and press Enter.

  6. Get the public IP address of the VM: you will need it later to upload the website files.

After creating the infrastructure, upload the website files.

Upload the website files

To test the web server, upload the index.html file to the VM. You can use a test file. Download and unzip the archive.

  1. Under Network on the VM page in the management console, find the VM's public IP address.

  2. Connect to the VM via SSH.

  3. Grant your user write access to the /var/www/html directory:

    sudo chown -R "$USER":www-data /var/www/html

  4. Upload the website files to the VM via SCP.

    Use the scp command-line utility:

    scp -r <path_to_file_directory> <VM_username>@<VM_IP_address>:/var/www/html

    Use WinSCP to copy the local file directory to /var/www/html on the VM.

After uploading the files, check that the website is up and running.

Check that the website is up and running

To test the site, enter its IP or domain name in your browser:

  • http://<public_IP_of_VM>
  • http://www.example.com

How to delete the resources you created

To stop paying for the resources you created:

  1. Open the lamp-lemp.tf configuration file and delete from it the description of the infrastructure you created.

  2. Apply the changes:

    1. In the terminal, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.

    2. Make sure the configuration file is correct using the command:

      terraform validate

      If the configuration is correct, the following message is returned:

      Success! The configuration is valid.

    3. Run the command:

      terraform plan

      The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes are made at this step. If the configuration contains errors, Terraform will point them out.

    4. Apply the configuration changes:

      terraform apply

    5. Confirm the changes: type yes in the terminal and press Enter.

See also

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