Section 8: Deploying Cloud9 Terraform Workstation

In this section, you will deploy an AWS Cloud9 environment using a CloudFormation template.

This Cloud9 environment will be used as the Terraform workstation for the FortiGate Auto Scaling Group deployment.

AWS Cloud9 is used because it provides a browser-based development environment where students can run AWS CLI, Git, and Terraform commands from the same AWS account used for the lab.

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Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Launch the Cloud9 New VPC CloudFormation template.
• Deploy a Cloud9 Terraform workstation.
• Open the Cloud9 environment.
• Verify/Install Terraform availability before continuing with the Auto Scaling Group deployment.

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Before You Begin

Confirm that you have completed the previous sections and have the following information from your instructor:

Important: Use the same AWS region throughout the lab.

AWS region will be used:

eu-central-1

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8.1 Launch the Cloud9 CloudFormation Stack

Click the Launch Stack button below:

Confirm that the CloudFormation page opens in:

eu-central-1

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8.2 Configure Stack Parameters

On the CloudFormation Quick create stack page, review the stack details.

Use the following naming convention:

student<number>-Cloud9-New-VPC

Example:

student01-Cloud9-New-VPC

Unless your instructor provides different values, keep the default values from the template.

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8.3 Create the Stack

1. Review the stack configuration.

2. Confirm that:

   • Region is eu-central-1.
   • Stack name follows the student naming convention.
   • Cloud9 environment name is unique.
   • Default template parameters are kept unless instructed otherwise.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the page.

4. If CloudFormation shows an IAM acknowledgement checkbox, select it:

   I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names.

5. Click:

Create stack

6. Wait until the stack status becomes:

   CREATE_COMPLETE

This may take several minutes.

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8.4 Open the Cloud9 Environment

After the stack reaches CREATE_COMPLETE:

1. Open the AWS Console search bar.

2. Search for and open:

Cloud9

3. Find the Cloud9 environment created by the stack.

4. Click:

Open

Wait for the Cloud9 IDE to load.

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8.5 Install Terraform

Run the following commands in Cloud9 IDE:

mkdir -p ~/bin ~/terraform-install
cd ~/terraform-install

Set the Terraform version.

TERRAFORM_VERSION="1.15.6"

Detect the Cloud9 CPU architecture.

ARCH="$(uname -m)"

if [ "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ]; then
  TF_ARCH="amd64"
elif [ "$ARCH" = "aarch64" ]; then
  TF_ARCH="arm64"
else
  echo "Unsupported architecture: $ARCH"
fi

echo "Detected architecture: $ARCH"
echo "Terraform package architecture: $TF_ARCH"

Download the Terraform binary package.

curl -fsSLO "https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/${TERRAFORM_VERSION}/terraform_${TERRAFORM_VERSION}_linux_${TF_ARCH}.zip"

Unzip Terraform.

unzip -o "terraform_${TERRAFORM_VERSION}_linux_${TF_ARCH}.zip"

Move Terraform to your Cloud9 user binary directory.

mv terraform ~/bin/
chmod +x ~/bin/terraform

Add ~/bin to your PATH.

export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"

Make the PATH update persistent for future Cloud9 sessions.

grep -qxF 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' ~/.bashrc || echo 'export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc

Verify Terraform installation.

terraform version

Expected result:

Terraform v1.15.6

Checkpoint

Before continuing, confirm that:

• The Cloud9 environment is open.
• AWS region is eu-central-1.
• Terraform is installed.
• You are ready to run Terraform commands from Cloud9.

You are now ready to continue with the Terraform deployment section.

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