Infrastructure as Code Cookbook

Creating and using an SSH key pair to use on AWS

Now we have our AWS provider configured in Terraform, let's add a SSH key pair to use on a default account of the virtual machines we intend to launch soon.

Getting ready

To step through this recipe, you will need the following:

• A working Terraform installation
• An AWS provider configured in Terraform
• Generate a pair of SSH keys somewhere you remember, for example, in the keys folder at the root of your repo:

  $ mkdir keys
  $ ssh-keygen -q -f keys/aws_terraform -C aws_terraform_ssh_key -N ''
  

• An Internet connection

How to do it…

The resource we want for this is named aws_key_pair. Let's use it inside a keys.tf file, and paste the public key content:

resource "aws_key_pair" "admin_key" { key_name = "admin_key" ...