Terraform Fundamentals: Cloud9
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Terraform Fundamentals: Cloud9

Publish Date: Jun 21
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Terraform and AWS Cloud9: A Production Deep Dive

Infrastructure teams often face the challenge of providing developers with on-demand, pre-configured IDE environments. Spinning up full VMs for each developer is resource-intensive and slow. Traditional approaches involving bastion hosts and SSH are cumbersome and introduce security concerns. AWS Cloud9 offers a compelling solution: browser-based IDEs with direct access to AWS resources, eliminating the need for local development environments or complex VPN configurations. This post details how to manage Cloud9 environments effectively using Terraform, focusing on production-grade implementations and best practices. Cloud9 fits into IaC pipelines as a core component of developer tooling, often integrated with CI/CD systems for automated environment provisioning and managed by platform engineering teams.

What is Cloud9 in a Terraform Context?

AWS Cloud9 is managed through the aws provider in Terraform. The primary resource is aws_cloud9_ec2_environment. This resource allows you to define and manage Cloud9 environments tied to specific EC2 instances. It’s crucial to understand that Cloud9 environments are EC2 instances under the hood, meaning you’re responsible for the underlying infrastructure (AMI, instance type, security groups, etc.).

The aws_cloud9_ec2_environment resource has a complex lifecycle. Terraform manages the environment creation and configuration, but the Cloud9 service itself handles the IDE setup and user access. A key caveat is that deleting the Terraform resource does not automatically terminate the underlying EC2 instance. You must explicitly configure terminate_instance_on_delete to true to ensure complete cleanup.

AWS Cloud9 Terraform Provider Documentation

Use Cases and When to Use

  1. Centralized Developer Environments: Providing a consistent, pre-configured development environment for all engineers, reducing “works on my machine” issues. SREs benefit from standardized troubleshooting environments.
  2. Data Science Workstations: Provisioning powerful, on-demand workstations for data scientists with pre-installed libraries and tools. This avoids the overhead of managing individual workstations.
  3. Training Environments: Quickly creating isolated environments for training purposes, ensuring learners have a clean slate and consistent setup.
  4. Incident Response: Rapidly deploying isolated environments for incident investigation, minimizing the risk of impacting production systems. DevOps engineers can automate this process.
  5. Cross-Region Development: Enabling developers to work on resources in different AWS regions without needing to configure local environments for each region.

Key Terraform Resources

  1. aws_ec2_instance: The foundation for the Cloud9 environment. 
   resource "aws_ec2_instance" "cloud9_instance" {
     ami           = "ami-0c55b999999999999" # Replace with a suitable AMI

     instance_type = "t3.medium"
     key_name      = "my-key-pair"
     tags = {
       Name = "Cloud9-Dev-Env"
     }
   }
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  1. aws_cloud9_ec2_environment: The core Cloud9 resource. 
   resource "aws_cloud9_ec2_environment" "dev_env" {
     name             = "my-dev-environment"
     instance_type    = aws_ec2_instance.cloud9_instance.instance_type
     automatic_stop_time_minutes = 60
     owner_arn        = data.aws_caller_identity.current.arn
     connection_type  = "SSH"
   }
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  1. data.aws_caller_identity: Retrieves the current AWS account ID and ARN. 
   data "aws_caller_identity" "current" {}
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  1. aws_security_group: Controls network access to the Cloud9 environment. 
   resource "aws_security_group" "cloud9_sg" {
     name        = "cloud9-sg"
     description = "Security group for Cloud9 environments"
     vpc_id      = "vpc-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" # Replace with your VPC ID

     ingress {
       from_port   = 22
       to_port     = 22
       protocol    = "tcp"
       cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"] # Restrict this in production!

     }
   }
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  1. aws_key_pair: Used for SSH access (if connection_type is "SSH"). 
   resource "aws_key_pair" "deployer" {
     key_name   = "my-key-pair"
     public_key = "ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQ..."
   }
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  1. aws_iam_role & aws_iam_policy: Granting necessary permissions to the Cloud9 environment. 
   resource "aws_iam_role" "cloud9_role" {
     name = "Cloud9Role"
     assume_role_policy = jsonencode({
       Version = "2012-10-17",
       Statement = [
         {
           Action = "sts:AssumeRole",
           Principal = {
             Service = "cloud9.amazonaws.com"
           },
           Effect = "Allow",
           Sid = ""
         },
       ]
     })
   }

   resource "aws_iam_policy" "cloud9_policy" {
     name        = "Cloud9Policy"
     description = "Policy for Cloud9 environments"
     policy      = jsonencode({
       Version = "2012-10-17",
       Statement = [
         {
           Action = [
             "s3:GetObject",
             "s3:PutObject",
             "s3:ListBucket"
           ],
           Effect   = "Allow",
           Resource = ["arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*"] # Replace

         },
       ]
     })
   }

   resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "cloud9_attachment" {
     role       = aws_iam_role.cloud9_role.name
     policy_arn = aws_iam_policy.cloud9_policy.arn
   }
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  1. aws_vpc & aws_subnet: Defining the network infrastructure. 
   resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
     cidr_block = "10.0.0.0/16"
     tags = {
       Name = "main-vpc"
     }
   }

   resource "aws_subnet" "public_subnet" {
     vpc_id     = aws_vpc.main.id
     cidr_block = "10.0.1.0/24"
     availability_zone = "us-east-1a"
     map_public_ip_on_launch = true
     tags = {
       Name = "public-subnet"
     }
   }
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  1. aws_cloud9_environment_ec2: Allows associating an existing EC2 instance with a Cloud9 environment. Useful for migrating existing instances. 
   resource "aws_cloud9_environment_ec2" "existing_env" {
     name             = "existing-cloud9-env"
     instance_id      = aws_ec2_instance.cloud9_instance.id
     owner_arn        = data.aws_caller_identity.current.arn
   }
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Common Patterns & Modules

  • Remote Backend: Always use a remote backend (S3 with DynamoDB locking) for state management.
  • Dynamic Blocks: Use dynamic blocks within aws_security_group to manage ingress rules based on variables.
  • for_each: Provision multiple environments using for_each based on a map of configurations.
  • Monorepo: A monorepo structure is ideal for managing Cloud9 configurations alongside other infrastructure components.
  • Layered Approach: Separate core infrastructure (VPC, subnets, security groups) from application-specific configurations (Cloud9 environments).
  • Environment-Based Folders: Organize configurations into folders based on environment (dev, staging, prod).

Hands-On Tutorial

This example creates a basic Cloud9 environment.

main.tf:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1" # Replace with your region

}

data "aws_caller_identity" "current" {}

resource "aws_ec2_instance" "cloud9_instance" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b999999999999" # Replace with a suitable AMI

  instance_type = "t3.medium"
  key_name      = "my-key-pair" # Replace with your key pair

  tags = {
    Name = "Cloud9-Dev-Env"
  }
}

resource "aws_cloud9_ec2_environment" "dev_env" {
  name             = "my-dev-environment"
  instance_type    = aws_ec2_instance.cloud9_instance.instance_type
  automatic_stop_time_minutes = 60
  owner_arn        = data.aws_caller_identity.current.arn
  connection_type  = "SSH"
}
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terraform init
terraform plan (Review the plan carefully!)
terraform apply

Output will show the Cloud9 environment being created. You'll receive a link to access the IDE.

terraform destroy (This will not terminate the EC2 instance unless terminate_instance_on_delete = true is set in the aws_cloud9_ec2_environment resource.)

Enterprise Considerations

Large organizations leverage Terraform Cloud/Enterprise for state management, remote operations, and collaboration. Sentinel or Open Policy Agent (OPA) are used for policy-as-code, enforcing security and compliance rules. IAM roles are meticulously designed with least privilege in mind. State locking is critical to prevent concurrent modifications. Multi-region deployments require careful consideration of data replication and network latency. Costs can be significant, especially with larger instance types and long-running environments.

Security and Compliance

  • Least Privilege: Grant only the necessary permissions to the Cloud9 IAM role.
  • RBAC: Control access to Terraform workspaces and Cloud9 environments using IAM policies.
  • Policy Constraints: Use Sentinel or OPA to enforce tagging policies, instance type restrictions, and other compliance requirements.
  • Drift Detection: Regularly run terraform plan to detect configuration drift.
  • Tagging Policies: Enforce consistent tagging for cost allocation and resource management.
  • Auditability: Integrate Terraform logs with a security information and event management (SIEM) system.

Integration with Other Services 

graph LR
    A[Terraform] --> B(AWS Cloud9);
    A --> C(AWS S3);
    A --> D(AWS CodeCommit/GitHub);
    A --> E(AWS IAM);
    A --> F(AWS VPC);
    B --> C;
    B --> E;
    B --> F;
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  1. AWS S3: Cloud9 environments often use S3 for storing code and data. 
   resource "aws_s3_bucket" "cloud9_bucket" {
     bucket = "my-cloud9-bucket"
   }
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  1. AWS CodeCommit/GitHub: Source code repositories are integrated with Cloud9 for version control.
  2. AWS IAM: IAM roles and policies control access to AWS resources from within Cloud9. (See example above)
  3. AWS VPC: Cloud9 environments are launched within a VPC, providing network isolation. (See example above)
  4. AWS Lambda: Cloud9 can be used to develop and deploy Lambda functions.

Module Design Best Practices

  • Abstraction: Encapsulate Cloud9 environment creation within a reusable module.
  • Input Variables: Define clear input variables for customization (instance type, AMI, security groups, etc.).
  • Output Variables: Export key information (environment URL, instance ID) as output variables.
  • Locals: Use locals to simplify complex expressions.
  • Backends: Configure a remote backend for state management.
  • Documentation: Provide comprehensive documentation for the module.

CI/CD Automation

.github/workflows/deploy.yml (GitHub Actions example):

name: Deploy Cloud9 Environment

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v2
      - run: terraform fmt
      - run: terraform validate
      - run: terraform plan -out=tfplan
      - run: terraform apply tfplan
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Pitfalls & Troubleshooting

  1. EC2 Instance Not Terminating: Ensure terminate_instance_on_delete = true is set.
  2. SSH Access Issues: Verify key pair configuration and security group rules.
  3. IAM Permissions Errors: Double-check the IAM role and policies.
  4. Cloud9 Environment Stuck in "Creating" State: Check Cloud9 service health and AWS CloudTrail logs.
  5. Network Connectivity Problems: Verify VPC configuration, subnet routing, and security group rules.
  6. State Corruption: Implement robust state locking and backup procedures.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Centralized, pre-configured development environments.
  • Reduced infrastructure overhead.
  • Improved security and compliance.
  • Faster developer onboarding.

Cons:

  • Underlying EC2 instance costs.
  • Complexity of managing EC2 infrastructure.
  • Potential for vendor lock-in.
  • Requires careful IAM configuration.

Conclusion

Terraform-managed AWS Cloud9 environments offer a powerful solution for providing developers with on-demand, secure, and consistent IDEs. By adopting best practices for module design, CI/CD automation, and security, organizations can streamline their development workflows and improve overall efficiency. Start with a proof-of-concept, evaluate existing modules, and integrate Cloud9 provisioning into your CI/CD pipeline to unlock its full potential.

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