Cloud Architecture Design and Deployment with Terraform
Secure and scalable cloud infrastructure with Public, Private, and Secure subnets
Project Overview
Designed and deployed a secure and scalable cloud architecture using Terraform, featuring three subnet types: Public, Private, and Secure. This architecture includes a highly available Load Balancer, an Auto Scaling Group (ASG) for the application tier, and a secure RDS instance for the database tier. Additionally, VPC Flow Logs were enabled for monitoring and troubleshooting. The infrastructure was built using a custom golden VM image created with Packer for consistent deployments.
Architecture Components
1. Subnet Design
The architecture implements a three-tier subnet strategy for optimal security and connectivity:
- Public Subnets: Routes traffic through an Internet Gateway for inbound and outbound internet access.
- Private Subnets: Utilizes a NAT Gateway for secure outbound internet access while blocking inbound internet traffic.
- Secure Subnets: Completely isolated from both Internet Gateway and NAT Gateway, ensuring maximum security for sensitive resources.
2. Load Balancer
Key features of the load balancing solution:
- Deployed in Public subnets across two Availability Zones (AZs) for high availability
- Configured with listeners and target groups to route traffic to the application tier
- Implements health checks to ensure traffic only reaches healthy instances
3. Auto Scaling Group (ASG)
The application tier deployment strategy:
- Deployed in Private subnets across two AZs
- Ensures no public IPs are assigned to instances
- Access enabled via AWS Systems Manager (SSM) for secure management
- Configured with desired, minimum, and maximum instance counts set to 1 for cost optimization
- Uses custom golden AMI created with Packer for consistent deployments
4. RDS Database
Secure database implementation:
- Deployed in the Secure subnet to reduce costs and enhance security
- Configured for restricted access, allowing only the application tier to communicate with the database
- Multi-AZ deployment option available for production environments
5. Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Implemented comprehensive monitoring:
- Enabled VPC Flow Logs to capture and analyze application traffic
- CloudWatch metrics for performance monitoring
- Configured alarms for critical events
Key Features
Security Implementation
Multiple security layers implemented:
- Network segmentation with Public, Private, and Secure subnets
- Security groups with least-privilege access rules
- No public IPs assigned to application or database instances
- Secure access to instances via AWS Systems Manager
- Database tier completely isolated from internet
High Availability
Designed for fault tolerance:
- Load Balancer distributed across multiple AZs
- Auto Scaling Group spans multiple AZs
- Option for Multi-AZ RDS deployment
- Stateless application design for horizontal scaling
Infrastructure as Code
Terraform implementation details:
- Modular design for reusable components
- Variables for environment-specific configurations
- State management with remote backend
- Version-controlled infrastructure definitions
- Automated provisioning workflow
Golden Image with Packer
Custom VM image benefits:
- Consistent environment for all deployments
- Pre-configured with necessary software and security patches
- Reduced deployment time
- Versioned images for rollback capability
- Automated build process
Architecture Diagram
Key Achievements
- Designed and implemented a secure three-tier cloud architecture
- Automated infrastructure deployment using Terraform
- Created custom golden images with Packer for consistent deployments
- Implemented proper network segmentation for security
- Configured high availability components (Load Balancer, ASG)
- Enabled comprehensive monitoring with VPC Flow Logs
- Deployed PetClinic Java-based application in the architecture
- Documented the infrastructure design and deployment process
Work Samples
Terraform Screenshots
2 images