Deploying a Web Server on AWS Using Terraform (Beginner-Friendly Guide)

As I started preparing for cloud support roles, I decided to learn Terraform and that’s where things got interesting. I thought deploying a web server would be straightforward, but once I actually started, I realized I didn’t fully understand what I was doing. Things kept breaking. My SSH key wasn’t working. My user data script failed because of a small file name issue. And at some point, I was just staring at errors wondering what I missed.Instead of jumping around looking for quick fixes, I slowed down and decided to understand each part properly.This project became my way of learning Terraform, not just using it. I wasn’t trying to build anything complex.I just wanted to launch a simple EC2 instance and have a web server running on it. The goal was simple: Install Nginx automatically Open port 80 so I can access it from my browser Restrict SSH (port 22) to only my IP I opened it in VS Code and created a new folder for the project in the terminal. Then I created my Terraform files, s