Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Terraform, AWS CLI, and Your AWS Environment

Setting up a proper Terraform environment is the first critical step in working with Infrastructure as Code (IaC). A correct setup ensures smooth deployments, secure authentication, and efficient workflow when managing cloud resources. 1. Creating and Securing an AWS Account I started by setting up my AWS account and immediately secured it: Enabled Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on the root account Configured billing alerts to avoid unexpected charges Instead of using the root account for daily operations, I created an IAM user with programmatic access. This is important because root credentials have unrestricted access and pose a major security risk. 2. Installing and Configuring AWS CLI Next, I installed the AWS CLI and configured it using: aws configure I provided: Access Key ID Secret Access Key Default region (I chose us-east-1) Output format (json) To confirm everything worked: aws sts get-caller-identity This returned my IAM user details, confirming successful authentication.