• terraform-aws-automation-solutions
  • Introduction
  • aws-codedeploy-zips
  • aws-stig-hardened-amis
    • STIG Component Naming Scheme
    • Parent Image Naming Scheme
    • Expanding the Automation
      • Exact AMI Build Invocation
      • Clean Up Old AMIs

terraform-aws-automation-solutions

HCL workflows which will deploy AWS resources through Terraform to automate tasks

Introduction

The goal of this repository is to provide solutions for key AWS automation needs and/or Terraform dynamic coding challenges. I will try to keep the cost, dependencies, deployed resources, and maintenance succinct in that general order of importance. I may discuss ways in which you can further expand on the automation and I may also provide those solutions if asked.

aws-codedeploy-zips

Used to dynamically define and generate codedeploy zip files en masse. For every directory under [aws-codedeploy-zips/codedeploy](aws-codedeploy-zips/codedeploy, we will generate a zip file whose contents are all the files under that directory with its terraform variable calls filled out.

Depends On

• S3 Bucket - Any bucket will do. Needed to store the codedeploy zip files

aws-stig-hardened-amis

Used to dynamically deploy "n" amis where "n" = # of objects defined in var.ami_specs

Depends On

• VPC - Default VPC should exist, though not recommended
• Security Group - Default SG should exist, though not recommended

Deploys

• IAM Role - EC2ImageBuilderInstanceRole
• Image Builder Pipeline - <parent_image>-pipeline*n
  • Image Builder Recipe - <parent_image>-recipe*n
  • Image Builder Infrastructure Configuration - <parent_image>-infra-config*n
  • Image Builder Distribution Configuration - <parent_image>-distrib-config*n

STIG Component Naming Scheme

stig-build-<platform>-<severity>
e.g. stig-build-windows-medium

Severity	Platform
low	linux
medium	windows
high

Parent Image Naming Scheme

<base platform>-<type>-<CPU architecture>
e.g. windows-server-2019-english-full-sql-2019-enterprise-x86 or amazon-linux-2023-ecs-optimized-arm64

Base Name	Type	CPU Architecture
amazon-linux-2	ecs-optimized	x86
amazon-linux-2023	ecs-optimized-kernel-5	arm64
windows-server-2016	english-full-base
windows-server-2019	english-full-sql-2019-enterprise
windows-server 2022	english-core-base

Expanding the Automation

Exact AMI Build Invocation

If all you care about are AWS AMIs, then for a small/non-existent uptick in costs, you can build about the latest AMI immediately rather than utilizing Image Builder cron jobs/image publishing schedule (which lags 0-4 days behind the AMI release schedule).

1. Create an EventBridge rule which can trigger the Image Builder Pipeline

2. Create a Lambda function which PutEvents when triggered

3. Create a SNS Subscription to one of these SNS Topics and to invoke the lambda function

   Platform	Topic ARN
   Windows	"arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:801119661308:ec2-windows-ami-update"
   Amazon Linux 2	"arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:137112412989:amazon-linux-2-ami-updates"
   Amazon Linux 2023	"arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:137112412989:amazon-linux-2023-ami-updates"

Clean Up Old AMIs

Amazon deprecates their AMIs every 4 build cycles. This is a good habit to have as it'll clean up used EBS storage, remove clutter from AMI list and prevent careless mistakes from using an old AMI.

1. EventBridge rule triggers on Image Builder completion
2. Sends event to Lambda function which will parse for name of <parent_image> in pipeline finished event
3. If pipeline images >4, Lambda will deregister the oldest AMI, delete its snapshot, and delete the corresponding Image Builder Image version.