Setting Up the First Group of Resouces VPC

In this guide, we’ll walk through provisioning an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) using a community-maintained Terraform module and Terragrunt. By the end, you’ll have a reusable Terragrunt configuration for deploying VPCs across multiple environments (e.g., development, production) with consistency and best practices.

Overview

We’ll leverage a Terraform Registry module for AWS VPC creation, which offers a battle-tested, configurable blueprint. Terragrunt will orchestrate calls to Terraform, handling remote state and DRY configurations for each environment.

Key benefits:

• Reuse and standardization via community module
• Automated remote state management
• Environment-specific inputs for custom network topologies

Prerequisites

• Terraform v1.0+ installed
• Terragrunt v0.35+ installed
• AWS CLI configured with appropriate IAM permissions

Terragrunt Directory Layout

Create a directory structure like:

infrastructure/
└── live/
    ├── development/
    │   └── vpc/
    │       └── terragrunt.hcl
    └── production/
        └── vpc/
            └── terragrunt.hcl

Each terragrunt.hcl will reference the community VPC module and supply environment-specific variables.

terragrunt.hcl Example

Below is a minimal terragrunt.hcl for the development environment:

terraform {
  source = "git::https://github.com/terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-vpc.git?ref=v3.14.2"
}

include {
  path = find_in_parent_folders()
}

inputs = {
  name                 = "dev-vpc"
  cidr                 = "10.0.0.0/16"
  azs                  = ["us-east-1a", "us-east-1b"]
  public_subnets       = ["10.0.1.0/24", "10.0.2.0/24"]
  private_subnets      = ["10.0.101.0/24", "10.0.102.0/24"]
  enable_dns_hostnames = true
  tags = {
    Environment = "development"
    Project     = "networking"
  }
}

Deployment Steps

1. Change into your environment’s VPC directory:

   cd infrastructure/live/development/vpc
   

2. Initialize Terragrunt (which bootstraps Terraform modules and remote state):

   terragrunt init
   

3. Preview the planned changes:

   terragrunt plan
   

4. Apply the configuration to create/update the VPC:

   terragrunt apply
   

Next Steps

• Repeat the terragrunt apply process for the production directory.
• Integrate other network components (NAT gateways, security groups).
• Reference Terraform AWS VPC module documentation for advanced options.

Links and References

• Terraform AWS VPC Module
• Terragrunt Documentation
• AWS VPC Concepts