Week 6 ‐ 24.03.2025 ‐ 30.03.2025 - Campus-Castolo/m300 GitHub Wiki

Week 6 - 24.03.2025 ‐ 30.03.2025

Week 6 - 24.03.2025 ‐ 30.03.2025 - Task list

Task Description Notes Status Start Date Completion Date Hours Needed
Refactor Terraform Infrastructure Code Break down monolithic file into multiple modular files Improves readability & maintainability ✅ 25.03.2025 27.03.2025 3 Hrs
Research Secret Management for Terraform Learn best practices for storing secrets securely in tfvars/variables.tf Focus on credentials and DB passwords ✅ 25.03.2025 25.03.2025 1.5 Hrs
ECS Docker Task Definition + Public Access Use Docker image in ECS and make the WordPress site accessible Switched from EC2 to Fargate ✅ 26.03.2025 28.03.2025 4 Hrs
Refactor ECS Setup from EC2 to Fargate Use Fargate for serverless container orchestration Simplifies management, aligns with AWS best practice ✅ 27.03.2025 28.03.2025 2 Hrs

Daily Log 25.03.2025

Daily Log 25.03.2025 - Activity

Task Description Notes Status Start Date Completion Date Hours Needed
Refactor Terraform Infrastructure Code Split monolithic .tf file into logical separate modules Improved overview of infrastructure setup ✅ 25.03.2025 27.03.2025 3 Hrs
Research Secret Management in Terraform Investigated ways to securely manage environment secrets Compared .tfvars vs environment variables ✅ 25.03.2025 25.03.2025 1.5 Hrs

Daily Log 25.03.2025 - Summary

Today I focused on improving the structure of my Terraform infrastructure code. I split the original single .tf file into 7 smaller and more organized files:

  • infrastructure-ecs.tf
  • infrastructure-ecr.tf
  • infrastructure-vpc.tf
  • infrastructure-rds.tf
  • infrastructure-sec.tf
  • infrastructure-cloudwatch.tf
  • infrastructure-alb.tf

I also spent some time researching best practices around environment secret management within Terraform. I discovered that sensitive variables should be stored in .tfvars and declared with sensitive = true in variables.tf. I also noted that storing secrets directly in .tf files or GitHub repos is not secure.

Daily Log 28.03.2025

Daily Log 28.03.2025 - Activity

Task Description Notes Status Start Date Completion Date Hours Needed
ECS Docker Task + Public Access Finalized ECS Task Definition using WordPress Docker image Site is now accessible publicly ✅ 26.03.2025 28.03.2025 4 Hrs
Switched from EC2 to Fargate Updated ECS setup to use Fargate instead of EC2 Serverless, more scalable setup ✅ 27.03.2025 28.03.2025 2 Hrs

Daily Log 28.03.2025 - Summary

I completed the ECS task that had been left unfinished in Week 5. The WordPress Docker container is now deployed and publicly accessible via Fargate. I initially ran into a few issues with port mappings and IAM roles, but those were resolved after referencing the AWS Fargate docs.

Switching from EC2 to Fargate significantly simplified the setup, removing the need for EC2 instance management and improving the scalability of the deployment.

Weekly Summary - 24.03.2025 - 30.03.2025

This week was focused on refactoring and completing unfinished infrastructure tasks. I modularized the Terraform code into logical files to improve readability and maintainability. I also completed the deployment of the WordPress container using ECS and made the service publicly accessible by switching from EC2 to a cleaner, serverless Fargate setup. Additionally, I researched secure secret management practices in Terraform to ensure that environment variables are handled appropriately going forward.

Weekly Summary - 24.03.2025 - 30.03.2025 - Activity

Task Description Status Completion Date Hours Spent
Refactor Terraform Infrastructure Code Broke up large .tf into modular files ✅ 27.03.2025 3 Hrs
Research Secret Management for Terraform Explored secure storage of sensitive variables ✅ 25.03.2025 1.5 Hrs
ECS Docker Task Definition + Public Access WordPress container now accessible via public ALB ✅ 28.03.2025 4 Hrs
ECS Setup Refactor to Fargate Replaced EC2-backed ECS service with Fargate ✅ 28.03.2025 2 Hrs

Weekly Summary - 24.03.2025 - 30.03.2025 - Weekly Results

  • ✅ Terraform infrastructure now split into 7 clearly defined files.
  • ✅ WordPress service now fully deployed and accessible using ECS Fargate.
  • ✅ Introduced serverless container orchestration (Fargate).
  • ✅ Improved understanding of secret management in Terraform using sensitive variables and .tfvars.

Weekly Summary - 24.03.2025 - 30.03.2025 - Problems

  • Misconfigured ECS task role permissions at first — resolved by updating IAM roles.
  • Initially forgot to open port 80 in the security group, blocking ALB access.
  • Needed to manually reinitialize Terraform when switching from EC2 to Fargate.

Weekly Summary - 24.03.2025 - 30.03.2025 - Open Questions

  • How can I further automate secret injection in Terraform deployments securely?
  • Should I start using Terraform modules for each major infrastructure component?
  • Would it make sense to include testing/validation workflows after terraform apply?
last revised on 30.03.2025 Note: after renaming of wiki page only 1 revision remains