terraform/website/source/docs/providers/aws/index.html.markdown

layout	page_title	sidebar_current	description
aws	Provider: AWS	docs-aws-index	The Amazon Web Services (AWS) provider is used to interact with the many resources supported by AWS. The provider needs to be configured with the proper credentials before it can be used.

AWS Provider

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) provider is used to interact with the many resources supported by AWS. The provider needs to be configured with the proper credentials before it can be used.

Use the navigation to the left to read about the available resources.

Example Usage

# Configure the AWS Provider
provider "aws" {
    access_key = "${var.aws_access_key}"
    secret_key = "${var.aws_secret_key}"
    region = "us-east-1"
}

# Create a web server
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
    ...
}

Authentication

The AWS provider offers flexible means of providing credentials for authentication. The following methods are supported, in this order, and explained below:

• Static credentials
• Environment variables
• Shared credentials file

Static credentials

Static credentials can be provided by adding an access_key and secret_key in-line in the aws provider block:

Usage:

provider "aws" {
  region     = "us-west-2"
  access_key = "anaccesskey"
  secret_key = "asecretkey"
}

###Environment variables

You can provide your credentials via AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, environment variables, representing your AWS Access Key and AWS Secret Key, respectively. AWS_DEFAULT_REGION and AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN are also used, if applicable:

provider "aws" {}

Usage:

$ exoprt AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="anaccesskey" 
$ export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="asecretkey"
$ export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="us-west-2"
$ terraform plan

###Shared Credentials file

You can use an AWS credentials file to specify your credentials. The default location is $HOME/.aws/credentials on Linux and OSX, or "%USERPROFILE%\.aws\credentials" for Windows users. If we fail to detect credentials inline, or in the environment, Terraform will check this location. You can optionally specify a different location in the configuration by providing shared_credentials_file, or in the environment with the AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE variable. This method also supports a profile configuration and matching AWS_PROFILE environment variable:

Usage:

provider "aws" {
  region                   = "us-west-2"
  shared_credentials_file  = "/Users/tf_user/.aws/creds"
  profile                  = "customprofile"
}

Argument Reference

The following arguments are supported in the provider block:

• access_key - (Optional) This is the AWS access key. It must be provided, but it can also be sourced from the AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID environment variable, or via a shared credentials file if profile is specified.

• secret_key - (Optional) This is the AWS secret key. It must be provided, but it can also be sourced from the AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variable, or via a shared credentials file if profile is specified.

• region - (Required) This is the AWS region. It must be provided, but it can also be sourced from the AWS_DEFAULT_REGION environment variables, or via a shared credentials file if profile is specified.

• profile - (Optional) This is the AWS profile name as set in the shared credentials file.

• shared_credentials_file = (Optional) This is the path to the shared credentials file. If this is not set and a profile is specified, ~/.aws/credentials will be used.

• token - (Optional) Use this to set an MFA token. It can also be sourced from the AWS_SECURITY_TOKEN environment variable.

• max_retries - (Optional) This is the maximum number of times an API call is being retried in case requests are being throttled or experience transient failures. The delay between the subsequent API calls increases exponentially.

• allowed_account_ids - (Optional) List of allowed AWS account IDs (whitelist) to prevent you mistakenly using a wrong one (and end up destroying live environment). Conflicts with forbidden_account_ids.

• forbidden_account_ids - (Optional) List of forbidden AWS account IDs (blacklist) to prevent you mistakenly using a wrong one (and end up destroying live environment). Conflicts with allowed_account_ids.

• dynamodb_endpoint - (Optional) Use this to override the default endpoint URL constructed from the region. It's typically used to connect to dynamodb-local.

• kinesis_endpoint - (Optional) Use this to override the default endpoint URL constructed from the region. It's typically used to connect to kinesalite.