Manage similar resources with count

10min
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Terraform

The count argument replicates the given resource or module a specific number of times with an incrementing counter. It works best when resources will be identical, or nearly so.

In this tutorial, you will use Terraform to provision a VPC, load balancer, and EC2 instances on AWS. Then you will use the count argument to provision multiple EC2 instances per private subnet with a single resource block.

Prerequisites

You can complete this tutorial using the same workflow with either Terraform Community Edition or HCP Terraform. HCP Terraform is a platform that you can use to manage and execute your Terraform projects. It includes features like remote state and execution, structured plan output, workspace resource summaries, and more.

Select the Terraform Community Edition tab to complete this tutorial using Terraform Community Edition.

This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with the Terraform and HCP Terraform workflows. If you are new to Terraform, complete the Get Started collection first. If you are new to HCP Terraform, complete the HCP Terraform Get Started tutorials first.

For this tutorial, you will need:

Terraform v1.2+ installed locally.
an HCP Terraform account and organization.
HCP Terraform locally authenticated.
the AWS CLI.
an HCP Terraform variable set configured with your AWS credentials.

Apply initial configuration

Clone the example GitHub repository.

$ git clone https://github.com/hashicorp-education/learn-terraform-count

Change into the new directory.

$ cd learn-terraform-count

The configuration in main.tf will provision a new VPC with public and private subnets, a load balancer, and two EC2 instances, one in each private subnet. The variables located in variables.tf allow you to configure the VPC. For instance, the private_subnets_per_vpc variable controls the number of private subnets the configuration will create.

Create infrastructure

Set the TF_CLOUD_ORGANIZATION environment variable to your HCP Terraform organization name. This will configure your HCP Terraform integration.

$ export TF_CLOUD_ORGANIZATION=

Initialize your configuration. Terraform will automatically create the learn-terraform-count workspace in your HCP Terraform organization.

$ terraform init Initializing modules... Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/security-group/aws 4.9.0 for app_security_group... - app_security_group in .terraform/modules/app_security_group/modules/web - app_security_group.sg in .terraform/modules/app_security_group Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/elb/aws 3.0.1 for elb_http... - elb_http in .terraform/modules/elb_http - elb_http.elb in .terraform/modules/elb_http/modules/elb - elb_http.elb_attachment in .terraform/modules/elb_http/modules/elb_attachment Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/security-group/aws 4.9.0 for lb_security_group... - lb_security_group in .terraform/modules/lb_security_group/modules/web - lb_security_group.sg in .terraform/modules/lb_security_group Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws 3.14.2 for vpc... - vpc in .terraform/modules/vpc  Initializing HCP Terraform...  Initializing provider plugins... - Reusing previous version of hashicorp/aws from the dependency lock file - Reusing previous version of hashicorp/random from the dependency lock file - Installing hashicorp/random v3.3.2... - Installed hashicorp/random v3.3.2 (signed by HashiCorp) - Installing hashicorp/aws v4.22.0... - Installed hashicorp/aws v4.22.0 (signed by HashiCorp)  HCP Terraform has been successfully initialized!  You may now begin working with HCP Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see any changes that are required for your infrastructure.  If you ever set or change modules or Terraform Settings, run "terraform init" again to reinitialize your working directory.

Note

This tutorial assumes that you are using a tutorial-specific HCP Terraform organization with a global variable set of your AWS credentials. Review the Create a Credential Variable Set for detailed guidance. If you are using a scoped variable set, assign it to your new workspace now.

Open your terraform.tf file and comment out the cloud block that configures the HCP Terraform integration.

terraform {  /*  cloud {  workspaces {  name = "learn-terraform-count"  }  }  */   required_providers {  aws = {  source = "hashicorp/aws"  version = "~> 4.22.0"  }  }  required_version = ">= 1.2" }

Initialize this configuration.

$ terraform init Initializing modules... Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/security-group/aws 4.9.0 for app_security_group... - app_security_group in .terraform/modules/app_security_group/modules/web - app_security_group.sg in .terraform/modules/app_security_group Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/elb/aws 3.0.1 for elb_http... - elb_http in .terraform/modules/elb_http - elb_http.elb in .terraform/modules/elb_http/modules/elb - elb_http.elb_attachment in .terraform/modules/elb_http/modules/elb_attachment Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/security-group/aws 4.9.0 for lb_security_group... - lb_security_group in .terraform/modules/lb_security_group/modules/web - lb_security_group.sg in .terraform/modules/lb_security_group Downloading registry.terraform.io/terraform-aws-modules/vpc/aws 3.14.2 for vpc... - vpc in .terraform/modules/vpc  Initializing the backend...  Initializing provider plugins... - Reusing previous version of hashicorp/aws from the dependency lock file - Reusing previous version of hashicorp/random from the dependency lock file - Installing hashicorp/aws v4.22.0... - Installed hashicorp/aws v4.22.0 (signed by HashiCorp) - Installing hashicorp/random v3.3.2... - Installed hashicorp/random v3.3.2 (signed by HashiCorp)  Terraform has been successfully initialized!  You may now begin working with Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see any changes that are required for your infrastructure. All Terraform commands should now work.  If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform, rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary.

Once your directory has been initialized, apply the configuration, and remember to confirm with a yes.

$ terraform apply Running apply in HCP Terraform. Output will stream here. Pressing Ctrl-C will cancel the remote apply if it's still pending. If the apply started it will stop streaming the logs, but will not stop the apply running remotely.  Preparing the remote apply...  To view this run in a browser, visit: https://app.terraform.io/app/hashicorp-learn/learn-terraform-count/runs/run-aGgAn9P3wK4bAGn6  Waiting for the plan to start...  Terraform v1.2.0 on linux_amd64 Initializing plugins and modules... data.aws_ami.amazon_linux: Reading... data.aws_availability_zones.available: Reading... data.aws_availability_zones.available: Read complete after 0s [id=us-east-2] data.aws_ami.amazon_linux: Read complete after 2s [id=ami-07251f912d2a831a3]  Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:  + create  Terraform will perform the following actions:   # aws_instance.app_a will be created  + resource "aws_instance" "app_a" {  + ami = "ami-07251f912d2a831a3" ##...  Plan: 40 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.  Changes to Outputs:  + instance_ids = [  + (known after apply),  + (known after apply),  ]  + public_dns_name = (known after apply)  + vpc_arn = (known after apply)  Do you want to perform these actions in workspace "learn-terraform-count"?  Terraform will perform the actions described above.  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.   Enter a value: yes  random_string.lb_id: Creating... random_string.lb_id: Creation complete after 0s [id=X9C5] module.vpc.aws_vpc.this[0]: Creating... ##... Apply complete! Resources: 40 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.  Outputs:  instance_ids = [  "i-02a950922e3bc138a",  "i-0862c3304b43491ea", ] public_dns_name = "lb-X9C5-client-webapp-dev-96481859.us-east-2.elb.amazonaws.com" vpc_arn = "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-2:561656980159:vpc/vpc-0f693f9721b61333b"

This configuration has some limitations. Currently, each private subnet only contains one EC2 instance. If you increase the private_subnets_per_vpc variable, Terraform won't automatically add EC2 instances, because the EC2 instance resources are hard coded.

Make this configuration more robust by adding a variable to control the number of EC2 instances in each private subnet with count.

Refactor the EC2 configuration

Refactor the EC2 configuration to make it more generic. Remove or comment out the entire block defining the app_b EC2 instance from main.tf.

- resource "aws_instance" "app_b" { - depends_on = [module.vpc] - - ami = data.aws_ami.amazon_linux.id - instance_type = var.instance_type - - ## ... - - tags = { - Terraform = "true" - Project = var.project_name - Environment = var.environment - } - }

Next, rename the resource for the other EC2 instance from app_a to app.

- resource "aws_instance" "app_a" { + resource "aws_instance" "app" {

Declare a variable for instance number

Now, add the instances_per_subnet variable to variables.tf to define how many instances each private subnet will have.

variable "instances_per_subnet" {  description = "Number of EC2 instances in each private subnet"  type = number  default = 2 }

Scale EC2 configuration with `count`

Next, edit main.tf to use count to provision multiple EC2 instances with the app resource block, based on the value of the new instances_per_subnet variable and the number of private subnets.

resource "aws_instance" "app" {  depends_on = [module.vpc]   count = var.instances_per_subnet * length(module.vpc.private_subnets)   ami = data.aws_ami.amazon_linux.id  instance_type = var.instance_type   subnet_id = module.vpc.private_subnets[count.index % length(module.vpc.private_subnets)]  vpc_security_group_ids = [module.app_security_group.this_security_group_id]   ## ... }

Each instance provisioned by the resource block with count will have a different incrementing value for count.index - starting with zero. This configuration uses count.index and modulo division to assign each instance to a private subnet.

Because the default value of instances_per_subnet is 2, Terraform will provision two EC2 instances per private subnet.

Update the load balancer

Update the load balancer configuration in the elb_http block to attach the instances to the load balancer.

module "elb_http" {  source = "terraform-aws-modules/elb/aws"  version = "3.0.1"  ##...   security_groups = [module.lb_security_group.this_security_group_id]  subnets = module.vpc.public_subnets   number_of_instances = length(aws_instance.app)  instances = aws_instance.app.*.id   listener = [{  instance_port = "80"  instance_protocol = "HTTP"  lb_port = "80"  lb_protocol = "HTTP"  }]  ##...

The name of resources or modules provisioned with count refers to the entire collection. In this example, aws_instance.app now refers to all of the EC2 instances. You can reference individual items in collections with the same notation as list indexing. For example, aws_instance.app[0] refers to the first instance Terraform provisions.

You can create a list of all of the values of a given attribute for the items in the collection with a star. For instance, aws_instance.app.*.id will be a list of all of the IDs of the instances.

Update outputs.tf to refer to the new aws_instance.app block instead of app_a and app_b.

output "instance_ids" {  description = "IDs of EC2 instances"  value = aws_instance.app.*.id }

Apply scalable configuration

Apply this configuration now. Be sure to respond to the confirmation prompt with yes.

Terraform will output values for the VPC, load balancer, and instances.

$ terraform apply ## ...  Apply complete! Resources: 8 added, 0 changed, 4 destroyed.  Outputs:  instance_ids = [  "i-0bc4309c117df766a",  "i-0aaa6de2b610ae749",  "i-035ff2723aace0f12",  "i-02640c564d3f08152", ] public_dns_name = "lb-yksg-client-webapp-dev-702243816.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com" vpc_arn = "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2:561656980159:vpc/vpc-0195a5982b1ad302b"

Now you have configured the number EC2 instances per private subnet using the instances_per_subnet variable and count. Terraform configured that many instances per subnet, assigned them to subnets, and attached them to the load balancer.

Clean up resources

After verifying that the resources were deployed successfully, run terraform destroy to destroy them. Remember to respond to the confirmation prompt with yes.

$ terraform destroy

If you used HCP Terraform for this tutorial, after destroying your resources, delete the learn-terraform-count workspace from your HCP Terraform organization.

Next steps

Now that you have used count in your configuration, explore the following resources.

Read the Terraform documentation for the count meta-argument.
Learn how to use for_each for more complex configurations.
Learn how to use functions and dynamic expressions to make your Terraform configuration more flexible.

Resource dependencies

For each

This tutorial also appears in:

4 tutorials

Terraform 0.13 tutorials
Try the new capabilities in Terraform 0.13. Use count and for each with modules, log into HCP Terraform with the CLI, and use a third-party provider with the new provider source syntax.
- Terraform