Terraform timeout when connecting to EC2 instance

Question

Im trying to run this in terraform, everythig goes fine but after creating the instance(ubuntu) it is failing to connect, it just times out. I have generated the private key several times but I'm still getting the error:

.tf file

#####################################
#VARIABLES
#####################################


variable "aws_access_key" {}
variable "aws_secret_key" {}
variable "private_key_path" {}
variable "key_name" {}
variable "region" {
default = "us-west-2"

}


#####################################
#PROVIDERS
#####################################

provider "aws" {

access_key = var.aws_access_key
secret_key = var.aws_secret_key
region = var.region

}



#####################################
#DATA
#####################################


#data "aws_ami" "aws-linux" {
#most_recent = true
#owners = ["amazon"]

#filter {
#name = "name"
#values = ["amzn-ami-hvn*"]
#}

#filter {
#name = "root-device-type"
#values = ["ebs"]

#}

#filter {

#name = "virtualization-type"
#values = ["hvn"]
#}


#}


#####################################
#RESOURCES
#####################################

# this uses the dfault VPC. It will nor delete it on destroy.

resource "aws_default_vpc" "default" {


}

resource "aws_security_group" "allow_ssh" {

name = "nginx_demo2"
description = "allow ports for nginx demo"
vpc_id = aws_default_vpc.default.id



ingress {

from_port = 22
to_port = 22
protocol = "tcp"
cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
}

ingress {

from_port = 80
to_port = 80
protocol = "tcp"
cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
}

egress {

from_port = 0
to_port = 0
protocol = -1
cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
}

}


# EC2 instance

resource "aws_instance" "nginx" {
#ami = data.aws_ami.aws-linux.id
ami = "ami-039d8ba38d6aff04b"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
key_name = var.key_name
vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.allow_ssh.id]


#connection {
#type = "ssh"
#host = "self.public_ip"
#user = "ec2-user"
#private_key = file(var.private_key_path)
#}


connection {
type = "ssh"
#host = "self.public_ip"
host = "${self.public_ip}"
user = "ec2-user"
private_key = "${file(var.private_key_path)}"



}

provisioner "remote-exec" {





inline = ["sudo apt-get update", "sudo apt-get install nginx", "sudo service nginx start"]



#inline = ["yum install nginx -y", "systemctl start nginx"]
#command = "yum install nginx -y && service nginx start"



}

}


#####################################
#OUTPUT
#####################################

output "aws_instance_public_dns" {
value = aws_instance.nginx.public_dns
}

.tfvars

aws_access_key = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
aws_secret_key = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
key_name = "terra_test"
private_key_path = "C:\\Users\\user.name\\Documents\\Terraform\\Base\\web\\terra_test.pem"

Error:

ws_instance.nginx: Still creating... [5m30s elapsed]
aws_instance.nginx: Still creating... [5m40s elapsed]
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec): Connecting to remote host via SSH...
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   Host: 54.202.52.132
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   User: ec2-user
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   Password: false
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   Private key: true
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   Certificate: false
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   SSH Agent: false
aws_instance.nginx (remote-exec):   Checking Host Key: false
aws_instance.nginx: Still creating... [5m50s elapsed]

Error: timeout - last error: SSH authentication failed (ec2-user@54.202.52.132:22): ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none publickey], no supported methods remain

What could be wrong here? I have tried adding the path to the .pem instead of using the variable but got the same error. Also when I use host = "self.public_ip" instead of host = "${self.public_ip}" it is not even retreiving the public IP so thats why Im using ${self.public_ip}.

Terraform v0.12.28

• provider.aws v2.70.0

Answer 1

There are two things that need changing:

First, the user name.
The user for ubuntu amis is normally "ubuntu"
Change
user = "ec2-user"
to
user = "ubuntu"
and it will connect and start to install nginx.

But, you need to also change
inline = ["sudo apt-get update", "sudo apt-get install nginx", "sudo service nginx start"]
to
inline = ["sudo apt-get update -y", "sudo apt-get install nginx -y", "sudo service nginx start"]
or it will hang at the prompt for both the apt update and the nginx install