netzer7 / cs312-final-project

Minecraft Server Deployment with Terraform, Ansible, and GitHub Actions

Background

What will we do?

We will automate the deployment of a Minecraft server using Terraform, and Ansible. The Terraform configuration will provision an AWS EC2 instance, and the Ansible playbook will configure the instance to run a Minecraft server within a docker container. This server will be started upon the instance rebooting, and will use a static IP address to remain constant.

How will we do it?

1. Terraform: Provision the necessary AWS infrastructure.
2. Ansible: Configure the EC2 instance to run a Dockerized Minecraft server.

Requirements

What will the user need to configure to run the pipeline?

• AWS account with permissions to create VPCs, subnets, security groups, EC2 instances, and Elastic IPs.
• GitHub repository containing the Terraform and Ansible configurations.

What tools should be installed?

• Terraform
• Ansible
• AWS CLI

Are there any credentials or CLI required?

• AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.
• SSH key pair for accessing the EC2 instance.

Should the user set environment variables or configure anything?

• Configure AWS CLI access by running aws configure, and have a ssh keypair configured through AWS and located on user machine.

List of Commands to Run, with Explanations

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-repo/minecraft-deployment.git
   cd minecraft-deployment
   

2. Configure the following variables:

   • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: Your AWS access key ID.
   • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: Your AWS secret access key.
   • SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: Your SSH private key. Update this line in the main.tf file key_name = "Desktop"

3. Run Terraform provisioning to spin up EC2 Instance

   cd terraform
   terraform apply CreateServer
   

4. Execute ansible playbook to configure server Use the provided bash script which pulls the public ip generated as output from the terraform application.

   cd ../ansible
   bash runAnsible.sh  
   

   Additionally, this two step has been automated and can be ran with bash runAll.bash at the top level directory instead.

How to Connect to the Minecraft Server Once It's Running

1. Retrieve the Public IP:

   • The public IP of the Minecraft server is output by the Terraform configuration, and is shown several times through the set-up. Take note.

2. Connect to the Minecraft Server:

   • Open Minecraft on your computer.
   • Go to "Multiplayer".
   • Click on "Add Server".
   • Enter the public IP of the Minecraft server as the server address.
   • Click "Done" and then "Join Server".

Your Minecraft server should now be running and accessible! Enjoy your game!

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