Setting Up a Cluster on Amazon Web Services (AWS) with Terraform 🚀

Welcome to the guide for setting up your own Bacalhau cluster across multiple AWS regions! This guide will walk you through creating a robust, distributed compute cluster that's perfect for running your Bacalhau workloads.

What You'll Build

Think of this as building your own distributed supercomputer! Your cluster will provision compute nodes spread across different AWS regions for global coverage.

Before You Start

You'll need a few things ready:

Terraform (version 1.0.0 or newer)
AWS CLI installed and configured
An active AWS account with appropriate permissions
Your AWS credentials configured
An SSH key pair for securely accessing your nodes
A Bacalhau network

Quick Setup Guide

First, set up an orchestrator node. We recommend using Expanso Cloud for this! But you can always set up your own
Create your environment configuration file:
```
cp env.tfvars.example.json env.tfvars.json
```

Fill in your AWS details in env.tfvars.json:

{
    "app_name": "bacalhau",
    "app_tag": "bacalhau-cluster",
    "bacalhau_installation_id": "EXAMPLE-c5c1-44fd-a0f3-1b90488f1b68",
    "bacalhau_data_dir": "/bacalhau_data",
    "bacalhau_node_dir": "/bacalhau_node",
    "username": "bacalhau-runner",
    "public_key_path": "/path/to/your/.ssh/id_rsa.pub",
    "private_key_path": "/path/to/your/.ssh/id_rsa"
}

Configure your desired regions in locations.yaml. Here's an example (we have a full list of these in all_locations.yaml):

- us-west-2:
    region: us-west-2
    zone: us-west-2a
    instance_type: t3.medium
    instance_ami: ami-07d9cf938edb0739b
    node_count: 1
- eu-central-1:
    region: eu-central-1
    zone: eu-central-1a
    instance_type: t3.medium
    instance_ami: ami-0e54671bdf3c8ed8d
    node_count: 1

Make sure the AMI exists in the region you need it to! You can confirm this by executing the following command:

REGION=us-east-1
IMAGE_SUBSTRING=amzn2-ami-hvm
ARCH=x86_64
aws ec2 describe-images \
--region $REGION \
--filters "Name=name,Values=*$IMAGE_SUBSTRING*" "Name=architecture,Values=$ARCH" \
--query 'sort_by(Images, &CreationDate)[-10:].{AMI:ImageId, Name:Name, CreationDate:CreationDate}' \
--output table \
--no-cli-pager

Update your Bacalhau config/config.yaml (the defaults are mostly fine, just update the Orchestrator, and Token lines):

NameProvider: puuid
API:
  Port: 1234
Compute:
  Enabled: true
  Orchestrators:
    - nats://EXAMPLE-6ed7-4d95-8871-b46153007057.us1.cloud.expanso.dev:4222
  Auth:
    Token: "EXAMPLE.EFukWVffnf5jb9QkpNnwfiBWEk3475csM7ysudpbFTzYBap5c7sWr6"
  TLS:
    RequireTLS: true
  AllowListedLocalPaths:
    - /bacalhau_data:rw
JobAdmissionControl:
  AcceptNetworkedJobs: true

Deploy your cluster using the Python deployment script:
```
./deploy.py create
```

Understanding the Configuration

Why use a deployment script? Why not use Terraform directly?

Terraform on AWS requires switching to different workspaces when deploying to different availability zones. As a result, we had to setup a separate deploy.py script which switches to each workspace for you under the hood, to make it easier.

Core Configuration Files

env.tfvars.json: Your main configuration file containing AWS-specific settings`
locations.yaml: Defines which regions to deploy to and instance configurations
config/config.yaml: Bacalhau node configuration

Essential Settings in env.tfvars.json

app_name: Name for your cluster resources
app_tag: Tag for resource management
bacalhau_installation_id: Unique identifier for your cluster
username: SSH username for instances
public_key_path: Path to your SSH public key
private_key_path: Path to your SSH private key
bacalhau_config_file_path: Path to the config file for this compute node (should point at the orchestrator and have the right token)

Location Configuration (locations.yaml)

Each region entry requires:

region: AWS region (e.g., us-west-2)
zone: Availability zone (e.g., us-west-2a)
instance_type: EC2 instance type (e.g., t3.medium)
instance_ami: AMI ID for the region
node_count: Number of instances to deploy

Taking Your Cluster for a Test Drive

Once everything's up and running, let's make sure it works!

First, make sure you have the Bacalhau CLI installed. You can read more about installing the CLI here.

Configure your Bacalhau client:

bacalhau config set -c API.Host=<orchestrator-ip> # Should be the same orchestrator
                                                  # IP from your config.yaml

List your compute nodes:
```
bacalhau node list
```

Run a test job:

bacalhau docker run ubuntu echo "Hello from my cluster!"

Check job status:
```
bacalhau list
```

Troubleshooting Tips

Deployment Issues

Verify AWS credentials are properly configured:
```
aws sts get-caller-identity
```
Check IAM permissions
Ensure you have quota available in target regions

Node Health Issues

SSH into a node:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa bacalhau-runner@<public-ip> # Or whatever username you set

Check Bacalhau service logs:
```
journalctl -u bacalhau-startup.service
```

Check Docker container status:

docker ps
docker logs bacalhau-node-bacalhau-node-1

Network Issues

Verify security group rules (ports 22, 80, and 4222 should be open)
Check VPC and subnet configurations
Ensure internet gateway is properly attached

Common Solutions

If nodes aren't joining the network:
- Check NATS connection string in config.yaml
- Verify security group allows port 4222
- Ensure nodes can reach the orchestrator
If jobs aren't running:
- Check compute is enabled in node config
- Verify Docker is running properly
- Check available disk space
If deployment fails:
- Look for errors in Terraform output
- Check AWS service quotas
- Verify AMI availability in chosen regions

Cleanup

Remove all resources:

./deploy.py destroy

Monitoring

Check node health:
```
curl http://<node-ip>/healthz
```

Understanding the Directory Structure

setting-up-bacalhau-with-terraform-on-AWS/
├── modules/
│   ├── instance/       # EC2 instance configuration
│   ├── network/        # VPC and subnet setup
│   ├── region/         # Region-specific resources
│   └── securityGroup/  # Security group rules
├── config/             # Bacalhau configuration
├── scripts/           # Deployment and utility scripts
├── locations.yaml     # Region definitions
└── env.tfvars.json    # Environment configuration

Need Help?

If you get stuck or have questions:

Open an issue in our GitHub repository
Join our Slack

We're here to help you get your cluster running smoothly! 🌟

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