Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Tensor9’s primary deployment platform and the reference implementation for all service equivalents. Deploying to AWS provides the most comprehensive feature set and serves as the baseline from which other form factors are derived.

Overview

When you deploy an application to AWS customer environments using Tensor9:

Customer appliances run entirely within the customer’s AWS account
Your control plane orchestrates deployments from your dedicated Tensor9 AWS account
Cross-account IAM roles enable your control plane to manage customer appliances with customer-approved permissions
Service equivalents compile your origin stack into AWS-native resources (or preserve them if already AWS-based)

AWS appliances leverage AWS-native services for compute, storage, networking, and observability, providing enterprise-grade infrastructure that integrates seamlessly with your customers’ existing AWS environments.

Prerequisites

Before deploying appliances to AWS customer environments, ensure:

Your Control Plane

Dedicated AWS account for your Tensor9 control plane
Control plane installed - See Installing Tensor9
Origin stack published - Your application infrastructure defined and uploaded

Customer AWS Account

Your customers must provide:

AWS account where the appliance will be deployed
IAM roles configured for the four-phase permissions model (Install, Steady-state, Deploy, Operate)
VPC and networking configured according to their requirements
Sufficient service quotas for your application’s resource needs
AWS region where they want the appliance deployed

Your Development Environment

AWS CLI installed and configured
Terraform or OpenTofu (if using Terraform origin stacks)
AWS CloudFormation CLI (if using CloudFormation origin stacks)
Docker (if deploying container-based applications)

How AWS appliances work

AWS appliances are deployed using AWS-native services orchestrated by your Tensor9 control plane.

Customer provisions IAM roles

Your customer creates four IAM roles in their AWS account, each corresponding to a permission phase: Install, Steady-state, Deploy, and Operate. These roles define what the Tensor9 controller in the appliance can do within their environment.The customer configures trust policies that allow the Tensor9 controller to assume these roles with appropriate conditions (time windows, approval tags, etc.).

You create a release for the customer appliance

You create a release targeting the customer’s appliance:

tensor9 stack release create \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -vendorVersion "1.0.0" \
  -description "Initial production deployment"

Your control plane compiles your origin stack into a deployment stack tailored for AWS, compiling any non-AWS resources to their AWS service equivalents. The deployment stack downloads to your local environment.

Customer grants deploy access

The customer approves the deployment by granting temporary deploy access. This can be manual (updating IAM policy conditions) or automated (scheduled maintenance windows).Once approved, the Tensor9 controller in the appliance can assume the Deploy role in the customer’s account.

You deploy the release

You run the deployment locally against the downloaded deployment stack:

cd acme-corp-production
tofu init
tofu apply

The deployment stack is configured to route resource creation through the Tensor9 controller inside the customer’s appliance. The controller assumes the Deploy role and creates all infrastructure resources in the customer’s AWS account:

VPCs, subnets, security groups
EKS clusters, Lambda functions
RDS databases, S3 buckets, ElastiCache clusters
CloudWatch log groups, IAM roles, Route 53 records
Any other AWS resources defined in your origin stack

Steady-state observability begins

After deployment, your control plane uses the Steady-state role to continuously collect observability data (logs, metrics, traces) from the customer’s appliance without requiring additional approvals.This data flows to your observability sink, giving you visibility into appliance health and performance.

Permissions model

AWS appliances use a four-phase IAM permissions model that balances operational capability with customer control.

The four permission phases

Phase	IAM Role	Purpose	Access Pattern
Install	`InstallRole`	Initial setup, major infrastructure changes	Customer-approved, rare
Steady-state	`SteadyStateRole`	Continuous observability collection (read-only)	Active by default
Deploy	`DeployRole`	Deployments, updates, configuration changes	Customer-approved, time-bounded
Operate	`OperateRole`	Remote operations, troubleshooting, debugging	Customer-approved, time-bounded

IAM role structure

Each role is created in the customer’s AWS account with a trust policy that allows the Tensor9 controller in the appliance to assume it. Example: Deploy role with conditional access

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": {
        "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::VENDOR_ACCOUNT:role/ControlPlane"
      },
      "Action": "sts:AssumeRole",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "aws:RequestTag/DeployAccess": "enabled"
        },
        "DateLessThan": {
          "aws:CurrentTime": "2024-12-31T23:59:59Z"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

The Tensor9 controller can only assume the Deploy role when:

The DeployAccess tag is set to “enabled”
The current time is within the allowed window

Customers control when and how long deploy access is granted. Example: Steady-state role (read-only observability)

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:DescribeLogGroups",
        "logs:DescribeLogStreams",
        "logs:GetLogEvents",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricData",
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics",
        "ec2:Describe*",
        "rds:Describe*",
        "eks:Describe*",
        "s3:ListBucket",
        "s3:GetObject"
      ],
      "Resource": "*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "aws:ResourceTag/instance-id": "${var.instance_id}"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Action": [
        "iam:*",
        "*:Delete*",
        "*:Terminate*",
        "*:Update*",
        "*:Modify*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

The Steady-state role:

Can read observability data from resources tagged with the appliance’s instance-id
Cannot modify, delete, or terminate any resources
Cannot change IAM policies

Deployment workflow with IAM

Customer grants deploy access

Customer approves a deployment by setting the DeployAccess tag to “enabled” and defining a time window. This can be done manually or through automated approval workflows.

You execute deployment locally

You run the deployment locally against the downloaded deployment stack:

cd acme-corp-production
tofu init
tofu apply

The deployment stack is configured to route resource creation through the Tensor9 controller in the appliance.

Controller assumes Deploy role and creates resources

For each resource Terraform attempts to create, the Tensor9 controller inside the appliance assumes the Deploy role and creates the resource in the customer’s account.All infrastructure changes occur within the customer’s account using their Deploy role permissions.

Deploy access expires

After the time window expires, the Deploy role can no longer be assumed. Your control plane automatically reverts to using only the Steady-state role for observability.

See Permissions Model for detailed information on all four phases.

Networking

AWS appliances use an isolated networking architecture with a Tensor9 controller that manages communication with your control plane.

Tensor9 controller VPC

When an appliance is deployed, Tensor9 creates an isolated VPC containing the Tensor9 controller. This VPC is configured with:

Internet Gateway: Provides outbound internet connectivity
Route to control plane: Establishes a secure channel to your Tensor9 control plane
No ingress ports: The controller VPC does not accept inbound connections - all communication is outbound-only

The Tensor9 controller uses this secure channel to:

Receive deployments: Deployment stacks are pushed from your control plane to the appliance
Configure observability pipeline: Set up log, metric, and trace forwarding to your observability sink
Receive operational commands: Execute remote operations initiated from your control plane

Outbound-only security model

The Tensor9 controller in your customer’s appliance is designed to only make outbound connections and not require ingress ports to be opened in your customer’s network perimeter:

# Example: Controller VPC configuration (managed by Tensor9)
resource "aws_vpc" "tensor9_controller" {
  cidr_block           = "10.0.0.0/24"
  enable_dns_hostnames = true
  enable_dns_support   = true

  tags = {
    Name          = "tensor9-controller-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
    ManagedBy     = "Tensor9"
  }
}

resource "aws_internet_gateway" "controller" {
  vpc_id = aws_vpc.tensor9_controller.id

  tags = {
    Name          = "tensor9-controller-igw-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
    ManagedBy     = "Tensor9"
  }
}

# Security group: egress only, no ingress
resource "aws_security_group" "controller" {
  name        = "tensor9-controller-sg-${var.instance_id}"
  description = "Tensor9 controller security group - outbound only"
  vpc_id      = aws_vpc.tensor9_controller.id

  # No ingress rules - controller never accepts inbound connections

  egress {
    from_port   = 443
    to_port     = 443
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    description = "HTTPS to control plane"
  }

  tags = {
    Name          = "tensor9-controller-sg-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
    ManagedBy     = "Tensor9"
  }
}

This architecture ensures that the customer’s appliance cannot be compromised via inbound network attacks on the controller.

Application VPC topology

Your application resources run in their own VPC(s), completely separate from the Tensor9 controller VPC. The application VPC topology is defined entirely by your origin stack - whatever VPC resources you define in your origin stack will be deployed into the appliance. Example: Application VPC with internet-facing load balancer If your origin stack defines a VPC with public subnets, an internet gateway, and a load balancer, that exact topology will be created in the customer’s appliance:

# Application VPC (defined in your origin stack)
resource "aws_vpc" "application" {
  cidr_block           = "10.1.0.0/16"
  enable_dns_hostnames = true
  enable_dns_support   = true

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-vpc-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Internet gateway for application traffic
resource "aws_internet_gateway" "application" {
  vpc_id = aws_vpc.application.id

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-igw-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Public subnets for load balancer
resource "aws_subnet" "public" {
  count                   = 2
  vpc_id                  = aws_vpc.application.id
  cidr_block              = "10.1.${count.index}.0/24"
  availability_zone       = data.aws_availability_zones.available.names[count.index]
  map_public_ip_on_launch = true

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-public-${count.index}-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Private subnets for application servers
resource "aws_subnet" "private" {
  count             = 2
  vpc_id            = aws_vpc.application.id
  cidr_block        = "10.1.${count.index + 10}.0/24"
  availability_zone = data.aws_availability_zones.available.names[count.index]

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-private-${count.index}-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Application Load Balancer
resource "aws_lb" "application" {
  name               = "myapp-alb-${var.instance_id}"
  internal           = false
  load_balancer_type = "application"
  security_groups    = [aws_security_group.alb.id]
  subnets            = aws_subnet.public[*].id

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-alb-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Security group for load balancer
resource "aws_security_group" "alb" {
  name        = "myapp-alb-sg-${var.instance_id}"
  description = "Security group for application load balancer"
  vpc_id      = aws_vpc.application.id

  ingress {
    from_port   = 443
    to_port     = 443
    protocol    = "tcp"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    description = "HTTPS from internet"
  }

  egress {
    from_port   = 0
    to_port     = 0
    protocol    = "-1"
    cidr_blocks = ["0.0.0.0/0"]
    description = "All outbound traffic"
  }

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-alb-sg-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

This application VPC topology is deployed alongside the Tensor9 controller VPC, but they remain completely separate. The controller VPC manages the control plane connection, while the application VPC handles your application’s traffic and resources.

Resource naming and tagging

All AWS resources should use the instance_id variable to ensure uniqueness across multiple customer appliances.

Parameterization pattern

variable "instance_id" {
  type        = string
  description = "Uniquely identifies the instance to deploy into"
}

# S3 buckets
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "data" {
  bucket = "myapp-data-${var.instance_id}"
}

# RDS databases
resource "aws_db_instance" "postgres" {
  identifier = "myapp-db-${var.instance_id}"
}

# Lambda functions
resource "aws_lambda_function" "api" {
  function_name = "myapp-api-${var.instance_id}"
}

# CloudWatch log groups
resource "aws_cloudwatch_log_group" "api_logs" {
  name = "/aws/lambda/myapp-api-${var.instance_id}"
}

# IAM roles
resource "aws_iam_role" "api_role" {
  name = "myapp-api-role-${var.instance_id}"
}

Required tags

Tag all resources with instance-id to enable permissions scoping and observability:

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "data" {
  bucket = "myapp-data-${var.instance_id}"

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
    Application   = "my-app"
    ManagedBy     = "Tensor9"
  }
}

The instance-id tag:

Enables IAM condition keys to scope permissions to specific appliances
Allows CloudWatch filters to isolate telemetry by appliance
Helps customers track costs per appliance
Facilitates resource discovery by Tensor9 controllers

Observability

AWS appliances provide comprehensive observability through CloudWatch, X-Ray, and CloudTrail.

CloudWatch Logs

Application and infrastructure logs flow to CloudWatch Log Groups:

resource "aws_cloudwatch_log_group" "lambda_logs" {
  name              = "/aws/lambda/${aws_lambda_function.api.function_name}"
  retention_in_days = 14

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

resource "aws_cloudwatch_log_group" "eks_logs" {
  name              = "/aws/eks/${aws_eks_cluster.main.name}/cluster"
  retention_in_days = 7

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

Your control plane uses the Steady-state role to continuously fetch logs:

aws logs get-log-events \
  --log-group-name "/aws/lambda/myapp-api-000000007e" \
  --log-stream-name "2024/01/15/[\$LATEST]abcdef123456"

Logs are forwarded to your observability sink for centralized monitoring.

CloudWatch Metrics

Infrastructure metrics are automatically collected:

RDS: Database connections, query latency, storage usage
Lambda: Invocations, duration, errors, throttles
EKS: Node CPU/memory, pod counts, API server metrics
ALB: Request counts, latency, HTTP status codes

Custom application metrics can be published:

import boto3

cloudwatch = boto3.client('cloudwatch')

cloudwatch.put_metric_data(
    Namespace='MyApp',
    MetricData=[
        {
            'MetricName': 'OrdersProcessed',
            'Value': 42,
            'Unit': 'Count',
            'Dimensions': [
                {
                    'Name': 'InstanceId',
                    'Value': instance_id
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
)

AWS X-Ray

Enable distributed tracing for Lambda and containerized applications:

resource "aws_lambda_function" "api" {
  function_name = "myapp-api-${var.instance_id}"
  runtime       = "nodejs18.x"
  handler       = "index.handler"
  role          = aws_iam_role.lambda.arn

  tracing_config {
    mode = "Active"
  }

  environment {
    variables = {
      AWS_XRAY_TRACING_NAME = "myapp-api-${var.instance_id}"
    }
  }
}

X-Ray traces are accessible through the Steady-state role and forwarded to your observability sink.

CloudTrail auditing

All API calls within the customer’s AWS account are logged to CloudTrail, providing a complete audit trail of what your control plane does:

Role assumptions (when Deploy or Operate roles are assumed)
Resource creation, modification, deletion
Permission denials
Configuration changes

Customers have full visibility into your control plane’s actions through their CloudTrail logs.

Artifacts

AWS appliances automatically provision private artifact repositories to store container images and application files deployed by your deployment stacks.

Container images (Amazon ECR)

When you deploy an appliance, Tensor9 automatically provisions a private ECR repository in the customer’s AWS account to store your container images. Example: Origin stack with ECS service Your origin stack references container images from your vendor ECR repository:

# ECS Task Definition in your origin stack
resource "aws_ecs_task_definition" "app" {
  family                   = "myapp-${var.instance_id}"
  network_mode             = "awsvpc"
  requires_compatibilities = ["FARGATE"]
  cpu                      = "256"
  memory                   = "512"

  container_definitions = jsonencode([
    {
      name  = "api"
      # Reference to your vendor ECR repository
      image = "123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/myapp-api:1.0.0"

      portMappings = [
        {
          containerPort = 8080
          protocol      = "tcp"
        }
      ]

      environment = [
        {
          name  = "INSTANCE_ID"
          value = var.instance_id
        }
      ]
    }
  ])

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# ECS Service
resource "aws_ecs_service" "app" {
  name            = "myapp-service-${var.instance_id}"
  cluster         = aws_ecs_cluster.main.id
  task_definition = aws_ecs_task_definition.app.arn
  desired_count   = 2
  launch_type     = "FARGATE"

  network_configuration {
    subnets          = aws_subnet.private[*].id
    security_groups  = [aws_security_group.ecs_tasks.id]
    assign_public_ip = false
  }

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

Container copy during deployment When you deploy the deployment stack, Tensor9 automatically:

Detects the container image reference in your ECS task definition
Provisions a private ECR repository in the appliance (e.g., 987654321098.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/myapp-api-000000007e)
Copies the container image from your vendor ECR (123456789012.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/myapp-api:1.0.0) to the appliance’s private ECR
Rewrites the deployment stack to reference the appliance-local ECR repository

The compiled deployment stack will contain:

container_definitions = jsonencode([
  {
    name  = "api"
    # Rewritten to reference appliance's private ECR
    image = "987654321098.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/myapp-api-000000007e:1.0.0"
    # ... rest of configuration
  }
])

This ensures the container image is stored locally in the customer’s account and the application doesn’t depend on cross-account access to your vendor ECR. Artifact lifecycle Container artifacts are tied to the deployment stack lifecycle:

Deploy (tofu apply): Tensor9 copies the container image from your vendor ECR to the appliance’s private ECR
Destroy (tofu destroy): Deleting the deployment stack also deletes the copied container artifact from the appliance’s private ECR

This ensures that artifacts are cleaned up when deployments are removed, preventing orphaned resources.

Lambda deployment packages (S3)

For Lambda functions, Tensor9 supports copying Lambda deployment packages (zip files) from S3. This follows the same copy pattern as container images:

# Lambda function referencing S3 deployment package in your origin stack
resource "aws_lambda_function" "processor" {
  function_name = "myapp-processor-${var.instance_id}"
  role          = aws_iam_role.lambda.arn
  handler       = "index.handler"
  runtime       = "python3.11"

  # Reference to Lambda zip in your vendor S3 bucket
  s3_bucket = "my-vendor-lambda-artifacts"
  s3_key    = "functions/processor-v1.0.0.zip"

  environment {
    variables = {
      INSTANCE_ID = var.instance_id
    }
  }

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

During deployment, Tensor9:

Provisions a private S3 bucket in the appliance for Lambda artifacts
Copies the Lambda zip file from your vendor S3 bucket to the appliance’s S3 bucket
Rewrites the Lambda function definition to reference the appliance-local S3 bucket

Like container images, destroying the deployment stack (tofu destroy) removes the copied Lambda deployment packages. See Artifacts for comprehensive documentation on artifact management, including immutability requirements and supported artifact types.

Secrets management

Store secrets in AWS Secrets Manager or AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, then pass them to your application as environment variables.

Secret naming and injection

Always use parameterized secret names and inject them as environment variables:

# AWS Secrets Manager secret
resource "aws_secretsmanager_secret" "db_password" {
  name = "${var.instance_id}/prod/db/password"

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

resource "aws_secretsmanager_secret_version" "db_password" {
  secret_id     = aws_secretsmanager_secret.db_password.id
  secret_string = var.db_password
}

# ECS Fargate task - inject secret as environment variable
resource "aws_ecs_task_definition" "app" {
  family = "myapp-${var.instance_id}"

  container_definitions = jsonencode([
    {
      name  = "app"
      image = "myapp:latest"

      # Inject secret as environment variable
      secrets = [
        {
          name      = "DB_PASSWORD"
          valueFrom = aws_secretsmanager_secret.db_password.arn
        }
      ]
    }
  ])

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

Your application reads secrets from environment variables:

import os

# Read secret from environment variable
db_password = os.environ['DB_PASSWORD']

Pass secrets as environment variables rather than using runtime SDK calls. While boto3.client('secretsmanager').get_secret_value() works natively in AWS appliances, using environment variables ensures your application works consistently across all deployment targets (AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean).

See Secrets for detailed secret management patterns.

Operations

Perform remote operations on AWS appliances using the Operate role.

kubectl on EKS

Execute kubectl commands against EKS clusters:

tensor9 ops kubectl \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -originResourceId "aws_eks_cluster.main_cluster" \
  -command "kubectl get pods -n my-app-namespace"

Output:

NAME                     READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
api-7d9f8b5c6d-9k2lm    1/1     Running   0          2h
worker-5c8d7b4f3-8h4km  1/1     Running   0          2h

AWS CLI operations

Execute AWS CLI commands:

# List S3 bucket contents
tensor9 ops aws \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -originResourceId "aws_s3_bucket.data" \
  -command "aws s3 ls s3://myapp-data-000000007e/"

# Invoke Lambda function
tensor9 ops aws \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -originResourceId "aws_lambda_function.api" \
  -command "aws lambda invoke --function-name myapp-api-000000007e output.json"

# View RDS status
tensor9 ops aws \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -originResourceId "aws_db_instance.postgres" \
  -command "aws rds describe-db-instances --db-instance-identifier myapp-db-000000007e"

Database queries

Execute SQL queries against RDS databases:

tensor9 ops db \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -originResourceId "aws_db_instance.postgres" \
  -command "SELECT count(*) FROM users WHERE created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '24 hours'"

Operations endpoints

Create temporary operations endpoints for interactive access:

# Create kubectl endpoint
tensor9 ops endpoint create \
  -appName my-app \
  -customerName acme-corp \
  -originResourceId "aws_eks_cluster.main_cluster" \
  -endpointType kubectl \
  -ttl 3600

# Output:
# Endpoint created: https://ops.tensor9.io/kubectl/abc123
# Expires in: 1 hour
# Use: kubectl --server=https://ops.tensor9.io/kubectl/abc123 get pods

See Operations for comprehensive operations documentation.

Example: Complete AWS appliance

Here’s a complete example of a Terraform origin stack for an AWS appliance:

main.tf

# VPC
resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
  cidr_block           = "10.0.0.0/16"
  enable_dns_hostnames = true
  enable_dns_support   = true

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-vpc-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Subnets
resource "aws_subnet" "private" {
  count             = 2
  vpc_id            = aws_vpc.main.id
  cidr_block        = "10.0.${count.index}.0/24"
  availability_zone = data.aws_availability_zones.available.names[count.index]

  tags = {
    Name          = "myapp-private-${count.index}-${var.instance_id}"
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# EKS Cluster
resource "aws_eks_cluster" "main" {
  name     = "myapp-cluster-${var.instance_id}"
  role_arn = aws_iam_role.cluster.arn
  version  = "1.28"

  vpc_config {
    subnet_ids = aws_subnet.private[*].id
  }

  enabled_cluster_log_types = ["api", "audit", "authenticator", "controllerManager", "scheduler"]

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# RDS PostgreSQL
resource "aws_db_instance" "postgres" {
  identifier           = "myapp-db-${var.instance_id}"
  engine               = "postgres"
  engine_version       = "15.3"
  instance_class       = "db.t3.micro"
  allocated_storage    = 20
  db_name              = "myapp"
  username             = "admin"
  password             = var.db_password
  db_subnet_group_name = aws_db_subnet_group.main.name
  vpc_security_group_ids = [aws_security_group.db.id]
  skip_final_snapshot  = false
  final_snapshot_identifier = "myapp-db-${var.instance_id}-final"

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# S3 bucket
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "data" {
  bucket = "myapp-data-${var.instance_id}"

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_versioning" "data" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.data.id

  versioning_configuration {
    status = "Enabled"
  }
}

# ElastiCache Redis
resource "aws_elasticache_cluster" "redis" {
  cluster_id           = "myapp-redis-${var.instance_id}"
  engine               = "redis"
  node_type            = "cache.t3.micro"
  num_cache_nodes      = 1
  parameter_group_name = "default.redis7"
  engine_version       = "7.0"
  port                 = 6379
  subnet_group_name    = aws_elasticache_subnet_group.main.name
  security_group_ids   = [aws_security_group.redis.id]

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# CloudWatch Log Groups
resource "aws_cloudwatch_log_group" "eks" {
  name              = "/aws/eks/myapp-cluster-${var.instance_id}/cluster"
  retention_in_days = 7

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Secrets
resource "aws_secretsmanager_secret" "db_password" {
  name = "${var.instance_id}/prod/db/password"

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

resource "aws_secretsmanager_secret_version" "db_password" {
  secret_id     = aws_secretsmanager_secret.db_password.id
  secret_string = var.db_password
}

variables.tf

variable "instance_id" {
  type        = string
  description = "Uniquely identifies the instance to deploy into"
}

variable "db_password" {
  type        = string
  description = "Database master password"
  sensitive   = true
}

variable "region" {
  type        = string
  description = "AWS region"
  default     = "us-west-2"
}

outputs.tf

output "eks_cluster_endpoint" {
  description = "EKS cluster API endpoint"
  value       = aws_eks_cluster.main.endpoint
}

output "database_endpoint" {
  description = "RDS database endpoint"
  value       = aws_db_instance.postgres.endpoint
  sensitive   = true
}

output "redis_endpoint" {
  description = "Redis cache endpoint"
  value       = aws_elasticache_cluster.redis.cache_nodes[0].address
}

output "data_bucket" {
  description = "S3 data bucket name"
  value       = aws_s3_bucket.data.id
}

Best practices

Use instance_id for all resource names

Every AWS resource with a name or identifier should include ${var.instance_id} to prevent conflicts across customer appliances:

# ✓ CORRECT
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "data" {
  bucket = "myapp-data-${var.instance_id}"
}

resource "aws_iam_role" "lambda" {
  name = "myapp-lambda-${var.instance_id}"
}

# ✗ INCORRECT - Will cause collisions
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "data" {
  bucket = "myapp-data"
}

Tag all resources with instance-id

Apply the instance-id tag to every resource:

tags = {
  "instance-id" = var.instance_id
}

This enables:

IAM permission scoping
CloudWatch filtering
Cost tracking
Resource discovery

Enable CloudWatch Logs for all services

Configure logging for Lambda, EKS, RDS, and other services:

resource "aws_cloudwatch_log_group" "service_logs" {
  name              = "/aws/service/${var.instance_id}"
  retention_in_days = 14
}

This ensures observability data flows to your control plane.

Use AWS Secrets Manager for sensitive data

Never hardcode secrets. Use Secrets Manager with parameterized names and pass them to your application as environment variables:

# Define secret
resource "aws_secretsmanager_secret" "api_key" {
  name = "${var.instance_id}/prod/api/key"

  tags = {
    "instance-id" = var.instance_id
  }
}

# Inject into ECS task as environment variable
resource "aws_ecs_task_definition" "app" {
  family = "myapp-${var.instance_id}"

  container_definitions = jsonencode([
    {
      name  = "app"
      image = "myapp:latest"

      secrets = [
        {
          name      = "API_KEY"
          valueFrom = aws_secretsmanager_secret.api_key.arn
        }
      ]
    }
  ])
}

Pass secrets as environment variables rather than using runtime SDK calls to ensure consistency across all deployment targets.

Troubleshooting

Deployment fails with IAM permissions errors

Symptom: Terraform apply fails with “AccessDenied” or “UnauthorizedOperation” errors.Solutions:

Verify the Tensor9 controller has successfully assumed the Deploy role
Check the Deploy role’s IAM policy includes necessary permissions for the resources being created
Ensure the trust policy allows the Tensor9 controller to assume it
Verify the DeployAccess tag is set and the time window hasn’t expired
Review CloudTrail logs in the customer account to see which specific API call was denied

Resources fail to create due to naming conflicts

Symptom: “ResourceAlreadyExists” or “BucketAlreadyExists” errors during deployment.Solutions:

Ensure all resource names include ${var.instance_id}
Verify the instance_id variable is being passed correctly
Check that no hardcoded resource names exist in your origin stack
For S3 buckets, remember they must be globally unique - include both app name and instance_id

Observability data not flowing to control plane

Symptom: CloudWatch logs and metrics aren’t appearing in your observability sink.Solutions:

Verify the Steady-state role has permissions to read CloudWatch logs and metrics
Check that all log groups and resources are tagged with instance-id
Ensure log group names are parameterized and follow the expected pattern
Verify CloudWatch log retention is set (logs may be deleted if retention is too short)
Check that the control plane is successfully assuming the Steady-state role

VPC quota limits exceeded

Symptom: “VpcLimitExceeded” error when creating VPCs.Solutions:

Ask the customer to request a VPC quota increase from AWS (default is 5 per region)
Consider deploying appliances in separate AWS regions
Use existing customer VPCs with dedicated subnets instead of creating new VPCs
Ask the customer to clean up unused VPCs in their account

RDS storage encryption conflicts

Symptom: “InvalidParameterCombination” when enabling encryption on RDS instances.Solutions:

Ensure storage_encrypted = true is set when creating the instance
Use a customer-managed KMS key if required by customer policy
Note that encryption cannot be enabled on existing unencrypted instances - must create new instance
Verify the Deploy role has KMS permissions if using customer-managed keys

Need help?

If you’re experiencing issues not covered here or need additional assistance with AWS deployments, we’re here to help:

Slack: Join our community Slack workspace for real-time support
Email: Contact us at [email protected]

Our team can help with deployment troubleshooting, IAM configuration, service equivalents, and best practices for AWS environments.

Next steps

Now that you understand deploying to AWS customer environments, explore these related topics:

Permissions Model: Deep dive into the four-phase IAM permissions model
Deployments: Learn how to create releases and deploy to customer appliances
Operations: Execute remote operations on AWS appliances
Observability: Set up comprehensive monitoring and logging
Terraform Origin Stacks: Write Terraform origin stacks optimized for AWS

Tensor9

Getting Started

Fundamentals

Your Origin Stack

Your Customer's Environment

Integrations

tensor9 CLI

Documentation Index

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​Your Control Plane

​Customer AWS Account

​Your Development Environment

​How AWS appliances work

​Permissions model

​The four permission phases

​IAM role structure

​Deployment workflow with IAM

​Networking

​Tensor9 controller VPC

​Outbound-only security model

​Application VPC topology

​Resource naming and tagging

​Parameterization pattern

​Required tags

​Observability

​CloudWatch Logs

​CloudWatch Metrics

​AWS X-Ray

​CloudTrail auditing

​Artifacts

​Container images (Amazon ECR)

​Lambda deployment packages (S3)

​Secrets management

​Secret naming and injection

​Operations

​kubectl on EKS

​AWS CLI operations

​Database queries

​Operations endpoints

​Example: Complete AWS appliance

​main.tf

​variables.tf

​outputs.tf

​Best practices

​Troubleshooting

​Next steps

Overview

Prerequisites

Your Control Plane

Customer AWS Account

Your Development Environment

How AWS appliances work

Permissions model

The four permission phases

IAM role structure

Deployment workflow with IAM

Networking

Tensor9 controller VPC

Outbound-only security model

Application VPC topology

Resource naming and tagging

Parameterization pattern

Required tags

Observability

CloudWatch Logs

CloudWatch Metrics

AWS X-Ray

CloudTrail auditing

Artifacts

Container images (Amazon ECR)

Lambda deployment packages (S3)

Secrets management

Secret naming and injection

Operations

kubectl on EKS

AWS CLI operations

Database queries

Operations endpoints

Example: Complete AWS appliance

main.tf

variables.tf

outputs.tf

Best practices

Troubleshooting

Next steps