What’s the Best Way to Set Up a State Backend on AWS?

I prefer using Terraform the whole way through. I start by running it without a backend set up—this allows me to create the S3 bucket without needing DynamoDB. Once the bucket is created, I enable the remote backend again and push my local state file.

One effective way to approach this is to manually bootstrap just the bare essentials. By 'manually', I mean using a solid bootstrap script to set things up initially. Usually, this includes creating a Service Account and whatever's necessary for the functioning state backend. Once that's done, import these resources into Terraform for future management.

Honestly, I tend to keep it simple. I have a generic CloudFormation template that I leverage to set up the Terraform backend resources. It saves me time and effort.

I use a CloudFormation template that I deploy via the AWS CLI. This template just creates the necessary Terraform storage bucket, and I think there’s a flag in the CLI (might be --deploy) that handles everything idempotently, which makes the process pretty smooth.