Skip to main content

​
Overview

There are two approaches for creating multiple similar S3 buckets with this module:
  1. Terraform for_each — available since Terraform 0.13, works natively in any Terraform workflow.
  2. Wrapper module — a thin wrapper in the wrappers/ directory designed for Terragrunt users who want a single configuration file to manage multiple buckets.

Terraform for_each

Use the native for_each meta-argument inside a module block to create multiple buckets from a single module source.

Terragrunt Wrapper

Use the //wrappers sub-path to pass a map of bucket configurations from a single terragrunt.hcl.

​
Using for_each in a module block

Terraform 0.13 introduced for_each as a module meta-argument. You can use it directly with this module to create several buckets without repeating the module block. 
module "s3_buckets" {
  source   = "terraform-aws-modules/s3-bucket/aws"
  for_each = toset(["bucket-a", "bucket-b", "bucket-c"])

  bucket        = each.value
  force_destroy = true

  tags = {
    Name = each.value
  }
}
Each bucket is addressable as module.s3_buckets["bucket-a"], module.s3_buckets["bucket-b"], etc. For a more complex scenario where each bucket needs different configuration, use a map: 
locals {
  buckets = {
    logs = {
      attach_elb_log_delivery_policy = true
      force_destroy                  = true
    }
    assets = {
      versioning = { enabled = true }
    }
    backups = {
      versioning    = { enabled = true }
      force_destroy = false
    }
  }
}

module "s3_buckets" {
  source   = "terraform-aws-modules/s3-bucket/aws"
  for_each = local.buckets

  bucket = each.key

  attach_elb_log_delivery_policy = try(each.value.attach_elb_log_delivery_policy, false)
  versioning                     = try(each.value.versioning, {})
  force_destroy                  = try(each.value.force_destroy, false)
}

​
The wrappers/ directory

The wrappers/ directory contains a thin wrapper module that uses for_each internally. It accepts two variables:
VariableTypeDescription
itemsanyMap of bucket configurations. Each key becomes one bucket.
defaultsanyDefault values applied to every item unless overridden.
Every argument supported by the root module is supported by the wrapper. Item-level values override defaults.

​
Output

The wrapper exposes a single wrapper output that is a map of all module outputs, keyed by the same keys as items: 
output "wrapper" {
  description = "Map of outputs of a wrapper."
  value       = module.wrapper
}

​
Usage with Terraform

module "wrapper" {
  source = "terraform-aws-modules/s3-bucket/aws//wrappers"

  defaults = {
    force_destroy = true
    tags = {
      Terraform   = "true"
      Environment = "dev"
    }
  }

  items = {
    my-item = {
      # any argument supported by the module
    }
    my-second-item = {
      # any argument supported by the module
    }
  }
}

​
Usage with Terragrunt

Terragrunt users can use the wrapper to manage multiple buckets from a single terragrunt.hcl, avoiding the need for one file per bucket. 
# terragrunt.hcl
terraform {
  source = "tfr:///terraform-aws-modules/s3-bucket/aws//wrappers"
  # Alternative source:
  # source = "git::[email protected]:terraform-aws-modules/terraform-aws-s3-bucket.git//wrappers?ref=master"
}

inputs = {
  defaults = {
    tags = {
      Terraform   = "true"
      Environment = "dev"
    }
  }

  items = {
    my-item = {
      # omitted... can be any argument supported by the module
    }
    my-second-item = {
      # omitted... can be any argument supported by the module
    }
  }
}
When using the wrapper from Terragrunt, type = any variables such as versioning, lifecycle_rule, and cors_rule must still be wrapped in jsonencode(). See Terragrunt Compatibility for the full list.

​
Accessing wrapper outputs

Because the wrapper emits a single wrapper output that is a map, you access individual bucket outputs by key: 
output "bucket1_arn" {
  value = module.wrapper.wrapper["bucket1"].s3_bucket_arn
}

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us