Deploy OpenClaw with Terraform: Community Boilerplate for Persistent Storage

Deploying OpenClaw to a cloud VPS is straightforward, but managing persistent storage across restarts and redeployments can be tricky. Community member shiv has created a Terraform boilerplate that solves this problem elegantly.

The Problem

When you spin up OpenClaw on a cloud instance, you need to handle:

• Persistent storage for your workspace, configs, and memory files
• Reproducible infrastructure so you can tear down and rebuild easily
• Proper volume mounting so data survives container restarts

Manually configuring this every time gets tedious, especially if you're iterating on your setup or managing multiple instances.

The Solution: Terraform Boilerplate

Shiv's boilerplate provides a ready-to-use Terraform configuration that handles all of this:

git clone https://github.com/sdubey3/openclaw-terraform
cd openclaw-terraform
terraform init
terraform apply

What's Included

• Pre-configured storage volumes that persist across redeployments
• Sensible defaults for common cloud providers
• Modular structure so you can customize for your needs
• Documentation for getting started quickly

Why Use Terraform?

If you're not familiar with Terraform, here's why it's valuable for OpenClaw deployments:

1. Infrastructure as Code: Your entire setup is version-controlled and reproducible
2. Easy Scaling: Spin up identical environments for testing vs production
3. Clean Teardown: Remove everything with terraform destroy when you're done experimenting
4. Team Collaboration: Share configurations with teammates without manual setup steps

Getting Started

Check out the repository: github.com/sdubey3/openclaw-terraform

The README includes:

• Prerequisites and requirements
• Step-by-step deployment instructions
• Configuration options for customization
• Troubleshooting common issues

Community Contributions Welcome

This is an open-source community project. If you have improvements or want to add support for additional cloud providers, PRs are welcome!

Found in #users-helping-users on the OpenClaw Discord. Thanks to shiv for sharing!