workflow.md

Objective 6: Navigate Terraform workflow

Describe Terraform workflow ( Write -> Plan -> Create )

• Write
  • Author infrastructure as code
• Plan
  • Preview changes before applying
• Create (Apply)
  • Provision reproducible infrastructure
• Configuration is written like any program, use version control to keep track of changes

  # Create repository
  $ git init my-infra && cd my-infra
  Initialized empty Git repository in /.../my-infra/.git/
  # Write initial config
  $ vim main.tf
  # Initialize Terraform
  $ terraform init
  Initializing provider plugins...
  # ...
  Terraform has been successfully initialized!

• running Terraform plan repeatedly is useful to make sure there are no syntax errors and the correct code is being written per the desired outcome.
• First run Terraform apply before pushing to git to make sure the provisions are correct
• While working in teams it is best to use branches to avoid code collision.

  $ git checkout -b <branch-name>
   Switched to a new branch <branch-name>

• Teams can review changes via Terraform plans and pull requests
• Terraform cloud helps streamline this process in a team setting
  • Write - secure location for storing variables and state with the "remote" backend, then a Terraform Cloud API key is used to edit the configuration and run plans against the state file.

    terraform {
    backend "remote" {
        organization = "my-org"
        workspaces {
        prefix = "my-app-"
     }
    }
   }
   #--------------------------------------
   $ terraform workspace select my-app-dev
   Switched to workspace "my-app-dev".
   $ terraform plan
   Running plan remotely in Terraform Enterprise.
   Output will stream here. To view this plan in a browser, visit:
   https://app.terraform.io/my-org/my-app-dev/.../
   Refreshing Terraform state in-memory prior to plan...
   # ...
   Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

  • Plan - plans are automatically run when a pull request is created. Status updates are shown in the pull request view.
  • Apply - A confirm and apply is needed after merging to run an apply.

The next section will go over Terraform Commands

For a reference of all commands checkout out this file on Terraform CLI

Initialize a Terraform working directory (terraform init)

terraform init

• prepares working directory for use
• safe to run multiple times to bring the working directory up to date
• it will never delete a configuration or state

Validate a Terraform configuration (terraform validate)

terraform validate

• validates the configuration files in the dir, this does not apply to things like remote state or provider APIs
• validate checks for syntax, internal consistency, such as attribute names and value types
• safe to run automatically or as a test step for CI
• requires initialized working directory

Generate and review an execution plan for Terraform (terraform plan)

Terraform plan

• Creates an execution plan, automatically performs a refresh

Execute changes to infrastructure with Terraform (terraform apply)

terraform apply

• applies changes needed for the desired state of the configuration
• runs set of actions defined by a terraform plan command

Destroy Terraform managed infrastructure (terraform destroy)

terraform destroy

• completely destroys and terraform created infrastructure

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⏮️ Objective 5   ||   Objective 7 ⏩

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