Terraform Concepts
Internal
Overview
Terraform is a tool for building, changing and managing infrastructure, as code. It uses a configuration language named Hashicorp Configuration Language (HCL). Terraform is platform agnostic, and achieves that by using different provider APIs for resource provisioning, via plug-ins. A heterogenous environment can be managed with the same workflow.
Hashicorp Configuration Language (HCL)
HCL is human-readable. Configuration can also be JSON, but JSON is only recommended when the configuration is generated by a machine. Internally, the declarative language that drives provider API for resource provisioning. For more details, see:
Provider
A provider is responsible for creating and managing resources. Terraform uses provider plug-ins to translate its configuration into API instructions for the provider. In a configuration file, a provider is specified in a "provider" block. Multiple provider blocks can exist in a Terraform configuration file.
Configured in the “provider” block.
Provider Plug-In
Provider-specific resources are managed with provider plugins. Each provider plugin is a an encapsulated binary, distributed separated by Terraform. They are downloaded by terraform init and stored in a subdirectory of the current working directory.
Available Providers
AWS
Kubernetes
Helm
Resource
A Terraform resource represents an actual resource that exists in the infrastructure. A resource can be a physical components, such an EC2 instance, or a logical resource, such an application. A Terraform resource has a type and a name. In a configuration file, a resource is described in a "resource" block.
Resource Type
The resource type and name together serve as an identifier for a given resource and so must be unique within a module.
Resource Name
The resource name is used to refer to this resource from elsewhere in the same Terraform module, but has no significance outside of the scope of a module. The resource type and name together serve as an identifier for a given resource and so must be unique within a module.
Resource Dependencies
Resource parameters use information from other resources. This is called an interpolation expression.
instance = aws_instance.example.id
If the resources are not dependent, they can be created in parallel, which will be done whenever possible.
Implicit Dependency
Implicit dependencies via interpolation expressions are the primary way to inform Terraform about these relationships and should be used whenever possible.
Explicit Dependency
Explicit dependencies are expressed with “depends_on”. This is when the dependency is configured inside the application code, and it has to be explicitly mirrored in the infrastructure configuration.
depends_on = [aws_s3_bucket.example]
Tainted Resource
When provisioning fails, resources are marked as "tainted". Resources can be manually tainted with the “taint” command. This command does not modify infrastructure, but it modifies the state file to mark the resource as tainted – the next plan will show that the resource will be destroyed and recreated.
Provisioning
In this context, provisioning means initialization of the resources created by the “apply” step by performing software provisioning. Another name for provisioning is instance initialization.
Provisioner
A provisioner uploads files, runs shell scripts, installs and trigger other software like configuration management tools. A provisioner is only run when the resource is created. The provisioner is declared inside a resource block with the “provisioner” keyword.
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
…
provisioner "local-exec" {
command = "echo ${aws_instance.example.public_ip} > ip_address.txt"
}
}
Multiple provisioner blocks can be added.
Failed Provisioner
If a resource is successfully created but fails during provisioning, it is marked as “tainted”.
Available Provisioners
- local-exec
- remote-exec (via ssh, specified with a “connection” keyword) https://learn.hashicorp.com/terraform/getting-started/provision#defining-a-provisioner