Terraform
In depthTool
HashiCorp’s Infrastructure-as-Code tool. Describes cloud infrastructure declaratively in HCL files.
Terraform, explained
Written by EduVerseWhat it is
Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code tool from HashiCorp. Instead of clicking servers, databases and networks together in a cloud console, you describe them in .tf files written in HCL, its configuration language. Terraform works out what has to be created, changed or deleted to make the real infrastructure match those files.
Why teams use it
Infrastructure built by hand is hard to reproduce, and nobody remembers exactly what was clicked. With Terraform it lives in Git: changes are reviewed like code, and you can build a staging environment that matches production. Through providers it works with AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and many other services, unlike cloud-specific tools such as AWS CloudFormation.
An example from work
You open a pull request that adds a storage bucket in main.tf. The pipeline runs terraform plan and posts the result: “Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.” After approval, terraform apply creates the bucket, and Terraform’s state file records that it now exists.
Our own explanation, not a quote from the book.
In the book
Sentences from The Software Realm, Decoded that mention Terraform, exactly as printed.
1 more passages about Terraform in the full book
Read every conversation where Terraform comes up, with the interactive slides and demos.
Where it fits
Provisioning and managing cloud infrastructure as code
Coverage in the book
Covered in depth: multiple pages with explanations, examples and simulations.
