Welcome to this repository, which is focused on learning Terraform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC). Initially, I was using PowerShell scripts to manage infrastructure, but these were procedural and not as efficient or flexible as Terraform's declarative approach. As I began exploring Terraform, I saw the benefits of using a unified language for provisioning infrastructure across multiple cloud platforms, like AWS and Azure.
This repository captures my journey in learning Terraform, and my goal is to share what I’ve learned with you. It includes step-by-step examples of how to use Terraform to provision virtual machines (VMs) in both AWS and Azure, and how to remotely access them (for Windows OS). Over time, I will continue to expand the repository with more use cases as I deepen my knowledge and learn new concepts in Terraform.
The motivation behind this repository is to provide practical, beginner-friendly examples that demonstrate how to use Terraform in real-world scenarios. Additionally, I'm including a new section that focuses on HCP Terraform (HashiCorp Cloud Platform)—a managed service for running Terraform in a more integrated and streamlined way.
To begin with, most of my hands-on learnings are going to be following tutorials/getting started docs available at:
Before you start, make sure to install Terraform. You can find installation instructions in the official documentation:
This repository is organized into various folders, each corresponding to different tutorials and use cases for Terraform. The structure is as follows:
- Get-Started-AWS-001 to Get-Started-AWS-007: Terraform use cases for provisioning resources on AWS.
- Get-Started-Azure-001 and Get-Started-Azure-002: Terraform use cases for provisioning resources on Azure.
- Get-Started-AWS-009-CI-CD-AzureDevops: Demonstrates how to use Terraform with Azure DevOps to provision resources in AWS as part of a CI/CD pipeline.
- Get-Started-UsingVariables: Uses the
countconstruct to create multiple AWS cloud resources of the same type. - Get-Started-HCP-Terraform: Uses HCP Terraform (HashiCorp Cloud Platform) to show how to use Terraform in a managed environment.
You can explore each of these folders to find specific examples and step-by-step guides.
Start by initializing the working directory:
terraform init
After initializing, create an execution plan that shows the changes Terraform will make:
terraform plan -out ${PlanFileName}.tfplan
Now, apply the changes defined in the plan to provision the infrastructure:
terraform apply ${PlanFileName}.tfplan
Once you're done and want to clean up the resources, run the destroy command:
terraform destroy
To skip prompts and automatically approve the operations (use with caution), add the --auto-approve flag:
terraform apply --auto-approve
terraform destroy --auto-approve
Note: It's advisable not to use --auto-approve for the first time to provision resources to ensure you review the execution plan for correctness.
When creating a new repository for Terraform, be careful about which files are committed. Sensitive files like terraform.tfstate and tfvars should not be committed to version control. Use a .gitignore file to ensure that these are excluded.
The repository currently demonstrates open-source Terraform, but the new HCP Terraform folder shows how to leverage a managed service for Terraform from HashiCorp.
Feel free to fork the repository, make your own modifications, or contribute new use cases! If you find any bugs or have suggestions for improvements, open an issue or submit a pull request.
This project is licensed under the Unlicense - see the LICENSE file for details.
I would like to thank the Terraform community and the official documentation, which has been a great resource for learning and improving my skills.