Day 61: Terraform Commands📜

What is Terraform?

• Terraform is an infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that allows you to create, manage, and update infrastructure resources such as virtual machines, networks, and storage in a repeatable, scalable, and automated way.

• Terraform is an open-source tool created by HashiCorp and is written in the Go programming language. It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS

Task 1:

Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code (IAC) tool used for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure efficiently. It has several commands to manage your infrastructure code and the resources it provisions.

Here are some commonly used Terraform commands:

1. Command: init

terraform init

• Initializes a new or existing Terraform configuration in the current directory. This command downloads the necessary provider plugins and sets up the working directory.

• What it does: Prepares your project for Terraform.

1. Command: init -upgrade

terraform init -upgrade

• Upgrades the installed Terraform plugins to the latest version, if available. This command is useful when upgrading Terraform versions or when there are new versions of the plugins that need to be used.

• What it does: It Upgrades the installed Terraform to its latest version.

1. Command:

terraform plan

• Generates a execution plan description of what Terraform will do to reach the desired state define your configuration. It shows which resources will be created, updated, or destroyed.

• What it does: Shows what Terraform will do without making changes.

1. Command: Apply

terraform apply

• Applies the changes the defined in your Terraform configuration to create or update resources based on the execution plan. It prompts for confirmation before making changes.

• What it does: Make changes to your infrastructure based on the plan.

1. Command: validate

terraform validate

• Checks the syntax and configuration of your Terraform files for errors without actually creating or modifying resources.

• What it does: Check your configuration for errors.

1. Command: fmt

terraform fmt

• Rewrites Terraform configuration files to a canonical format and style. This applies standard formatting conventions to the code to make it easier to read and understand.

• what it does: It helps ensure that your code is easy to read, maintain, and collaborate on by enforcing a consistent code structure.

1. Command: Destroy

terraform destroy

• Destroys are all resources defined in your configuration, effectively tearing down your infrastructure. It also prompts for confirmation before proceeding.

• What it does: Removes all resources created by Terraform.

1. Command: show

terraform show

• Inspects the current state of the infrastructure and outputs the resource information.

• What it does: Shows the current state of your infrastructure.

1. Command: Graph

terraform graph

• terraform graph: Creates a visual representation of the Terraform resources defined in your configuration. It outputs the generated graph in the DOT format.

• What it does: Generates a visual graph of resource dependencies.

1. Command:

terraform import

• Imports existing infrastructure into your Terraform state. This allows you to take resources you've created by some other means and bring it under Terraform management.

• What it does: Imports existing infrastructure into Terraform.

1. Command: Output

terraform output

• Reads the state file and outputs the value of a specified output variable. This is useful for fetching the value of a specific variable.

• What it does: Reads an output from a state file.

1. Command: Provider

terraform providers

• Prints a tree of the providers used in the configuration. This is useful for finding out the providers required for a configuration.

• What it does: Lists the providers (e.g., AWS, Azure) used in your configuration.

1. Command: Workspace

terraform workspace

• Used to create, list, and delete Terraform workspaces. Workspaces allow you to manage multiple distinct sets of infrastructure resources with the same configuration files.

• What it does: Manages workspaces (e.g., dev, staging, prod).

1. Command: Refresh

terraform refresh

• Updates the state of resources in a Terraform state file. This is useful when the state resource is changed by some other means.

• What it does: Updates the state file.

1. Command: version

terraform version

• Prints the Terraform version. This is useful for checking which version of Terraform is running.

• What it does: Print the Terraform version.

Who are Terraform's main competitors?

• AWS CloudFormation: AWS CloudFormation is a service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for defining and deploying infrastructure as code on the AWS platform. It's a direct competitor for those who are heavily invested in AWS.

• Ansible: Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool. It's a direct competitor for those who are heavily invested in Red Hat.

• Chef and Puppet: Chef and Puppet are traditional configuration management tools but can also be used for infrastructure automation. While they differ in their approach from Terraform, they can be considered competitors in the broader infrastructure automation landscape.

• Packer: Packer is an open-source tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. It's a direct competitor for those who are heavily invested in HashiCorp.

• Kubernetes: While not a direct competitor, Kubernetes, the container orchestration platform, plays a significant role in managing application deployments and infrastructure at scale. It complements tools like Terraform, and there's some overlap in use cases.

• Cloud Foundry: Cloud Foundry is an open-source, multi-cloud application platform as a service (PaaS) governed by the Cloud Foundry Foundation, a 501(c)(6) organization. It's a direct competitor for those who are heavily invested in Cloud Foundry.

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  Happy Learning :)