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Terraform's CORE workflow consists of THREE steps:

• Write - Create infrastructure in the FORM of code.
• Plan - Plan ahead of time to see how the changes will look before they are implemented.
• Apply - Create a repeatable infrastructure.

To INTERFACE with cloud providers, SaaS providers, and other APIs, Terraform uses plugins CALLED "providers." Terraform configurations must specify the providers they need in order for Terraform to install and use them. Some providers also require setup (such as endpoint URLS or cloud regions) before they may be used. Terraform may manage a set of resource types and/or data sources that each provider contributes. A provider implements each resource type; Terraform would be unable to manage any infrastructure without them. The majority of service providers set up a specific infrastructure PLATFORM (either cloud or self-hosted). Local utilities, such as generating random numbers for unique resource names, can be OFFERED by providers.

Some of the VERSION CONTROL tools supported by Terraform are as FOLLOWS:

• GitHub
• GitLab CE
• GitLab EE
• Bucket CLOUD

 The terraform version command shows the current Terraform version as well as any INSTALLED plugins.

Syntax:

terraform version [options]

UNLESS DISABLED, the version will display the Terraform version, the platform it's installed on, installed providers, and the results of upgrade and security checks with no EXTRA arguments.

There is one optional flag for this command:

If you SPECIFY -json, the version information is formatted as a JSON object, with no upgrade or security information.

The terraform apply command is used to carry out the tasks in a Terraform plan. The simplest method to use terraform apply is to run it WITHOUT any arguments, in which case it will construct a new EXECUTION plan (as if you had run terraform plan) and then request you to accept it before doing the activities you specified. Another approach to use terraform apply is to SUPPLY it the filename of a saved plan file generated with terraform plan -out=..., in which case Terraform will apply the modifications to the plan without PROMPTING for CONFIRMATION. This two-step process is most useful when using Terraform in an automated environment.

Syntax:

terraform apply [options] [plan file]

The terraform validate command verifies the configuration files in a directory, focusing solely on the configuration and excluding any outside services such as remote state, provider APIs, and so on. Validate performs checks to see if a configuration is syntactically correct and internally CONSISTENT, REGARDLESS of any variables or current state. As a result, it's best used for general verification of reusable modules, such as ensuring that attribute names and value types are correct. This command can be executed automatically, for example as a post-save check in a TEXT editor or as a test step for a reusable module in a continuous integration system.

Syntax: terraform validate [options]

The following options are available with this command:

• -json - CREATE output in the machine-readable JSON format, appropriate for integration with text editors and other automated systems. Color is always turned off.
• -no-color - If supplied, the output will be COLOURLESS.

The NULL resource is a resource that lets you SET up provisioners that aren't directly linked to any current resource. Because a null resource behaves like any other resource, you can configure provisioners, CONNECTION details, and other meta-parameters just like any other resource. This gives you more precise control over when provisioners execute in the dependency GRAPH.

Following are some of the guidelines that should be followed while using Terraform modules :

• To publish to the Terraform Cloud or Terraform Enterprise module registries, you must use this convention terraform-<PROVIDER>-<NAME>.
• Start thinking about modules as you write your setup. The benefits of using modules outweigh the time it takes to utilise them properly, even for SOMEWHAT complicated Terraform settings maintained by a single person.
• To organise and encapsulate your code, use local modules. Even if you aren't using or publishing REMOTE modules, structuring your configuration in TERMS of modules from the start will DRAMATICALLY minimise the time and effort required to maintain and update your setup as your infrastructure BECOMES more complicated.
• To identify useful modules, go to the Terraform Registry, which is open to the public. By relying on the efforts of others to create common infrastructure scenarios, you may implement your configuration more quickly and confidently.
• Modules can be published and shared with your team. The majority of infrastructure is handled by a group of individuals, and modules are a vital tool for teams to collaborate on infrastructure creation and maintenance.

 Following are the benefits of using modules in Terraform :

• Organization of CONFIGURATION: By grouping relevant portions of your configuration together, modules make it easier to access, understand, and change your configuration. Hundreds or thousands of lines of configuration can be required to establish even MODERATELY complicated infrastructure. You can organise your configuration into logical components by utilising modules.
• Encapsulation of configuration: Another advantage of modules is that they ALLOW you to separate configuration into logical components. Encapsulation can help you avoid unforeseen consequences, such as a change to one element of your configuration causing changes to other infrastructure, and it can also help you avoid basic mistakes like naming two resources with the same name.
• Maintains consistency and ensures best practices: Modules can also help you maintain uniformity in your configurations. Consistency not only makes complex configurations easier to grasp, but it also ensures that best practices are followed in all of your settings. Cloud PROVIDERS, for example, offer a variety of options for establishing object storage services like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage buckets. Many high-profile security problems have occurred as a result of IMPROPERLY secured object storage, and given the number of sophisticated configuration options involved, it's possible to misconfigure these services by accident.
• Modules can aid in the reduction of errors: For example, you might design a module to define how all of your organization's public website buckets would be set, as well as a separate module for private logging buckets. In addition, if a configuration for a particular resource type needs to be altered, using modules allows you to do it in one place and have it applied to all scenarios where that module is used.
• Aids in reusability: Setting up the configurations from scratch and writing all of your settings can be time-consuming and error-prone. By reusing configuration generated by yourself, other members of your team, or other Terraform practitioners who have published modules for you to utilise, you can save time and avoid costly errors. You can also share modules you've produced with your colleagues or the broader public, allowing them to profit from your efforts.

 A Terraform module is a single directory containing Terraform CONFIGURATION files. Even a simple arrangement with a single directory having one or more files can be referred to as a module. The files have the extension .tf.  This directory is referred to as the root module when Terraform commands are RUN directly from it. Terraform commands will only use the configuration files in one location: the current working directory. Your configuration, on the other hand, can employ module blocks to call modules from other directories. When Terraform comes across a module block, it loads and processes the configuration files for that module. A module that is CALLED by another configuration is FREQUENTLY referred to as that configuration's "CHILD module."

The terraform destroy command is a simple WAY to eliminate all remote OBJECTS maintained by a Terraform setup. While you should avoid destroying long-lived objects in a production environment, Terraform is occasionally used to MANAGE temporary infrastructure for development, in which case you can use terraform destroy to quickly clean up all of those temporary objects after you're done.

Syntax: terraform destroy [options]

You may also execute the following command to build a speculative destroy plan to see what the effect of destroying MIGHT be: 

terraform -destroy plan

This will launch Terraform Plan in destroy mode, displaying the PROPOSED destroy changes but not allowing you to execute them.

TERRAFORM Cloud is a collaboration tool for teams using Terraform. It offers easy access to shared STATE and secret data, access controls for approving infrastructure modifications, a private registry for sharing Terraform modules, full policy controls for managing the contents of Terraform configurations, and more. Terraform Cloud is a hosted service that can be found at https://app.terraform.io. Terraform allows small teams to connect to version control, share variables, run Terraform in a reliable REMOTE environment, and securely save remote state for FREE. Paid tiers provide you with the ability to add more than five PEOPLE, establish teams with varying levels of access, enforce policies before building infrastructure, and work more efficiently.

Large businesses can utilise the Business tier to scale to multiple concurrent runs, establish infrastructure in private environments, manage user access using SSO, and automate infrastructure end-user self-service provisioning.

 Following are some of the major competitors of Terraform:

• AZURE MANAGEMENT Tools.
• Morpheus.
• CloudHealth.
• Turbonomic.
• CloudBolt.
• Apptio Cloudability
• Ansible
• KUBERNETES
• Platform9 MANAGED Kubernetes.

 Following are the reasons that Terraform is preferred as one of the DevOps tools :

• Terraform allows you to specify infrastructure in config/code, making it simple to rebuild, alter, and track infrastructure changes. Terraform is a high-level infrastructure description.
• While there are a few alternatives, they are all centred on a single cloud provider. Terraform is the only powerful solution that is totally platform-neutral and supports different services.
• Terraform allows you to implement a variety of coding concepts, such as putting your code under version control, writing automated tests, and so on.
• Terraform is the best tool for infrastructure management since many other solutions suffer from an impedance mismatch when attempting to use an API meant for CONFIGURING management to govern an infrastructure environment. Instead, Terraform is a perfect match for what you want to do because the API is built around how you think about infrastructure.
• Terraform has a thriving community and is open source, so it's attracting a sizable following. Many people already use it, making it easy to discover individuals who know how to use it, as well as plugins, extensions, and EXPERT ASSISTANCE. Terraform is also evolving at a much faster rate as a result of this. They have a lot of releases.
• Terraform's speed and efficiency are unrivalled. Terraform's plan command, for example, allows you to see what changes you're about to make before you do them. Terraform and its code reuse feature makes most modifications faster than SIMILAR tools like CloudFormation.

The terraform init command creates a working directory in which Terraform CONFIGURATION files can be FOUND. After creating a new Terraform configuration or cloning an OLD one from version control, run this command first. It is safe to use this command more than once. Despite the fact that successive runs may result in errors, this command will never overwrite your current SETTINGS or state.

Syntax:

terraform init [options]

The following options can be used in conjunction with the init command :

• -input=true: This option is set to true if the user input is mandatory. If no user input is provided, an error will be thrown.
• -lock=false: This option is used to disable the locking of state files during state-related actions.
• -lock-timeout=<duration>: This option is used to override the time it takes Terraform to get a state lock. If the lock is already held by another process, the default is 0s (zero seconds), which results in an immediate failure.
• -no-color: This option disables the color codes in the command output.
• -upgrade: This option can be CHOSEN to upgrade modules and plugins throughout the installation process.

Yes. Azure EVENT Hubs can be used to accomplish this. This capability is now ACCESSIBLE in the Terraform AzureRM PROVIDER. Terraform's Azure supplier provides USERS with simple functionality. Microsoft Azure Cloud Shell includes a Terraform occurrence that has ALREADY been setup.

 Following are the USE cases of Terraform:

• Setting Up a Heroku App:
  • Heroku is a prominent platform as a service (PaaS) for hosting web applications. Developers build an app first, then add add-ons like a database or an email service. The ability to elastically scale the number of dynos or workers is one of the nicest features. Most non-trivial applications, on the other hand, quickly require a large number of add-ons and external services.
  • Terraform may be used to codify the setup required for a Heroku application, ensuring that all ESSENTIAL add-ons are present, but it can also go beyond, such as configuring DNSimple to set a CNAME or configuring Cloudflare as the app's CDN. Best of all, Terraform can achieve all of this without using a web interface in about 30 seconds.

• Clusters of Self-Service: 
  • A centralised operations team managing a huge and growing infrastructure becomes extremely difficult at a given organisational level. Making "self-serve" infrastructure, which allows product teams to manage their own infrastructure using tooling given by the central operations team, becomes more appealing.
  • Terraform configuration may be used to document knowledge about how to construct and scale a service. You may then publish these configurations across your business, allowing client teams to administer their services using Terraform.
• Quick Creation of Environments: 
  • It is usual to have both a production and staging or quality assurance environment. These environments are smaller clones of their production counterparts, and they're used to test new apps before they're RELEASED to the public. Maintaining an up-to-date staging environment gets increasingly difficult as the production environment grows larger and more complicated.
  • Terraform may be used to codify the production environment, which can then be shared with staging, QA, and development. These settings can be used to quickly create new environments in which to test and then readily discarded. Terraform can help to reduce the challenge of sustaining parallel environments by making it possible to create and destroy them on the fly.
• Deployment of Multiple Clouds: 
  • To boost fault tolerance, it's common to disperse infrastructure across different clouds. When only one region or cloud provider is used, fault tolerance is restricted by that provider's availability. When a region or an entire provider goes down, a multi-cloud strategy provides for more gentle recovery.
  • Because many existing infrastructure management solutions are cloud-specific, implementing multi-cloud INSTALLATIONS can be difficult. Terraform is cloud-agnostic, allowing you to manage numerous providers and even cross-cloud dependencies with a single configuration. This helps operators DEVELOP large-scale multi-cloud infrastructures by simplifying management and orchestration.
• Applications with Multiple Tier Architecture: 
  • The N-tier architecture is a relatively popular structure. A pool of web servers with a database tier is the most popular 2-tier system. API servers, cache servers, routing meshes, and more levels are added. Because the stages can be scaled individually and provide a separation of concerns, this structure is used.
  • Terraform is a great tool for creating and managing these types of infrastructures. Terraform will automatically handle the dependencies between each layer if you arrange resources in each tier together. Before provisioning the web servers, Terraform will check that the database layer is up and running, as well as that the load balancers are linked to the web nodes. The count configuration value can then be changed in Terraform to quickly scale each tier. Because resource creation and provisioning are codified and automated, elastic scaling in response to load is a breeze.
• Schedulers of Resources:
  • The static assignment of applications to computers in large-scale infrastructures becomes increasingly difficult. There are a variety of schedulers available to handle this problem, including Borg, Mesos, YARN, and Kubernetes. These may be used to schedule Docker containers, Hadoop, Spark, and a variety of other software tools on a dynamic basis.
  • Terraform isn't just for physical providers like Amazon Web Services. Terraform can request resources from resource schedulers because they can be treated as providers. This allows Terraform to work in layers, such as setting up the physical infrastructure that runs the schedulers and provisioning into the scheduled grid.
• Software-Defined Networking:
  • SDN (Software Defined Networking) is becoming more common in data centers as it gives operators and developers more control over the network and allows the network to better support the applications running on top. A control layer and an infrastructure layer are common in SDN systems.
  • Terraform may be used to codify software-defined network setup. By interacting with the control layer, Terraform may use this configuration to automatically set up and adjust settings. This makes it possible to version the settings and automate modifications. Terraform, for example, may be used to set up an AWS VPC.
• Demonstrations of software:
  • Modern software is becoming increasingly networked and distributed. Although solutions such as Vagrant exist to create virtualized environments for demos, demonstrating software on real infrastructure that more closely resembles production environments remains difficult.
  • On cloud providers like AWS, software authors can give a Terraform configuration to develop, provision, and bootstrap a demo. End customers may simply demo the programme on their own infrastructure, and settings like cluster size can be tweaked to more thoroughly test tools at any scale.

Following are the key features of Terraform:

• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform's high-level configuration language is used to describe your infrastructure in declarative configuration files that are human-readable. You may now generate a blueprint that you can edit, SHARE, and reuse.
• Execution Strategies: Before making any infrastructure modifications, Terraform develops an execution plan that describes what it will do and asks for your agreement. Before Terraform produces, upgrades, or DESTROYS infrastructure, you can evaluate the changes.
• Graph of Resources: Terraform develops or alters non-dependent resources while simultaneously building a resource graph. This allows Terraform to CONSTRUCT resources as quickly as possible while also providing you with more information about your infrastructure.
• Automation of Change: Terraform can automate the APPLICATION of COMPLEX changesets to your infrastructure with little to no human intervention. Terraform identifies what happened when you update configuration files and provides incremental execution plans that take dependencies into account.