Getting Started with Terraform for Infrastructure as Code

terraform infrastructure devops

Terraform is an open-source tool that lets you define and provision cloud resources using declarative configuration files. With it you can version your infrastructure the same way you version your application code.

How Terraform Works

Terraform reads configuration files written in the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) and creates a plan for provisioning resources. The workflow generally follows these steps:

1. terraform init – initialize the working directory and download providers.
2. terraform plan – preview the changes Terraform will make.
3. terraform apply – create or update infrastructure to match the configuration.

Example Configuration

Here is a minimal example that deploys an EC2 instance in AWS:

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
}

Diagram

The diagram below shows Terraform interacting with AWS resources via the provider:

Terraform supports many providers beyond AWS, such as Azure, Google Cloud, and others. By storing your infrastructure definitions in code, you gain repeatability and can collaborate using version control.