8 Terraform Best Practices that will improve your TF workflow immediately

Summary

This video introduces eight essential Terraform best practices for improving your infrastructure workflows and collaboration. Key practices focus on managing Terraform state files, including using shared remote storage, enabling state locking, and backing up files with versioning. Additional recommendations include using separate state files per environment, hosting Terraform code in a dedicated Git repository, and implementing GitOps for continuous integration and deployment. The video emphasizes automating Terraform operations via a continuous deployment pipeline to streamline updates and ensure code quality. These practices enhance efficiency, team collaboration, and infrastructure stability.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Terraform is a leading Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool, and using best practices will boost confidence in managing infrastructure.
• 📝 Terraform state files track the current state of infrastructure, comparing it with the desired configuration to plan changes.
• ❌ Best practice: Never manually manipulate the state file. Always use Terraform commands to avoid unexpected results.
• 🌐 Best practice: Use shared remote storage (like AWS S3, Terraform Cloud, or GCP) for state files in team environments to ensure everyone works with the latest state.
• 🔒 Best practice: Enable state file locking (e.g., with AWS DynamoDB) to prevent simultaneous updates from multiple users, avoiding conflicts.
• 📂 Best practice: Backup state files by enabling versioning in your remote storage (like S3), ensuring a history of changes and the ability to restore previous states.
• 🌍 Best practice: Use separate state files for different environments (e.g., development, testing, production) with independent backend configurations for each.
• 📁 Best practice: Host Terraform code in its own Git repository for collaboration, versioning, and better management of infrastructure changes.
• 🔄 Best practice: Treat Terraform code like application code by using a continuous integration (CI) pipeline for testing and reviewing changes via merge requests.
• 🤖 Best practice: Automate infrastructure updates by applying Terraform changes through a continuous deployment (CD) pipeline, streamlining the process and avoiding manual execution.

Q & A

What is Terraform and what does it do?

Terraform is an infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tool that automates the creation, management, and changes of infrastructure. It uses a state file to track the current infrastructure and determine what changes need to be made when configurations are updated.

What is the Terraform state file, and why is it important?

The Terraform state file is a JSON file that contains information about the resources Terraform manages. It allows Terraform to track infrastructure changes and generate plans to apply those changes. It is crucial because it holds the current state of the infrastructure.

Why is it important not to manually edit the state file?

Manually editing the state file can lead to unexpected results or conflicts. Best practice dictates that any changes to the state file should be made through Terraform commands to ensure consistency and avoid errors.

What is the purpose of using a shared remote storage for the state file?

In team environments, shared remote storage allows all team members to access the latest version of the state file before making updates. It ensures that everyone works with the most current infrastructure state and prevents conflicts.

What is state file locking, and why is it necessary?

State file locking prevents multiple team members from making concurrent changes to the state file. Locking ensures that updates are made sequentially and avoids conflicts or corruption of the state file during simultaneous edits.

How can you prevent losing or corrupting the state file?

You can prevent losing or corrupting the state file by enabling versioning in the remote storage backend. This allows you to maintain a history of state changes and restore previous versions if necessary.

Why should each environment have its own state file?

Each environment, such as development, testing, and production, should have its own dedicated state file to ensure that changes are tracked separately for each environment. This avoids cross-environment conflicts and maintains clean infrastructure management.

What is the benefit of hosting Terraform code in a Git repository?

Hosting Terraform code in a Git repository allows for version control, collaboration, and tracking changes over time. It provides an organized way to manage infrastructure code and ensures that team members can work together efficiently.

Why is it important to review and test Terraform code changes?

Just like application code, Terraform code should go through a review and testing process to ensure quality and avoid errors. Using merge requests and a continuous integration (CI) pipeline ensures that changes are properly vetted before being applied.

Why should Terraform commands be executed in a continuous deployment pipeline?

Executing Terraform commands in a continuous deployment pipeline ensures that infrastructure changes are applied consistently and from a single location. This eliminates the risks associated with manual execution from individual machines and streamlines the process of updating infrastructure.

Outlines

00:00

📋 Introduction to Terraform Best Practices

The introduction outlines the aim of the video, which is to teach eight best practices for using Terraform, an infrastructure-as-code tool. It begins by addressing common concerns for new users, explaining that these best practices will enhance workflows and confidence. The section also introduces the concept of Terraform state, a crucial file that tracks current infrastructure, and emphasizes its role in comparing desired and actual configurations. Additionally, it provides an initial best practice: avoid manually altering the state file to prevent unexpected issues.

05:00

💾 Managing Terraform State Files in Teams

This section discusses the significance of the Terraform state file and its challenges in a team setting. It explains that when working in a team, the state file should be stored remotely so all team members have access to the latest version before making changes. A shared remote storage, such as Amazon S3, Terraform Cloud, Azure, or Google Cloud, is recommended. The best practice of state file locking is introduced to prevent conflicts, ensuring no two team members can make changes to the state file simultaneously. It mentions that not all storage backends support locking, so careful consideration is needed.

🔒 Ensuring State File Backup and Versioning

The focus here is on protecting the Terraform state file from accidental loss or corruption. The recommended best practice is enabling backup through versioning in the storage backend, such as Amazon S3, which helps keep a history of state file changes. This allows easy restoration to a previous state if necessary. This section also highlights the importance of using separate state files for different environments (e.g., development, testing, and production) and ensuring that each has its own locking and versioning configurations to avoid mix-ups.

🧑‍💻 Terraform Code Collaboration and Version Control

This paragraph introduces the concept of GitOps, a modern approach to managing infrastructure as code. It recommends hosting Terraform code in its own Git repository to enable better collaboration and version control. With Git, infrastructure code changes can be tracked, reviewed, and managed in the same way as application code. The integration of Terraform with GitOps automates processes and simplifies cloud deployments, offering better control over infrastructure changes.

🚧 Applying Continuous Integration for Infrastructure Code

This section continues the focus on managing Terraform code within a team. It advocates treating infrastructure code with the same rigor as application code by requiring proper reviews, tests, and continuous integration pipelines. A best practice is to use merge requests and pipelines to ensure that all infrastructure changes are properly reviewed and tested before being applied. This helps maintain code quality and promotes team collaboration.

🚀 Deploying Infrastructure Updates via Continuous Deployment

The final best practice focuses on executing Terraform commands within a continuous deployment pipeline rather than manually. Automating infrastructure updates through a centralized pipeline ensures that changes are consistent, traceable, and executed from a single location. This streamlines the deployment process, reduces the risk of errors from manual updates, and provides a more structured method of applying infrastructure changes across environments.

🔗 Conclusion and Call to Action

The video wraps up by summarizing the eight best practices for Terraform use, including state file management, code collaboration, and deployment automation. The host encourages viewers to share any additional best practices they follow in the comments section. The video also provides links to other Terraform-related resources for further learning and thanks the audience for watching.

Keywords

💡Terraform

Terraform is a popular open-source tool for managing infrastructure as code (IaC). It allows users to define and provision data center infrastructure using declarative configuration files. In the video, Terraform is the main focus, and the speaker provides best practices for its efficient use in workflows, especially in team environments.

💡Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the practice of managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable configuration files rather than physical hardware configuration or interactive configuration tools. In the context of Terraform, IaC automates the deployment and management of infrastructure, making changes easily trackable and reproducible.

💡State file

The state file in Terraform is a JSON file that keeps track of the infrastructure resources that Terraform manages. It serves as the current state of the infrastructure and is crucial for determining what changes need to be made. The video emphasizes the importance of managing the state file properly, recommending remote storage, locking, and backups.

💡Remote storage

Remote storage refers to storing the Terraform state file in a shared, centralized location like an Amazon S3 bucket or Terraform Cloud. This allows multiple team members to access and update the state file in collaborative environments. The video highlights remote storage as a best practice for teams to ensure everyone works with the latest state.

💡State file locking

State file locking prevents multiple team members from updating the state file simultaneously, which could result in conflicts or corrupted data. The video explains that using services like DynamoDB can enable automatic locking for the state file, ensuring that only one update occurs at a time.

💡Versioning

Versioning in Terraform refers to the practice of keeping historical records of state file changes. By enabling versioning in remote storage solutions like Amazon S3, teams can track changes, revert to previous states, and prevent data loss in case of corruption or accidental overrides. The video suggests versioning as a critical safeguard for Terraform workflows.

💡GitOps

GitOps is a framework that uses Git repositories as the source of truth for managing infrastructure and applications. In the video, the speaker describes how GitOps principles can be applied to Terraform by hosting Terraform scripts in a Git repository, enabling collaboration, version control, and continuous integration (CI) pipelines.

💡Continuous deployment

Continuous deployment refers to the automatic deployment of infrastructure or application updates after successful code reviews and tests. In the video, the speaker recommends executing Terraform commands within a continuous deployment pipeline rather than manually, ensuring that changes are consistently applied across the environment.

💡Environment-specific state files

Environment-specific state files refer to using separate state files for different infrastructure environments (e.g., development, testing, production). The video advises this best practice to avoid conflicts between different environments and to better manage infrastructure changes specific to each environment.

💡Pull request review process

The pull request review process is a method where team members review and approve changes before they are merged into the main codebase. In the video, this is emphasized as a best practice for treating Terraform infrastructure code the same as application code, ensuring that all changes are thoroughly reviewed and tested before deployment.

Highlights

Terraform uses state files to manage infrastructure, which track the current state and desired changes.

The state file is a simple JSON file that lists all infrastructure resources managed by Terraform.

Best practice: Do not manually manipulate the state file; only make changes through Terraform commands to avoid unexpected results.

If working in a team, use a shared remote storage for the state file to ensure everyone has access to the latest state.

To avoid conflicts with concurrent changes, configure state file locking, which is often supported by storage backends like AWS S3 and DynamoDB.

Backup your state file using versioning features available in many storage backends, such as AWS S3, to protect against corruption or accidental overrides.

Best practice: Use one dedicated state file per environment (e.g., development, testing, production) to isolate changes between environments.

Host Terraform code in its own Git repository for better collaboration, version control, and history tracking.

Use a continuous integration pipeline with merge requests for testing and reviewing Terraform code changes, ensuring quality infrastructure code.

Execute Terraform commands to apply changes through a continuous deployment pipeline, rather than manually, for a more streamlined process.

GitOps is an emerging trend in infrastructure as code, where Git is used to manage and apply infrastructure changes.

Best practice: Treat Terraform code like application code by implementing proper review and testing processes before applying changes.

In teams, using remote state file storage, versioning, and locking prevents issues related to concurrent updates and file loss.

Using versioning for state files also allows teams to easily revert to previous infrastructure states if needed.

A single location for all infrastructure changes ensures a more reliable, efficient process and reduces the chances of errors.

Transcripts

terraform is one of the most popular

infrastructure as code tools out there

and if you have just started working

with terraform you may be asking

yourself whether you are doing things in

the right way so in this video you will

learn eight terraform best practices

that will improve your terraform

workflows immediately and make you feel

more confident when using terraform in

your projects

now many of the best practices are

around terraform state and state file so

let's quickly understand what they are

first

terraform is a tool that automates

creating infrastructure and then making

changes and maintaining that

infrastructure

and to keep track of the current

infrastructure state and what changes

you want to make

terraform uses state

when you change configuration in

terraform script

it will compare your desired

configuration with the current

infrastructure state and figure out a

plan to make those desired changes

and state in terraform is a simple

json file which looks like this and has

a list of all the infrastructure

resources that terraform manages for you

because it's a simple json file

technically you could make adjustments

to the state file directly by manually

changing stuff inside

however the first best practice is only

change the state file contents through

terraform command execution

do not manually manipulate it otherwise

you may get some unexpected results

now where does this state file actually

come from

when you first execute terraform apply

command terraform will automatically

create the state file locally but what

if you're working in a team

so other team members also need to

execute terraform commands and they will

also need the state file for that

in fact every team member will need the

latest state file before making their

own updates

so the second best practice is to

configure a shared remote storage for

the state file every team member can now

execute terraform commands using this

shared state file in practice remote

storage backend for state file can be

amazon's s3 bucket

terraform cloud azure google cloud etc

and you can configure terraform to use

that remote storage as a state file

location

but what if two team members execute

terraform commands at the same time what

happens to the state file when you have

concurrent changes

you might get a conflict or mess up your

state file

to avoid changing terraform state at the

same time

we have the next best practice which is

locking the state file until an update

is fully completed and then unlock it

for the next command

this way you can prevent concurrent

edits to your state file in practice you

will have this configured in your

storage backend in s3 bucket for example

dynamodb service is automatically used

for state file locking

but note that not all storage back-ends

support this

so be aware of that when choosing a

remote storage for the state file if

supported terraform will lock your state

file automatically

now what happens if you lose your state

file something may happen to your remote

storage location or someone may

accidentally override the data

or it may get corrupted

to avoid this the next best practice is

to back up your state file

in practice you can do this by enabling

versioning for it and many storage

backends will have such a feature like

in s3 bucket for example you can simply

turn on the versioning feature this also

means that you have a nice history of

state changes and you can reverse to any

previous terraform state if you want to

great so now you have your state file in

a shared remote location

with locking enabled and file versioning

for backup so you have one state file

for your infrastructure

but usually you will have multiple

environments like development testing

and production

so which environment does this state

file belong to

can you manage all the environments with

one state file and this is the next best

practice to use one dedicated state file

per environment

and each state file will have its own

storage backend with locking and

versioning configured these were best

practices related to terraform state

the next three best practices are about

how to manage the terraform code itself

and how to apply infrastructure changes

these practices can be grouped into a

relatively new trend that emerged in the

infrastructure as code space which is

called git ops if you want to know what

git ups is i have a separate dedicated

video on that which you can also check

out

so let's see the next best practices

when you're working on terraform scripts

in a team it's important to share the

code in order to collaborate effectively

so as the next best practice you should

actually host terraform code in its own

git repository just like your

application code

this is not only beneficial for

effective collaboration in a team but

you also get versioning for your

infrastructure code changes

so you can have a history of changes in

your terraform code

before moving on to the next best

practice i want to give a shout out to

n0 who made this video possible

m0 automates and simplifies the

terraform teragrand and git ops

workflows for provisioning cloud

deployments for example it gives you

visibility of the infrastructure changes

when creating the pull request and

automatically deploys your changes after

merging it into your git repository and

with its self-service capabilities m0

allows developers to spin up and destroy

an environment with one click but also

integrates policy is called guard rails

to limit direct cloud access

check out n0.com for all its use cases

and capabilities now let's continue with

the best practice number seven

now who is allowed to make changes to

terraform code can anyone just directly

commit changes to the git repository the

best practice is actually to treat your

terraform code just like your

application code this means you should

have the same process of reviewing and

testing the changes in your

infrastructure code as you have for your

application code

with a continuous integration pipeline

using merge requests to integrate code

changes

this will allow your team to collaborate

and produce quality infrastructure code

which is tested and reviewed

great so you have tested and reviewed

code changes in your git repository

now how do you apply them to the actual

infrastructure

because eventually you want to update

your infrastructure with those changes

right

the final best practice is to execute

terraform commands

to apply changes in a continuous

deployment pipeline

so instead of team members manually

updating the infrastructure by executing

terraform commands from their own

computers it should happen only

from an automated build

this way you have a single location from

which all infrastructure changes happen

and you have a more streamlined process

of updating your infrastructure

these are the 8 terraform best practices

you can apply today to make your

terraform projects more robust and

easier to work on as a team

do you know some other best practices

that i forgot about in my video please

share them in the comments and finally

if you want to learn more about

terraform then check out my other

terraform resources that i will link in

the video description with that thank

you for watching and see you in the next

video