Terraform – An Opensource Code Software Tool to Create, Change and Improve Cloud Infrastructure

Introduction

Terraform is an open-source tool for changing, building, and versioning infrastructure safely. It is an infrastructure as a code (Iac), which can be used to define and manage resources from various cloud service provider. This is useful for maintaining repeatable, understandable, and consistent infrastructure.
The infrastructure Terraform can manage includes low-level components such as compute instances, networking, storage, and high-level components like SaaS feature, DNS entries, etc.

  • Open Source: Communities support not only the tool itself but also develop custom plugins, providers, and modules.
  • Platform-agnostic: The same workflow can be maintained when provisioning resources across a wide range of different providers.
  • Execution Plans: The “planning” step shows the changes that will be made during the “apply”. so there is a possibility to verify and avoid it.
  • Resource Graph: A graph of all resources is built ( and can be displayed in a graphic form), so Terraform knows which resources build upon on each other and can efficiently manage them.

You can download the Terraform from the Hashi corp website.
To install Terraform on a Windows machine, download the appropriate package from the Terraform  Hashi corp website.

  1. Go to https://www.terraform.io/downloads.html.
  2. Download the applicable package to your local system.
  3. Extract the package to the folder C:Program Files (x86).
  4. This path is used as an example. However, you can also the Terraform executable to any other location in your local system.
  5. Update the path environment variable to include the folder where your Terraform executable is located.
    1. Go to the Control Panel.
    2. Click System.
  6. On a Windows 10 system, click Advanced system settings. This option might vary in different versions of Windows.
    1. The Advanced tab of the System Properties window is displayed.
  7. Click Environment Variables near the bottom of the window.
    1. The Environment Variables window is displayed.
    2. In the System variables pane, click Path and then click Edit.
    3. Click New. Add the path to the folder where your Terraform executable is located.
    4. Click OK to save your changes and then click OK to exit the Environment Variables windows. Then click OK again to exit the System Properties window.
  8. To check the version and verify your installation, launch Windows PowerShell and enter: terraform -v.
  9. You will see the Terraform version displayed in the output. For example Terraform v0.11.8

Terraform Cloud is a SaaS application that keeps automation and association tooling for Terraform user. It is intended to offer Terraform user an easy pathway into using the Terraform platform and functions we have built on top of the open-source tool.


We believe every Terraform open source users will benefit from using Terraform Cloud. It is ideal for individual practitioners, small and large businesses, as well as enterprises who do not have advanced security or compliance requirements.

Conclusion

Terraform has evolved into very stable and reliable software in recent years. Current developments are always kept up to date and especially in the AWS context. Bugs are usually addressed quickly. Due to this understandable syntax, the initial hurdle is significantly less.
Developers can instantly get used to declaring the infrastructure in code instead of clicking it together in a Web user interface. As a result, Terraform is a tool that illustrates DevOps culture thanks to how it considerably clarify both experiments and the productive use of cloud solutions.