Terraform is an open-source tool that allows you to define the infrastructure for a variety of cloud providers (e.g. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, etc) using a simple, declarative programming language.
This guide assumes that you have a basic idea of terraform. I have taken examples of Terraform with AWS provider. Concepts will be similar to other providers as well.
I will be using this repo for explaining all the examples: Terraform-examples
Always use the latest terraform version (The current version is terraform v0.12.x)
We should always pick the latest terraform version. The reason is that sometimes terraform doesn't have backward compatibility. You will always be stuck with the chosen version.
Always use var-file for terraform plan
We should always use var-file for variables. It will be easy to maintain different variables for different environments and modules. There are different methods that can be used for variables like assign a string value to var variable, an Environment variable, var-file.
Check out this guide for all options Input Variable guide
Check out this example Variable Example
Manage s3 backend for tfstate files
Whenever we create any resource with terraform (terraform apply), it maintains the state in tfstate file. Try to run Variable Example. It will create tfstate file in local. If we modify any resource or add, tfstate will be changed after each terraform apply. In the team, multiple team members will be modifying terraform code. So we should maintain tfstate at version control system (Example: S3). Check out this example S3 backend Example
Use dynamo DB for locking tfstate modification
Multiple team members will run terraform apply at the same time which can create issues. We should use dynamo DB for locking. It will not allow other terraform apply a process to change tfstate till the release of the lock. Check out this example S3 backend Example
Enable version control on terraform state files bucket
First, we should use s3 remote storage for managing tfstate. We should enable version control on this s3 remote. Reason: If any issue comes with the current tfstate in production, we can always go back to the previous version. Check out this example Variable Example
Use terraform import for existing resources
Suppose we have created resources earlier. Now we want to use it with terraform code. It is possible with terraform import. It will make these resources part of terraform.
Check out this example Import Example
Use shared modules
Terraform community has shared generic modules on terraform registry like ecs-fargate , ecs-service, s3 bucket creation.
Module Registry
Check out this example Share Module Example
Use terraform modules for mananging different environments(dev/stage/prod)
A module is a container for multiple resources that are used together. We should use terraform modules for managing the code between different environment. Every terraform configuration has its root module which consists of resources defined in the .tf files in the main working directory. We wrap common resources in modules so it can be reused for a different environment. We can use the git version system for modules. Checkout share modules example. It is hosted on Github and we are directly using it. Checkout this example for modules structure: Module Example