Terraform Remote State

Links: 113 Terraform Index

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Intro to Terraform State

Remote State

• When we use terraform apply for the first time a file terraform.tfstate is created in the configuration directory.
• Benefits of terraform state:
  • Mapping terraform state to the real world.
  • Tracking metadata such as dependencies which allows terraform to create and delete resources in the correct order.
  • Improving the performance of terraform operations while working with large configuration files.
  • It allows for collaboration between different members of the team.
    • Local state files are not good for collaboration.

It is also NOT a good idea to store the state file in a version control system since it contains sensitive information.

Also if the state file is stored in a git repo and when we work as a team it is essential that only one person runs the operation against the same configuration at any given time.

• In case of a single source of truth for the state file terraform locks the state file.

  • This features is also known as state locking.
  • This ensures that state file doesn't get corrupted by multiple operations trying to update it at the same time.
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  • Version control systems like GitHub do not support state locking.

• Because of all these reasons it is advised to store the state file in a remote secured shared storage.

• When we configure a remote backend terraform will automatically load the state file every time it is required by the terraform operation.
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  • It will also upload the updated terraform state file after every apply.
  • A lot of remote state options allow for state locking.
  • Remote state backends also provide encryption for security.

Remote backends using S3

• For this we will need an S3 bucket and a DynamoDB table for implementing state locking.
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• Configuring remote backend using the terraform block:
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  • We provide a dynamodb table for achieving state locking.
  • We need to run terraform init to initialise the new backend.
  • Every time we run terraform apply command state file will be downloaded to memory and will be uploaded to remote state after updation.
  • State file will not be stored in the local configuration directory anymore.

Terraform state manipulation

• Syntax of terraform state command: terraform state <sub command> [options] [args]
• terraform state list: This will list all the resources recorded within the terraform state file.
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• To get more information about the resources we can use the terraform state show <resrource>
  • This will show all the attributes of the respective resource.
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• terraform state mv SOURCE DESTINATION: This is used to move items in a terraform state file.
  • It can be used to move resources within the same state file (essentially renaming the resource).
  • It can be used to move resources from one state file to another state file maintained by another configuration directory.
  • Example renaming the dynamodb table
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    • After this we must manually rename the resource in the configuration file.
• Viewing remove state:
  • terraform state pull and then pipe the output to json parsing tools like jq.
• Removing items from terraform state terraform state rm <resource-address>.
  • This is used when we no longer wish to manage one or more resources using terraform configuration and state.
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  • After removing the resource from the state file we need to manually remove it from the configuration file.
  • Resources removed from the state file are NOT actually destroyed. It is only removed from the terraform management.

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Last updated: 2023-01-11