Over the past years, Terraform has earned its name as one of the first-picked solutions to easily manage infrastructure, particularly when working with multiple clouds, servers, and environments. By providing the ability to operate and grow infrastructure through writing configuration files, it turns chaotic and manual tasks into an organized and automated process.
In this interview, we’ll talk about the ins and outs of Terraform with Anatolii Kaliuzhnyi, our Director of DevOps Engineering, exploring how it simplifies infrastructure provisioning and what makes it such a popular tool in the DevOps toolkit.
What is Terraform and how does it work?
Terraform is an open-source IaC tool that provides you the ability to define and manage both cloud and on-premises infrastructure resources using code. Instead of manually setting up servers, databases, or networking components, you can simply write configuration files that describe in a declarative language what you want your infrastructure to look like – how many servers you need, what kind of databases you want, and other details.
Once you’ve written your configurations, you can run Terraform and it will take care of the rest. The platform will read your code, determine the necessary actions (creating, changing, or deleting resources), and then communicate with your cloud providers (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) to implement those changes.
When you need to update your infrastructure, for example, to increase storage, you just modify the code and apply the changes. Terraform compares the current setup and your updated code and then implements only the necessary changes. Since your infrastructure is defined in code, you can version control it using systems like Git, making it easy to track changes and roll back to previous versions if something goes wrong.
What are some of the key benefits you’ve experienced while using Terraform?
Terraform has truly streamlined my day-to-day activities in several impactful ways:
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Speed and simplicity. The solution automates lots of manual processes associated with provisioning and managing infrastructure. You can spin up and update even complex architectures by simply running a script. This speeds up the overall development lifecycle and makes it easy to maintain consistency across development, staging, and testing environments.
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Multi-cloud support. Terraform works smoothly with multiple cloud providers. You can use AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or even a combination of these services, and you will still need the same tool and several commands to manage your resources. This approach helps you avoid vendor lock-in and take advantage of the best features each provider offers.
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Active community and detailed documentation. The platform can boast extensive documentation and a large active community. If you run into issues, want to find plugins or modules for specific needs, or look for best practices, there are plenty of resources. It is easy to find the information no matter what you need: a beginner guide or advanced tips.
What features of Terraform do you find most valuable for your day-to-day tasks?
There are three features that I find exceptionally useful and rely on frequently for various aspects of infrastructure management:
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Infrastructure as Code. As I mentioned before, Terraform’s core strength is its ability to manage infrastructure as code. It simplifies managing, sharing, and versioning infrastructure configurations. With IaC, you can easily replicate environments, track changes, and keep everything organized.
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Terraform Modules. Modules are handy for creating reusable components that can be shared across different projects. For instance, I can set up a module for a standard server configuration and use it across various environments with just a few minor adjustments for different teams. This eliminates the need to write the same code several times, reduces errors, and helps maintain a clean codebase.
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Extensibility with Plugins. Terraform can be adapted to manage nearly any kind of infrastructure by implementing a wide range of plugins. Whatever the case may be – cloud resources, DNS configurations, or even third-party services – there’s likely a solution available that will save you from having to build everything from scratch.
What challenges have you encountered when using Terraform?
As any other solution, Terraform is not perfect. Here are a few common drawbacks I can highlight:
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State Management Complexity. Terraform uses a state file to keep track of the current state of infrastructure. This file logs all the resources Terraform has created, allowing the platform to understand what already exists and what needs to be created, updated, or deleted. Managing this file requires a lot of effort and coordination, especially in large teams and complex environments. If not handled carefully, issues like state file corruption or conflicting changes can arise.
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Learning Curve. For newcomers, Terraform has a bit of a learning curve. Learning its syntax, the concept of IaC, and how to organize code and state files will probably require some time. Furthermore, mastering modules, workspaces, and remote backends adds another layer of complexity, especially for those without prior experience in DevOps or cloud infrastructure management.
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Handling Large Infrastructure. When working with large and complex infrastructures, Terraform plans and applies can take a long time to execute. The more resources and modules involved, the more challenging it becomes to manage and optimize performance.
Are there any alternative IaC tools you can recommend?
Kubernetes is a powerful alternative to Terraform, particularly for containerized applications. You can define your infrastructure and application requirements using YAML files, which describe the desired state of your deployments, services, and other resources. It allows for significant automation and consistency and streamlines scaling complex environments.
Ansible is another solution that can be used as both a configuration management and provisioning platform. While it’s excellent for automating server configurations and small-scale infrastructure tasks, it’s not as powerful as Terraform if you need to manage complex cloud infrastructures.
If you prefer writing infrastructure as code in a familiar programming language, Pulumi might be the right choice. It supports a wide range of popular languages like TypeScript, Python, Java, Go, C# and YAML.
Finally, AWS CloudFormation will be a logical choice for those working primarily within AWS-centric environments. It enables developers to define and manage resources using JSON or YAML. Also, tight integration with AWS services means you don’t need additional tools, and it’s free to use.
Bottom line
Terraform definitely has a lot to offer, from its multi-cloud capabilities to ensuring consistent environments across the board. However, the complexity of state management and the hard learning curve can make you consider other options. It’s important to weigh all the pros and cons and research other options to find what best fits your project’s needs and budget.