0 Terraform

What is Terraform?

• Terraform = Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool by HashiCorp.
• Lets you provision, change, and manage cloud resources using .tf files.
• Supports multi-cloud, on-prem, SaaS, Kubernetes, etc.
• Declarative → you describe the final state, Terraform figures out how to reach it.

How Terraform Works

Write Terraform files → Run Terraform commands → Call AWS APIs through Terraform Provider

Terraform Workflow Phases:

1. terraform init - Initialize (downloads provider plugin)
2. terraform validate - Validate the configuration files
3. terraform plan - compares the .tf config with the current state and shows what will be created/changed/destroyed to make desired state ( does not call API to create resources )
4. terraform apply - Apply the changes to reach desired state (actually makes API calls)
5. terraform destroy - Destroy the infrastructure when needed