Terraform on AWS [Cheat Sheet]
So you need to deploy new or manage existing cloud infrastructure. What’s the best approach to get it done? The best way is to use Infrastructure as Code (IaC), which allows you to define and manage your infrastructure through code.
Rather than manually navigating the AWS console to create, configure, or update resources, (aka “ClickOps”) you describe your desired infrastructure state using code, and your IaC of choice will make sure that your infrastructure is in that state.
This has a lot of benefits for your cloud infrastructure, including:
- It makes it consistent and repeatable and helps prevent and correct drift
- It becomes version controlled
- You can run it through functional and security tests before deploying
- It enables automation that wouldn’t otherwise be possible
- It simplifies multi-account and multi-cloud deployments
The coding language you use depends entirely on the IaC tool you’re using. For example, Terraform created its own configuration language called HCL. Whereas an alternative like Pulumi gives you the choice between JS/TypeScript, Go, Python, YAML, and more. CloudFormation gives you either YAML or JSON as options. Etc..
To celebrate Cybr’s latest course Terraform on AWS: From Zero to Cloud Infrastructure produced in collaboration with Tyler Petty, we created a cheat sheet to help you get started using Terraform.
This cheat sheet covers essential CLI commands, outlines the basic file structure (with guidance on what to include in each file), and explains how Terraform state tracks the status of resources, mapping them to your configuration. It also provides insights into providers, resources, defining and using variables, and introduces you to creating modules to effectively define, organize, and reuse your code.
Feel free to download it, share it, and use it as a reference guide!
If you want to learn more and get started with IaC and Terraform on AWS, check out our hands-on and project-based course.
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