Terraform

TestDrive Terraform system to learn about the advantages of Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Promising aspects of the Terraform tool:
- options to define computing infrastructure in human and machine-readable code
- transparency and flexibility through open source
- no vendor lock-in for cloud service provider

Mock exercise: setup a nginx webserver via docker

following the tutorial: https://learn.hashicorp.com/tutorials/terraform/install-cli?in=terraform/aws-get-started

• I used a test machine under Ubuntu 20.04 with already installed docker engine
  

• Ensure that system is up to date, and required packages installed (in my case all already at the newest version :)
  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y gnupg software-properties-common curl

• Add the HashiCorp GPG key
  curl -fsSL https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

• Add the official HashiCorp Linux repository (-> deactivate after test ...)
  sudo apt-add-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main"

• install the Terraform CLI
  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install terraform

• Verify that the installation worked by listing Terraform's available subcommands
  terraform -help

• install the autocomplete package
  terraform -install-autocomplete

• you may want to become a user dedicated to manage docker as non-root user
  in my case I created earlier a user docker (https://askubuntu.com/questions/477551/how-can-i-use-docker-without-sudo)
  su docker
  change into the home directory of this user
  cd ~/

• clone this repo containing the Terraform configuration file main.tf
git clone [email protected]:schmidchr/TestDrive-Terraform.git

• change into the directory containing the configuration file
  cd learn-terraform-docker-container

• Initialize the project, which downloads a plugin that allows Terraform to interact with Docker
  terraform init

• Provision the NGINX server container. When Terraform asks you to confirm type yes and press ENTER
  terraform apply

• verify the existence of the NGINX container by visiting
  http://localhost:8000/

=> successfully provisioned an NGINX webserver with Terraform !:)

• to clean up, stop the container
  terraform destroy