Summary

In this blog post we will look at configuring Terraform Cloud to remotely host our Terraform state file. Terraform cloud has multiple levels of subscriptions available. The good news is, we only need the free one! This post assumes that you have some Terraform config already setup. I will be used the results of a previous three part blog post, entitled Terraform and vSphere.

Note: For the sake of simplicity, I have ensured that the infrastructure defined in my Terraform setup does not exist in my vSphere environment. I have also ensured all state files have been deleted.

Register An Account

First off we will need to create an account on the Terraform Cloud portal. Fill in the details for a new account and click Create account.

 

Next, select the option to Create an Organization.

 

Specify a name for your organisation (note it must be unique to Terraform Cloud). Specify an email address for future correspondance to go to. Click Create organization.

 

We have now successfully registered our organisation on the Terraform Cloud platform.

 

Generate An Access Token

While logged in to the Terraform Cloud portal, click the user icon at the top right and select User Settings from the dropdown menu.

 

Select the Tokens option from the menu on the left. In the Description text box enter a description for the token. I entered terraform_access_token. Click Generate token. A token will be generated for you and displayed. You must take a copy of this and store it carefully. If you lose it you will have to delete it and generate a new one.

 

Create Terraform.rc

On our development system where we have terraform located we need to create a file called terraform.rc that will contain our generated token. I prefer to keep this file in a folder called cli_config and locate it with my other Terraform files. Create a folder called cli_config and a blank text file inside called terraform.rc as show below.

 

 

To make sure that Terraform reads our configuration file, we need to tell Terraform where to locate it. Add a new environment variable as follows

Variable	Value
TF_CLI_CONFIG_FILE	E:\Programs\Terraform\cli_config\terraform.rc

Remember, you will need to close and reopen any command prompt windows for the new variable to take affect. Open the terraform.rc file in a text editor (such as Visual Studio Code) and enter the following into the file. You will need to insert the token you generated earlier in the Terraform Cloud portal. Note: make sure that the token is wrapped in double quotes. Save the file and close the editor.

 

 

Navigate into the folder where your Terraform definition is. In my case it is the deploy_datacenter folder created in my previous blog post series. Create a text file called backend.tf and open it in your text editor.

 

 

This file will tell Terraform where to store the state, using the credential token we supplied in the terraform.rc file. We will enter the following details into the file.

 

 

An explanation of each of the details is below. You will need to substitute my organization and name values, for your own.

 

entry	value	explanation
backend	remote	This tells Terraform that the backend to use is remote
organization	AutomationPro	This is the name of the organization you registered in the Terraform Cloud portal
name	vSphere-automationpro-test	This is the name of the workspace that we want to create on the Terraform Cloud. This workspace is where out state will be stored

 

Once you have entered the relevant information into the backend.tf file, save the file and close the text editor.

 

Initialise

From within your folder, execute terraform init. This will allow Terraform to read through the backend.tf file and terraform.rc file. Terraform will connect to Terraform Cloud and under your organisation create a workspace. If all goes well, you should see some success information in the console. In the Terraform Portal, you will also see the newly created workspace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Terraform Cloud portal, click on the workspace name hyperlink. Select Settings and then click General.

 

 

 

 

Under Execution Mode, select the Local radio button. Click the Save settings button.

 

 

 

 

Execution

We are now in a position to execute our Terraform definition. I will run a plan first to make sure everything is ok. I will then apply the plan.

 

 

 

 

Once complete, you will see the new datacenter in your vSphere environment (assuming you are using the information from my previous blog post series). If you look in Terraform Cloud in your workspace you will find that we now have a stored state from the execution. Future changes in state will now be record as a new entry here.