Configuration Management & Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

It’s no secret. The Terraform Authoring and Operations Professional with AWS exam is intense. Test takers must answer multiple-choice questions and complete hands-on labs that include writing code, troubleshooting, and solving issues pulled from the real world, all within a four-hour window. The complexity of the exam is essential in validating real, deeply technical Terraform expertise, but it can also make preparing for the exam daunting. That’s why we asked three newly certified Terraform pros to sit down with us and share their advice for success... View the full article

IBM has announced its acquisition of HashiCorp Inc., a leading multi-cloud infrastructure automation company, for $6.4 billion! This acquisition is poised to revolutionize the hybrid cloud landscape, offering enterprises a comprehensive end-to-end solution to navigate the complexities of today’s AI-driven application growth. Let’s look at the details of this cloud changing acquisition and its implications […] The article Analyzing IBM’s Acquisition of HashiCorp: A Game-Changer in Hybrid Cloud Management appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Today, we are announcing Terraform support for AWS Parallel Computing Service (PCS). Customers can now use Terraform to create and manage their PCS clusters. PCS makes it easier to run and scale high performance computing (HPC) workloads and build scientific and engineering models on AWS using Slurm. PCS already supports managing your HPC environments through the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS CloudFormation, and AWS APIs. With this release, customers can now define and deploy their PCS infrastructure using the HashiCorp Terraform Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool, and manage clusters through their existing Terraform workflows. This integr…

Cloud Computing has transformed the IT industry by simplifying IT infrastructure management. With Cloud Computing, organizations can easily provision and scale resources as needed without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. Two of the most commonly used tools for infrastructure management and provisioning are Ansible and Terraform. This article discusses what each of the two tools does, their key features, and how they compare in the IaC world... View the full article

Managing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform is as common as CI/CD pipelines and incident response playbooks. However, there are moments when you don’t want Terraform to touch everything. Maybe you need to quickly redeploy an Azure Function App, or perhaps a specific Storage Account needs an urgent configuration change without disturbing unrelated resources. The […] The article Applying Terraform Changes to Specific Resources using the -target Argument was originally published on Build5Nines. To stay up-to-date, Subscribe to the Build5Nines Newsletter. View the full article

Today, AWS CloudFormation introduced a new resource scanning workflow for the CloudFormation IaC generator, further simplifying the process of generating Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) templates for existing resources in your AWS account. IaC generator allows you to onboard existing resources to CloudFormation in three easy steps. First, you initiate a scan of resources in your AWS account. Second, you select resources for template generation and review suggestions for related resources. Third, a CloudFormation template is generated for selected resources. You can then import resources into a CloudFormation stack, download the template for deployment, or convert the templat…

With Infrastructure as Code (IaC), every aspect of an organization’s infrastructure is defined and managed through code. This infrastructure deployment and configuration automation makes managing the organizations infrastructure much easier over time. Also, by committing the IaC code that configurations the infrastructure into source control, there are change tracking and other benefits for the organizations […] The article Benefits of Convention over Configuration for IaC Deployment Projects appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Topic was moved to forum Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Welcome back to the CNCF Tool Interviews Series. Today, we're taking an in-depth look at OpenTofu, a tool that's making significant strides in the Infrastructure as Code (IaC) domain within the open-source community. Let's get started... View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is a popular tool for managing infrastructure as code (IaC). By defining your IaC using Terraform, you can use version control with your infrastructure configuration and also automate infrastructure deployment in a consistent and repeatable way. Azure DevOps Pipelines can be used to setup YAML pipelines to instrument the Terraform infrastructure deployments using […] The article Deploy Terraform using Azure DevOps YAML Pipelines appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

The total cost of unplanned outages has been rising exponentially each year. A 2016 study conducted by the Ponemon Institute stated that the mean total cost per minute of an unplanned outage was $8,851, a 32% increase since 2013, and a 81% increase since 2010. A 2022 study by EMA Research says that number is up to $12,900. These metrics showcase how crucial it is for organizations to have a solid and well-thought disaster recovery strategy in place in order to reduce downtime and data loss as much as possible once disaster strikes. Ensuring business continuity and safeguarding mission-critical systems against unexpected failures can be time-consuming, expensive, and diffi…

Before Terraform 1.11, working with sensitive values was a challenge — sensitive values were always persisted to the Terraform plan artifact and state. As a result, we advised (and still advise) treating your state as sensitive data. This advice applies equally to us as it does to you. To address this, we introduced the concept of ephemerality in Terraform, allowing you to work with sensitive data like passwords and tokens securely, without leaving a trace... View the full article

We are pleased to once again offer a scholarship program to support members of our community from all backgrounds to attend HashiConf 2025. This community cloud conference will be held September 24-26 in San Francisco, California. At HashiCorp, we value diversity and strive to foster an inclusive community. Applicants from all backgrounds in technology, cloud computing, and open source communities are welcome. The scholarship program exists to support members of the technical community who may lack the financial sponsorship or means to attend. Applications will be evaluated according to three criteria: Need: Will a scholarship allow the applicant to attend when the…

We recently announced that HashiCorp is officially a part of IBM. Now, we’re focusing on how we can deliver a “better together” experience for users and customers of our mutual products. We have a lot of great things planned. One of the opportunities we have heard great enthusiasm for — and is actively part of customer solutions today — is HashiCorp Terraform with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and HashiCorp Vault with Red Hat OpenShift. In the coming months, we plan to collaborate with Red Hat to explore even deeper connections between these offerings, and we’ll share more details as soon as we can. In this blog post, I’ll share some of the opportunities we see here…

The popularity of HashiCorp Terraform has really taken off in the last couple of years. Terraform has become an extremely popular tool for writing declarative Infrastructure as Code (IaC) used to deploy and manage cloud infrastructure across one or even multiple clouds (think “Polynimbus“). With this growing popularity, HashCorp is recognizing the need for enterprises […] The article HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate DevOps Certification appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

During the online HashiConf Europe conference today, HashiCorp debuted the general availability of a 1.0 release of HashiCorp Terraform along with updates to HashiCorp Terraform Cloud service. Meghan Liese, senior director of product marketing for HashiCorp, said in both cases HashiCorp is moving to enable organizations to better secure and govern IT infrastructure-as-code provisioned using […] View the full article

Today we announced that HashiCorp has officially joined the IBM family as the acquisition announced last year was finalized. I wanted to use this moment to reflect on the journey to this point and to look forward to what this means for the next chapter of HashiCorp... View the full article

Topic was moved to forum Containerization & Orchestration

Terraform, an open-source infrastructure as code (IAC) tool developed by HashiCorp, provides an effective means to define and provision infrastructure resources. You can automate the process of creating, editing, and deleting resources across cloud-based and on-premise environments using Terraform's powerful features. One of the critical implementations that makes it so effective is state management. In this blog, we will delve into the significance of Terraform state, its management, and practical examples to illustrate its importance... View the full article

Terraform is a powerful infrastructure as code (IaC) tool, but even experienced users sometimes encounter challenges with what seems like basic operations. One such operation is simple string concatenation, which can be perplexing if you’re not familiar with the specific syntax and functions available in Terraform. In this article, we’ll address a common issue that […] The article How to Perform Simple String Concatenation in Terraform appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Terraform is widely known for its ability to efficiently create, manage and update infrastructure resources across cloud providers and on-premises environments. It provides the ability to create resources that depend on each other, and the depends_on meta-argument is a helpful feature for implementing such relationships in a systematic way. This blog covers what Terraform depends_on is, its syntax, the best use cases, and the best practices to follow... View the full article

Immutable Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has emerged as a game-changing approach to building robust, scalable, and highly resilient systems. In this blog, you will learn about the core principles of Immutable IaC, its benefits, challenges, and how organizations can harness its power to optimize their development and deployment processes... View the full article

In the ever-evolving landscape of IT infrastructure, the ability to create custom images efficiently and consistently is a game-changer. This is where HashiCorp Packer comes into play, a powerful tool that revolutionizes the image creation process across platforms such as AWS, Azure, and GCP, among others. This blog post, based on the Hashicorp Packer course offered by KodeKloud, serves as a comprehensive guide to mastering HashiCorp Packer... View the full article

A new low-level Go binding for the Terraform protocol for integrations to be built on top of; https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform-plugin-go

In the world of cloud, hybrid, and on-premises Infrastructure as Code (IaC), where managing and provisioning infrastructure through code has become indispensable, tools like OpenTofu play a pivotal role. The evolutions of IaC tools continues with OpenTofu, as a fork of Terraform that offers a more open-source, community-driven alternative that is managed by the Linux […] The article OpenTofu: Open Source Alternative to Terraform appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

When working with Terraform, one common question that arises is whether to include the .terraform.lock.hcl file in the Git repository or leave it out by adding it to .gitignore. This decision impacts the version control practices and reproducibility of your infrastructure deployments. In this article, we’ll explore the contents of the .terraform.lock.hcl file, discuss why […] The article Should .terraform.lock.hcl file be added to .gitignore or committed to Git repo? appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Today, we are announcing the general availability of HashiCorp Terraform 1.11, which is ready for download and immediately available for use in HCP Terraform. This version introduces write-only arguments, which let you use ephemeral values in specific managed resource arguments... View the full article

The Terraform Azure (azurerm) Provider can be used to configure infrastructure in Microsoft Azure. The v2.30.20 release of the azurerm Terraform Provider is now available. This is an incremental release of the v2.0 azurerm Terraform provider, and provides a few new features and improvements! Here’s an example Terraform provider reference that specifies to use the […] The article Terraform AzureRM Provider v2.30.0 Released appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform has become one of the most popular infrastructure as code (IaC) tools. Terraform allows you to define and manage your infrastructure deployments across one or multiple cloud providers through code. This makes it easier to manage, version, and maintain infrastructure deployments. Writing Terraform code can be challenging, especially if you are not familiar […] The article Terraform Best Practices for Writing Clean, Readable, and Maintainable Code appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that enables organizations to manage, version, and automate the provisioning of their infrastructure. The purpose of Terraform is to provide a common language to describe and provision infrastructure resources in a safe, predictable, and reusable manner. Terraform Configuration Syntax is the language used to describe […] The article Terraform Configuration: Overview of HCL Syntax appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

In the realm of infrastructure as code (IaC), Terraform reigns supreme as a versatile tool for provisioning and managing cloud resources. Its ability to codify infrastructure configurations allows for automation and scalability. One of the key elements that can elevate your Terraform skills to the next level is mastering conditional statements and the Null Coalesce […] The article Terraform If/Else statements with Conditional and Null Coalesce Examples appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

You already know that Terraform is a popular open-source Infrastructure provisioning tool. And that AWS is one of the leading cloud providers with a wide range of services. But have you ever wondered how Terraform can help you better take advantage of the services AWS has to offer? This guide will explain how Terraform and AWS work together to give you insight and control over your cloud resources... View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is a powerful Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool for managing resources both in the cloud and on-premises. The first command that you run when working with a Terraform Project is the terraform init command (aka Terraform project initialization command). The Terraform Init command is a critical part of the Terraform workflow, and must […] The article Terraform Init Command Overview appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

In the ever-evolving landscape of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Terraform stands tall as one of the leading tools for provisioning and managing cloud resources. Terraform’s flexibility and robustness are often attributed to its wide array of features and functions, and among them, Terraform Locals emerge as a valuable gem. In this comprehensive guide, we will […] The article Terraform Locals: How, When and Why to use locals appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Today, we are excited to announce that Terraform migrate is now generally available, providing a purpose-built solution for transitioning from Terraform Community Edition to HCP Terraform and Terraform Enterprise. Designed to reduce manual effort and improve accuracy, it streamlines the migration process, helping teams adopt HCP Terraform and Terraform Enterprise with confidence... View the full article

Terraform has quickly become a go-to infrastructure as code (IaC) tool due to its powerful declarative syntax for provisioning and managing infrastructure efficiently. One key feature that distinguishes Terraform from its rivals is its module system. In this blog, we will explore the Terraform module in detail with some practical examples... View the full article

There are times when the best resource to use for learning code or even putting some techniques into practice is a simple, prewritten code sample. This is true when it comes to Terraform Infrastructure as Code (IaC) automation the same as with any other programming language. The Terraform Quickstart Templates open source project (OSS) from […] The article Terraform Quickstart Templates OSS Project from Build5Nines appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Hashicorp releases drops of Terraform a regular basis, and September was no exception providing three updates. On September 30th, 0.13.4 was released and there is a change that has some important implications for those that rely on third-party provisioners that ship within the binary. In the upgrade notes there is the following statement: The built-in […] The article Terraform updates to version 0.13.4 appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has emerged as a critical tenet in cloud computing, making efficient resource management possible across cloud environments. Terraform and AWS CloudFormation are two leading tools in IaC that facilitate the provisioning and management of infrastructure resources. While both offer similar functionalities, their fundamental differences make each suitable for different use cases. In this blog post, we will learn about the key differences between Terraform and CloudFormation. But first, let's understand what Terraform and CloudFormation are... View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform, an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool, enables easier infrastructure provisioning and management across all types of platforms. At the heart of Terraform’s effectiveness is its workflow that consists of three main stages: Write, Plan, and Apply. This provides a structured process that ensures a seamless creation, modification, and provisioning process for managing […] The article Terraform Workflow Process Explained appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Terraform is a powerful infrastructure-as-code tool that allows you to define and provision infrastructure resources. In some scenarios, you might need to transform a list of strings into a map of objects for your Terraform configurations. This article will guide you through the problem and its solution using Terraform’s for loop and local variables… View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is a versatile infrastructure-as-code tool that empowers users to define and provision infrastructure resources with ease using a declarative configuration language. While Terraform provides solutions for converting strings to lists, there are occasions where you’ll need to do the opposite: convert a list into a string. This can be particularly beneficial when configuring […] The article Terraform: Convert String to List (join function) appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is a powerful infrastructure-as-code tool that allows you to define and provision infrastructure resources using a declarative configuration language. When working with Terraform, you may encounter situations where you need to convert a string into a list. This can be especially useful when dealing with configurations or data retrieved from external sources. In […] The article Terraform: Convert String to List (tolist, split functions) appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

While there are several ways to host container workloads in Azure, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) provides the easiest way to deploy Kubernetes for teams needing a full orchestration solution. AKS seems to gain new features every week. Depending on your needs deploying a repeatable, consistent AKS configuration can be challenging. Infrastructure-as-Code tools like Terraform bring […] The article Terraform: Create an AKS Cluster appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) has become a cornerstone of modern cloud management, and HashiCorp Terraform is a powerful tool for achieving this. Terraform allows you to create reusable components called modules, enabling you to build consistent and scalable infrastructure in Azure. In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of creating and using your […] The article Terraform: Create your First Module appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

One of the most popular cloud-native, PaaS (Platform as a Service) products in Microsoft Azure is Azure App Service. It enables you to easily deploy and host web and API applications in Azure. The service supports ways to configure App Settings and Connection String within the Azure App Service instance. Depending on who has access […] The article Terraform: Deploy Azure App Service with Key Vault Secret Integration appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is great for deploying any Microsoft Azure resource, and the same applies to deploying serverless compute with Azure Function Apps in the Microsoft Azure cloud. Azure Function Apps are a very heavily used compute service in Microsoft Azure, and one that is in high demand for deployment automation by DevOps Engineers and Site […] The article Terraform: Deploy Azure Function App with Consumption Plan appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform is a great tool for deploying and managing Microsoft Azure resource. This includes management of Azure Storage Accounts and Blob Containers. Azure Storage is one of the primary, foundational PaaS (Platform as a Service) services in Microsoft Azure for storing files and other blobs (binary large objects) of data. This article will show […] The article Terraform: Deploy Azure Storage Account and Blob Container appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article

I has a scenario where I needed to configure an Azure PostgreSQL Flexible Server to use Entra ID (Azure AD) authentication and add the Entra user running the HashiCorp Terraform deployment as the Azure PostgreSQL Administrator using the azurerm_postgresql_flexible_server_active_directory_administrator Terraform resource. Generally, you would use the azuread_user data resource in Terraform to get the Entra […] The article Terraform: Get User Principal Name (UPN) of User Running Deployment without Entra ID Read Permissions was originally published on Build5Nines. To stay up-to-date, Subscribe to the Build5Nines Newsletter. View the full article

HashiCorp Terraform infrastructure deployments can always be run manual, but using GitHub Actions to implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) can be used to streamline and automate the Terraform infrastructure as code (IaC) deployment workflow. Developers will use GitHub Actions to automate the code build and deployment for an applications code, and the same […] The article Terraform: GitHub Actions Automated Deployment appeared first on Build5Nines. View the full article