terraform cloud Terraform Cloud unveils new run task workflow enhancements

[Hashicorp]

HashiCorp Terraform Cloud run tasks have long been a staple for securely sharing Terraform-related data with trusted integration partners. And with the newest enhancements, the benefits go even further. These improvements empower teams to seamlessly expand their use of essential third-party integrations, facilitating automation, configuration management, security, compliance, and orchestration tasks.

Recent efforts by the HashiCorp Terraform team have focused on refining the process of associating run tasks within Terraform organizations, significantly reducing day-to-day overhead. Plus, the introduction of a new post-apply stage broadens the potential use cases for run tasks, offering even more value to users.

Scoping organizational run tasks

Initially, run tasks were tailored to meet the needs of teams provisioning infrastructure with Terraform Cloud. Recognizing the diversity of tools used in Terraform workflows, we integrated them seamlessly into Terraform Cloud as first-class run task integrations. This gave teams additional flexibility in selecting and managing run tasks for their workspaces.

As run task adoption grows within organizations, platform operations teams face challenges in ensuring consistency across the organization. Managing individual run task assignments can become cumbersome, with platform teams striving for standardization across workspaces. To address this, we've introduced scopes to organizational run tasks in Terraform Cloud. This feature allows platform teams to define the scope of organizational run tasks, targeting them globally and specifying evaluation stages for enforcement. Organization-wide enforcement eliminates configuration burden and reduces the risk of compliance gaps as new workspaces are created.

Multi-stage support further enhances the run task workflow, streamlining configuration and reducing redundant code when using the Terraform Cloud/Enterprise (tfe) provider for run task provisioning and management.

Introducing post-apply run tasks

Post-provisioning tasks are crucial for managing and optimizing infrastructure on Day 2 and beyond. These tasks include configuration management, monitoring, performance optimization, security management, cost optimization, and scaling to help ensure efficient, secure, and cost-effective operations.

Recent discussions with customers underscored the need to securely integrate third-party tools and services into Terraform workflows after infrastructure is provisioned with Terraform Cloud. Post-provisioning processes often require manual intervention before systems or services are production-ready. While API-driven workflows can expedite post-provisioning, the lack of a common workflow poses implementation challenges.

In response to these concerns, we've introduced a new post-apply stage to the run task workflow. This stage lets users seamlessly incorporate post-provisioning tasks that automate configuration management, compliance checks, and other post-deployment activities. The feature simplifies the integration of Terraform workflows with users' toolchains, prioritizing security and control.

Refined user experience for run tasks

As part of the implementation of run task scopes, we've extended support for multi-stage functionality to workspace run tasks. We also introduced two new views that offer users the flexibility to see the run tasks associated with their workspace. Now workspace administrators can choose to view their run task associations as a list or grouped by assigned stages.

Summary and resources

The advancements in Terraform Cloud's run task workflow empower users to streamline infrastructure provisioning and management. You can elevate your workflow with scopes for organizational run tasks and harness the potential of the post-apply stage.

To learn more, explore HashiCorp’s comprehensive run tasks documentation. Additionally, we provide a Terraform run task scaffolding project written in Go to help you write your own custom run task integration.

If you're new to Terraform, sign up for Terraform Cloud today and start for free.

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