Terraform CLI overview - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Terraform CLI Overview

📖 Scenario: You are working as a cloud engineer setting up infrastructure using Terraform. You want to learn how to use the Terraform CLI commands to initialize a project, plan changes, apply infrastructure, and check the state.

🎯 Goal: Build a simple Terraform configuration and use the Terraform CLI commands terraform init, terraform plan, terraform apply, and terraform state list step-by-step to manage infrastructure.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Terraform configuration file with a provider and a resource

Initialize the Terraform working directory with terraform init

Generate and review an execution plan with terraform plan

Apply the planned changes with terraform apply

List the resources in the Terraform state with terraform state list

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Terraform CLI commands are used daily by cloud engineers to manage infrastructure as code safely and predictably.

💼 Career

Knowing how to use Terraform CLI is essential for roles in cloud infrastructure, DevOps, and site reliability engineering.

1

Create Terraform configuration file

Create a file named main.tf with the following content exactly: a provider block for hashicorp/aws with region us-east-1, and a resource block aws_s3_bucket named my_bucket with bucket name my-terraform-bucket-12345.

Terraform

# Create main.tf with provider and aws_s3_bucket resource
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the provider block to specify AWS and region. Then add a resource block for an S3 bucket with the exact bucket name.

2

Initialize Terraform working directory

Run the Terraform CLI command terraform init in the directory containing main.tf to initialize the working directory and download the AWS provider plugin.

Terraform

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "my_bucket" {
  bucket = "my-terraform-bucket-12345"
}

# Run terraform init command in terminal

Need a hint?

Use your terminal or command prompt to run terraform init in the folder where main.tf is saved.

3

Generate and review execution plan

Run the Terraform CLI command terraform plan to create an execution plan showing the changes Terraform will make to create the S3 bucket resource.

Terraform

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "my_bucket" {
  bucket = "my-terraform-bucket-12345"
}

# Run terraform plan command in terminal

Need a hint?

Use your terminal to run terraform plan and review the output showing what Terraform will do.

4

Apply changes and list state resources

Run the Terraform CLI command terraform apply to apply the changes and create the S3 bucket. Then run terraform state list to list the resources managed in the Terraform state.

Terraform

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "my_bucket" {
  bucket = "my-terraform-bucket-12345"
}

# Run terraform apply and terraform state list commands in terminal

Need a hint?

Use your terminal to run terraform apply and confirm the creation. Then run terraform state list to see the resource names.