Terraform destroy for cleanup - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What does the terraform destroy command do?

It removes all the infrastructure resources that were created by Terraform in the current workspace, effectively cleaning up your cloud environment.

beginner

Why should you be careful when running terraform destroy?

Because it permanently deletes all managed resources, which can cause data loss or service downtime if done unintentionally.

intermediate

How can you preview what terraform destroy will delete before actually running it?

By running terraform plan -destroy, which shows a detailed plan of resources that will be destroyed.

intermediate

What is a safe practice to avoid accidental destruction when using terraform destroy?

Use the -auto-approve=false flag to require manual confirmation before destruction happens.

beginner

Can terraform destroy remove resources not managed by Terraform?

No, it only removes resources that are tracked in Terraform's state file. Unmanaged resources remain untouched.

What command shows what will be deleted before running terraform destroy?

A terraform validate

B terraform plan -destroy

C terraform init

D terraform apply

terraform plan -destroy previews the destruction plan without making changes.

Which flag helps avoid accidental destruction by requiring confirmation?

A -auto-approve=false

B -auto-approve=true

C -force

D -skip-confirm

Setting -auto-approve=false makes Terraform ask for confirmation before destroying.

What happens if you run terraform destroy in a directory without Terraform state?

A It does nothing because no resources are tracked

B It destroys all cloud resources in your account

C It creates new resources

D It throws an error and exits

Without state, Terraform does not know what to destroy, so it does nothing.

Which of these is NOT a reason to use terraform destroy?

A Clean up test environments

B Remove unused resources

C Update resource configurations

D Save cloud costs by deleting resources

Updating resources is done with terraform apply, not destroy.

Does terraform destroy delete resources outside Terraform's control?

A Yes, it deletes all resources in the cloud account

B Yes, but only if you use a special flag

C No, it only deletes local files

D No, only resources tracked in Terraform state are deleted

Terraform only deletes resources it manages and tracks in its state file.

Explain the purpose and safe usage of terraform destroy.

Think about why and how you would delete cloud resources safely.

Describe how Terraform knows which resources to delete when running terraform destroy.

Consider what Terraform uses to remember your infrastructure.