Remote execution model in Terraform - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Terraform Remote Execution Model Setup

📖 Scenario: You are working as a cloud engineer for a small company. Your team wants to manage infrastructure using Terraform, but they want to keep the Terraform state file safe and shared among team members. To do this, you will set up a remote execution model using Terraform Cloud as the backend.

🎯 Goal: Build a Terraform configuration that uses Terraform Cloud as a remote backend to securely store the state file and enable remote execution.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Terraform configuration file named main.tf

Configure the Terraform backend to use Terraform Cloud with a specific organization and workspace

Add a simple resource to verify the configuration

Ensure the backend configuration is complete and valid

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Teams use Terraform Cloud remote backend to safely share infrastructure state and enable collaboration without risking state file corruption or loss.

💼 Career

Cloud engineers and DevOps professionals must configure remote backends to manage infrastructure state securely and enable team collaboration.

1

Create the initial Terraform configuration

Create a file named main.tf and add a Terraform block specifying version 1.5.0.

Terraform

# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use the terraform block to specify the required Terraform version.

2

Add backend configuration for Terraform Cloud

Inside the existing terraform block in main.tf, add a backend block for remote with hostname set to app.terraform.io, organization set to example-org, and a workspaces block with name set to example-workspace.

Terraform

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.5.0"
  # Add backend configuration here
}

Need a hint?

Use the backend "remote" {} block inside terraform {} to configure Terraform Cloud remote backend.

3

Add a simple resource to test configuration

Add a resource block to main.tf that creates a null resource named example using the null_resource provider.

Terraform

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.5.0"
  backend "remote" {
    hostname     = "app.terraform.io"
    organization = "example-org"

    workspaces {
      name = "example-workspace"
    }
  }
}

# Add a null_resource named example below

Need a hint?

The null_resource is a simple resource useful for testing Terraform configurations.

4

Complete the backend configuration with required settings

Ensure the backend "remote" block in main.tf is fully configured with hostname, organization, and workspaces with name set as specified. This completes the remote execution model setup.

Terraform

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.5.0"
  backend "remote" {
    hostname     = "app.terraform.io"
    organization = "example-org"

    workspaces {
      name = "example-workspace"
    }
  }
}

resource "null_resource" "example" {
}

# Verify backend configuration is complete

Need a hint?

Double-check all backend settings match the required values.