Sentinel policy as code in Terraform - Cheat Sheet & Quick Revision

Recall & Review

beginner

What is Sentinel in the context of Terraform?

Sentinel is a policy as code framework used with Terraform to enforce rules and governance on infrastructure changes before they are applied.

beginner

How does Sentinel help teams manage infrastructure?

Sentinel lets teams write policies that check Terraform plans and states to ensure compliance with organizational rules, preventing risky or unauthorized changes.

beginner

What language is used to write Sentinel policies?

Sentinel policies are written in the Sentinel language, a simple, declarative language designed for writing policy rules that evaluate Terraform data.

intermediate

What is a common use case for Sentinel policies in Terraform?

A common use case is to prevent creation of resources in disallowed regions or to enforce tagging standards on all resources.

intermediate

How does Sentinel integrate with Terraform workflows?

Sentinel policies run during Terraform plan or apply phases, evaluating the planned changes and either allowing or blocking them based on policy results.

What does Sentinel primarily enforce in Terraform?

A Infrastructure policies and governance

B Terraform syntax correctness

C Cloud provider billing

D Terraform module versioning

Sentinel enforces policies and governance rules on Terraform infrastructure changes.

Which phase does Sentinel evaluate Terraform changes?

A During Terraform plan or apply

B Only after apply

C Before writing Terraform code

D During Terraform init

Sentinel policies run during the plan or apply phases to evaluate changes.

Sentinel policies are written in which language?

A Python

B YAML

C JSON

D Sentinel language

Sentinel uses its own declarative language designed for policy writing.

Which of the following is a typical Sentinel policy example?

A Optimize Terraform plan speed

B Block resources in unauthorized regions

C Encrypt Terraform state files

D Manage Terraform backend configuration

Blocking resources in unauthorized regions is a common policy to enforce compliance.

What happens if a Sentinel policy fails during Terraform apply?

A Terraform plan is deleted

B Terraform apply continues anyway

C Terraform apply is blocked

D Terraform state is reset

If a Sentinel policy fails, it blocks the apply to prevent non-compliant changes.

Explain how Sentinel policies improve infrastructure governance in Terraform.

Think about how rules can stop bad changes before they happen.

Describe a simple Sentinel policy example and its purpose.

Consider a rule that controls where resources can be created.