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Terraform Certification Exam Info

Duration​

  • 60 minutes
  • 90 minutes for non-native English speakers

Number of Questions​

  • 57 questions

Pactice Exam Cost​

  • $40 USD

Exam Cost​

  • $70 USD

Exam Format​

  • Multiple choice questions
  • Multiple select questions
  • True/False questions
  • Drag and drop questions
  • Scenario-based questions

Exam Language​

  • English

Exam Provider​

  • PSI

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Concepts​

Write a script to automate create, update, and delete infrastructure resources.

  • IaC is blueprint for infrastructure.
  • IaC allow to share, version control, and reuse infrastructure configurations.

Infrastructure Lifecycle Management​

  • plan, design, build, test, deliver,maintain and retire infrastructure.

  • Plan and Design: Define the infrastructure requirements and design the architecture.

  • Develop and Iterate: Write the code to create the infrastructure resources.

  • Go Live and maintain: Deploy the infrastructure and monitor the performance.

  • Reliability: IaC makes changes idempotent, meaning that the same configuration can be applied multiple times without causing issues.

  • Maintainability: IaC allows to easily update and modify the infrastructure.

  • Sensibility: IaC allows to create infrastructure that is cost-effective and efficient.

Provisioning, Deployment, and Orchestration​

  • Provisioning: Create the infrastructure resources. When you run terraform apply, Terraform provisions the resources defined in the configuration file.

  • Deployment: Deploy the application code to the infrastructure. Terraform can be used to deploy the application code to the infrastructure.

  • Orchestration: Manage the infrastructure resources. use for microservices architecture.

Configuration Drift​

  • an unexpected change in the infrastructure configuration.

  • Terraform can detect configuration drift by comparing the current state of the infrastructure with the desired state defined in the configuration file.

  • Terraform can correct configuration drift by updating the infrastructure to match the desired state.

  • Terraform can prevent configuration drift by using Terraform Cloud to manage the infrastructure.

Terraform​

Lifecycle​

  1. Code - Write the Terraform configuration files.

  2. Init - Initialize the working directory with terraform init.

  3. Plan - Create an execution plan with terraform plan.

  4. validate - Validate the configuration files with terraform validate.

  5. Apply - Apply the changes with terraform apply.

  6. Destroy - Destroy the resources with terraform destroy.

Terraform Change Automation​

  • Change Management: Terraform can automate the process of making changes to the infrastructure.

Execution Plans​

  • Terraform creates an execution plan that shows what actions Terraform will take to change the infrastructure to match the configuration.

  • Terraform execution plan is a dry run of the changes that will be made to the infrastructure.

Terraform Visualizations and Graphs​

  • Terraform can generate visualizations and graphs of the infrastructure resources.

  • Terraform graph command generates a visual representation of the infrastructure resources.

Resource Graph​

  • Terraform creates a resource graph that shows the dependencies between the infrastructure resources.

User Cases​

  1. Open Source: Terraform is an open-source tool that can be used to manage infrastructure resources.

  2. Multi-Cloud: Terraform can be used to manage infrastructure resources across multiple cloud providers.

  3. Automation: Terraform can be used to automate the process of creating, updating, and deleting infrastructure resources.

  4. Scalability: Terraform can be used to manage infrastructure resources at scale.

  5. Collaboration: Terraform can be used to collaborate on infrastructure configurations with team members.

  6. Version Control: Terraform configurations can be version controlled using Git.

  7. Infrastructure as Code: Terraform allows to define infrastructure resources as code.

  8. Infrastructure Lifecycle Management: Terraform can be used to manage the entire lifecycle of infrastructure resources.

Terraform Core and Plugins​

Terraform Core​

Use RPC to communicate with plugins.

Terraform Plugins​

Expose an implementation of service provider interface.

Extra Resources​

  • Book : Terraform Up & Running

  • Online Open book: Terraform best practices

Terraform Commands​

Terraform Local values​

locals {
  service_name = "forum"
  owner        = "Community Team"
}

local values can be used to store values that are used multiple times in the configuration files.

variable vs locals

  • variables are used to define values that can be passed to the configuration files.

  • locals are used to define values that are used multiple times in the configuration files.

Terraform Variables​

variable "region" {
  type    = string
  default = "us-west-2"
}

variables can be used to define values that can be passed to the configuration files.

Terraform Outputs​

output "instance_ip" {
  value = aws_instance.example.public_ip
}

outputs can be used to define values that are returned by the configuration files.

terraform output

Command to display the outputs of the configuration files.

Terraform Refresh​

terraform refresh

refresh the state of the infrastructure resources.

Terraform Modules​

module "vpc" {
  source = "./modules/vpc"

  region = var.region

  tags = {
    Name        = "vpc"
    Environment = "production"
  }

  //...
}

Modules can be used to organize the configuration files into reusable components.

Terraform Cloud​

  • Terraform Cloud is a hosted service that provides a central location for managing Terraform configurations.

  • Terraform Cloud can be used to store the state of the infrastructure resources.