Infrastructure as Code

Terraform Best Practices and Patterns

Core Concepts

• Declarative Syntax: Describe desired state, not execution steps
• State Management: Terraform state tracks infrastructure resources
• Providers: Plugins for interacting with cloud providers and services
• Modules: Reusable components for infrastructure

Best Practices

• State Management

  • Use remote state (S3, Azure Storage, GCS) for collaboration
  • Enable state locking with DynamoDB, Azure Blob lease, or GCS lock
  • Separate state files by environment (dev, staging, prod)
  • Use state workspaces for environment isolation
  • Implement state versioning and backups

• Module Structure