Terratest is implemented as a Go library. The Terraform Registry hosts thousands of self-contained packages called modules. The examples folder contains some end-to-end samples. Use standard modules. In our main.tf file, we also include the azurerm provider block. 2021 CloudSkills.io, 3rd fastest-growing programming language on GitHub, "Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Deploying Resources", Azure Cloud Shell. ; Visual Studio Code: Download Visual Studio Code for your platform. In this build script, written in Go, we implement five build steps: You can use the following commands to execute a full test suite. Sounds idyllic right? The Terraform Registry hosts a broad collection of publicly available Terraform modules for configuring many kinds of common infrastructure. The following list describes some of the major advantages of using Terratest: In this tutorial, you create a Terraform module that provisions a static webpage by uploading a single HTML file to an Azure Storage blob. Next, we have our modules folder, which contains any sub-modules that would be needed to perform additional tasks, for example, configuring Private Link or setting up a Static Website. In the example we only have a small set of arguments for our storage account to keep things simple. Files marked with an asterisk (*) are the primary focus in this section. Our Terraform modules turn into building blocks that can be used over and over again to create infrastructure on demand. We use the helper function to make sure that HTML is uploaded to the output homepage URL that's returned by terraform output. Modules also have output values, which are defined within the module with the output keyword. This is also a great learning tool since you can also view the project on GitHub and see how the module is done and the logic used behind it. We looked at all the most popular testing infrastructures and chose Terratest to use for testing our Terraform modules. Creating an output for a module is the same process as with a regular Terraform configuration. Terraform tooling is built to understand the standard module structure and use that structure to generate documentation, index modules for the module registry, and more. Lastly, we learned about the Terraform Registry and the community-made modules stored there. The private registry should ensure full control and consistency across the source code. It's important to implement quality assurance when you create Terraform modules. Modules are self-contained packages of Terraform configurations that are managed as a group. The input object has type = any for greater flexibility, including a mix and … The sample code in this article does not work with version 0.12 (and greater). The private registry is a good practice so that enterprise organizations can create a common place for reusable Terraform modules, … Terraform modules incorporate encapsulation that's useful in implementing infrastructure as code processes. In this video we learned how to create a terraform module and what is the use of it and little bit of how real environment works with IAC. Using Terraform Modules from Git in Azure DevOps. In this section, we use a Go build system, mage, for the job. »Define root output values. But, we don't really need to provision any resources. - aztfm/terraform-azurerm-virtual-network The code is similar to the running steps we used in an earlier section. I assume you already know some of the basics about Terraform, and have even tried to use it before. Additionally, we also get version tagging. tfOptions makes all Terraform commands that target the ./examples/hello-world/ folder. Lastly, we have our test folder, which includes test files written in Golang to test our module using the examples from the example folder; we will go more into testing modules in a later article in this series: This module structure is how we can create production-grade Terraform modules that can be used for every project. Before you begin, you'll need to set up the following: 1. Later, they find themselves going through hundreds of lines of configuration code. Create a basic virtual network in Azure. Also, we can use the same module multiple times in a configuration with a different parameter string: We just created our first module. Azure / naming 8 months ago 27.9K provider. Be sure to check out the prerequisites on. In the example below, we are using a module to deploy Azure Functions from the Terraform Registry: When we run Terraform init, the module is automatically downloaded and used during the terraform apply. For our storage account module, we are keeping it as simple as possible for the example by receiving inputs for the storage account name, location, and resource group: The main.tf file contains the code for creating a storage account. Modules are instrumental in defining standards and consistency across resource deployment within and across environments. Outputs are just as important as well. Best practices for Terraform modules include installing the examples folder. Inside the block, we need to reference the module that we are using by declaring a source argument. Terraform publishes a list of environment variable names. Below we are creating an output block for our storage account primary access key so we can store it in an Azure Key Vault after it is created: Also note, we are using the sensitive argument to specify that the primary_access_key output for our storage account contains sensitive data. As a life long learner Luke’s objective is to discover ways to automate tedious and troublesome tasks and to share his findings with others. We also looked at how to store our modules in a git repository like GitHub and Azure Repos. When creating production-grade Terraform configurations, modules are an absolute must. Terraform will treat this information as confidential and hide it from the console display when running terraform apply. Luke Orellana is a VMware vExpert who's been immersed in the IT Infrastructure realm since 2005. In this article, we learned about modules and how we can use them to abstract our Terraform configurations. Thanks to the flexibility of Terratest, we can use unit tests. DRY is a software development term that stands for Don't Repeat Yourself. In this section, we focus on the three files that are marked with an asterisk (*) in the following folder structure: Let's start with the samples. Learn how to use Terraform Modules in this lecture and demonstration. We could then re-use that module whenever a SQL database is needed and call it within our Terraform configurations. In the body of the unit test, we have a total of five cases that are defined in variable testCases (key as input, and value as expected output). The default value for the input structure is based on Enterprise-Scale.. Modules can be used to create lightweight abstractions, so that you can describe your infrastructure in terms of its architecture, rather than directly in terms of physical objects. This v0.13 module creates a nested Azure Management Group structure using a simple and dense input object. Azure Cloud Shell. This blog is going to continue with the… We would also need to generate and install the SSH certificate for authentication: For using a Terraform module source from a GitHub repo, use the URL to the GitHub project. » Standard Module Structure The standard module structure is a file and directory layout we recommend for reusable modules distributed in separate repositories. Next, a terraform plan command that uses specific test case input (take a look at the website_name definition in tfOptions) saves the result to ./test/fixtures/storage-account-name/terraform.tfplan (not listed in the overall folder structure). Unit tests are local running test cases (although internet access is required). For example, you can use mage unit or mage clean. We are no longer copying and pasting our code from dev to QA to Prod. You could also run both unit tests and integration tests by executing these commands: Integration tests take much longer than unit tests (two minutes for one integration case compared to one minute for five unit cases). Please click the like button and subscribe to Skylines Academy to support our channel. But it's your decision whether to use unit tests or integration tests in a scenario. His technology passions are Cloud and DevOps tools. Please enable Javascript to use this application These modules leverage popular providers from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and several others. We can then re-use each module to deploy services and build out the infrastructure for various environments. This blog post is part of the series about using Terraform on Microsoft Azure.In this part, I will discuss about how you can organize your Terraform files and how to maximize code reuse, especially using Terraform modules. We will start by creating a module folder and then reference that module in another Terraform configuration. In contrast to unit tests, integration tests must provision resources to a real environment for an end-to-end perspective. To remove all Azure resources provisioned with Terraform run: terraform destroy 8. Folder Struture : C:\Terraform\ResourceGroup \rg.tf \var.tf \output.tf C:\Terraform\Vnet \vnet.tf rg.tf contains: We use another helper function, HttpGetWithCustomValidation(), which is provided by Terratest. 3. Terraform supports a number of different methods for authenticating to Azure: Authenticating to Azure using the Azure CLI; Authenticating to Azure using Managed Service Identity; Authenticating to Azure using a Service Principal and a Client Certificate; Authenticating to Azure using a Service Principal and a Client Secret This is a natural fit for custom Azure policies and initiatives since it allows organizations to implement all … Questions, use-cases, and useful patterns. This would create a large amount of redundancy in our Terraform code. To run the integration tests, complete the following steps on the command line: The traditional Go test result returns in about two minutes. Terraform also publishes detailed instructions that explain how to obtain the value of these environment variables. This module provides an opinionated approach for delivering the core platform capabilities of enterprise-scale landing zones using Terraform, based on the architecture published in the Cloud Adoption Framework enterprise-scale landing zone … Get exclusive access to special trainings, updates on industry trends, and tips on how to It's recommended to have README.md files for every Terraform configuration to describe what it is and how it is used. Instead of executing az login before tests, you can complete Azure authentication by setting the service principal environment variables. Modules allow for packaging your Terraform code and logic into a re-usable unit of work that you can then share with others, or just re-use yourself. (Only the first four of these environment variables are required.) ; Terraform: Install Terraform to run the module created by Yeoman. For that purpose, Terratest provisions real resources in a real environment. We have our root module configuration files at the root of our repository directory, which in this example, is storage-account. We also have our examples directory, which should contain examples of every possible scenario of our module. For Terraform-specific support, use one of HashiCorp's community support channels to Terraform: standard Terraform module folder structure, obtain the value of these environment variables, Terraform section of the HashiCorp community portal, Terraform Providers section of the HashiCorp community portal. For example, we could create a module for SQL databases that contain all of our configurations for deploying SQL with our needs. Deploying Re-usable Code In my series of Terraform, from the basics to the more advanced topics, we’re going to cover off Modules. For each unit test case, we first run terraform init and target the test fixture folder (./test/fixtures/storage-account-name/). The inputs are declared in ./variables.tf: As we mentioned earlier in the article, this module also outputs a URL that's declared in ./outputs.tf: The main logic of the module provisions four resources: The static webpage module logic is implemented in ./main.tf: Terratest is designed for integration tests. Create all files that are described in this section under your GOPATH location. These modules are free to use, and Terraform can download them automatically if you specify the appropriate source and version in a module … A complex module can take an experienced developer several months to build. One slight problem, upon destroying the… In this example, we are merely referencing the module in our modules subfolder, so the path is ./modules/storage-account. This step downloads the Azure modules required to create an Azure resource group. Modules should also be used as a way to split up a large environment into smaller components. We also need to include any required variable inputs for our storage account module. terraform-azurerm-load-balancer. ; Docker: Install Docker to run the module created by the Yeoman generator. This is a markdown file that contains the information about our module. In our example, I have uploaded our storage account module to an Azure DevOps Repo. Creates a basic load balancer, backend pool, list of rules and probes. You can use Azure Terraform modules to create reusable, composable, and testable components. In Terraform, we can create modules to build re-usable components of our infrastructure. The static webpage module accepts three inputs. terraform-azure. 2020-03-14. Before we can walk through the import process, we will need some existing infrastructure in our Azure account. It accepts one input, website_name, which is also the input of the unit tests. The module does not create nor expose a security group. The verified badge appears next to modules that are published by a verified source. Here, we provide a simple HTML page to be uploaded: ./examples/hello-world/index.html. We usually use integration tests for the end-to-end perspective of a user. Folder and Files Below … Continue reading "Use Terraform Modules And Variables With Microsoft Azure" You can access them by referring to module..

.Module outputs are listed under the outputs tab in the Terraform registry.. Module outputs are usually either passed to other parts of your configuration, or defined as outputs in your root module. We'll place each file according to the directory structure above. Module A contains rg.tf file to create resource group on azure. Tagging modules is a best practice because it allows us to "pin" a stable working version of our module to a Terraform configuration. In 2019 HCL was the 3rd fastest-growing programming language on GitHub, which validates the accelerated adoption of the HashiCorp product stack. Be sure to check out the prerequisites on "Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Deploying Resources"for a guide on how to set this up. Module B contains vnet.tf file and it needs resource group name from Module A. Reuse of components is a fundamental principle of infrastructure as code. 2. Terraform -v = Terraform v0.12.6. Optional: Set service principal environment variables to run acceptance tests. When we run our terraform init in the terraformdemo directory we can see that the module is initialized: When we run terraform apply, it will reference the storage-account module to create our storage account with the settings we declared in the module input. The Terraform Registry is a centralized place for community-made Terraform modules. We can use the https URL and prefix it with git::: If we run a terraform init we can see in the console output that the module is downloaded from the git repo and saved to the .terraform/modules local directory: Also, if we wanted to use a private Azure Repo with SSH, we could reference our module in the source argument via an SSH URL like below. Automating infrastructure has several benefits: Lowers the potential for human errors … It is a good idea to check the Terraform Registry before building your own module to save time. The Terraform sample ./examples/hello-world/main.tf is similar to the one shown in the unit test. This Terraform module deploys a Virtual Network in Azure with a subnet or a set of subnets passed in as input parameters. Azure subscription. Learn how to use Terraform to reliably provision virtual machines and other infrastructure on Azure. This module gives users from around the world access to the webpage through a URL that the module returns. Terratest does a good job with this kind of task. terraform init. It is best practice to specify the provider at the root module file; that way, all modules that are called will then inherit this provider. The only thing required by mage is magefile.go in your project's root directory (marked with (+) in the following example): Here's an example of ./magefile.go. By creating four modules for each service in this environment, we can also re-use the same code in both Dev, QA, and Prod. To use a Terraform module from a git repository, change the source argument to the git URL. In the example, we are going to create our first module for a storage account. You can find the final code in the tutorial repo. The file ./test/fixtures/storage-account-name/main.tf is the test case frame. That's why you need to be careful to avoid naming conflicts. A new sample folder named hello-world/ is created in the ./examples/ folder. It is very helpful to have an understand of how state files work, refer to my other blog on state files and start there. Authenticating to Azure. Achieving full CI/CD. Running test cases in Azure Cloud Shell requires executing different commands in various directories. For an overview, please read the Management Groups documentation.. We don't want to have a single main.tf file with over 1000 lines of code. How do i use the output of one into another ? This can cause further complexity and make modules brittle. Azure Cloud Shell. This would need to be defined separately as additional security rules on subnets in the deployed network. Azure subscription: If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin. Also, by splitting our environment up into modules, we now have pieces of our infrastructure separated into a testable module. Splitting up our code into smaller modules allows us to make changes to our environment safely without affecting large chunks of code. It seems like a lot of work for creating a module and can be overwhelming; however, start small and slowly build out your module. This is a public git repo and will not require any authentication configuration. They allow us to transfer information to and from modules so that they can build off of each other. Leveraging open-source modules from the Terraform registry is a good practice and a quick way to get started. Unlike unit tests, integration tests create actual resources in Azure. Finally, terraform destroy is "promised" to be executed by leveraging the defer feature of Go. However, in a real production environment, we would possibly want to implement network policies as well as logging options. Terraform modules are used to create reusable components that include groups of resources meant to be deployed together. The overall folder structure of this tutorial is shown in the following example. This practice ensures accurate infrastructure comparisons between each environment throughout each stage of development. We compare the HTTP GET status code with 200 and look for some keywords in the HTML content. We even have the ability to destroy our infrastructure using 'Terraform Destroy' so that we can break down and rebuild our infrastructure on demand. ; Go programming language: Install Go as Yeoman-generated … Create an output.tf file and use an output block to declare our output values. Built with in Scottsdale, AZ© The modules that are on the public Terraform Registry can be used by referencing them in the // format. First, create a new folder named staticwebpage under your GoPath src folder. Then, terraform init, terraform apply, and terraform output are executed, one by one. There's one significant difference: the sample also prints out the URL of the uploaded HTML as a webpage named homepage. Azure, Terraform. (Pay special attention to some globally unique names like storage account names.) Sometimes, integration test jobs can become exceptionally large, especially when you have a large number of resources to provision. In this guide, we are going to create a module and learn how to integrate it into our Terraform configurations. We don't show the code here. Now, we look for the attributes we're interested in (in this case, the name of the azurerm_storage_account) and compare the results with the expected output: To run the unit tests, complete the following steps on the command line: The traditional Go test result returns in about a minute. Unfortunately, limited documentation is available to explain how to author unit tests and integration tests in Terraform modules. HCL 2 1 1 0 Updated on Jun 29, 2020. This prevents any breaking changes from affecting configurations that are already in production. Today we will take a step forward and make the module more usable. advance your career in the tech industry. The variables.tf file contains our input variables. It's important to implement quality assurance when you create Terraform modules. Terraform modules incorporate encapsulation that's useful in implementing infrastructure as code processes. The .tf files in your working directory when you run terraform plan or terraform … terraform-azurerm-vnet. This result file is parsed to a code-readable structure by using the official Terraform plan parser. Terraform module for the Azure public cloud destined for the Virtual Network resource. Before you begin, you'll need to set up the following: In a real-world Terraform environment, we wouldn't want to re-create the same code over and over again for deploying infrastructure. We also have a README.md at the root folder. Be sure to check out the prerequisites on "Getting Started with Terraform on Azure: Deploying Resources"for a guide on setting up Azure Cloud Shell. Building a module can take a long time; however, there are thousands of modules shared by the community that you can take advantage of by using them as a base or just using them on their own. We use Terratest and classic Go test functions again in the integration test file ./test/hello_world_example_test.go. In that case, you can simplify magefiles across all your modules by referencing only a common implementation and declaring dependencies (mg.Deps()). This does not protect the value from within a Terraform's state file; it will still be in cleartext, which is why in a real-world production scenario, we would want to use remote state. 2. In this blog post, I will show you how I use Terraform modules with variables to create resources in Microsoft Azure. If your working with Terraform you are eventually going to start writing your own modules. This tutorial introduces a testing infrastructure and best practices that we adopted when we built our Azure Terraform modules. He's been creating technical blog content and guest speaking at Webinars throughout the years. Alternatively use only the microsoft/terraform-test Docker hub image by using these in… You can replace the last command line with additional mage steps. Lastly, modules also provide a way for Terraform users to share their configurations either privately or within the Terraform community. Verified modules are reviewed by HashiCorp and actively maintained by contributors to stay up-to-date and compatible with both Terraform and their respective providers. To make this process more efficient, we introduce the build system in our project. First, we use an empty HTML file named ./test/fixtures/storage-account-name/empty.html as a placeholder. The idea is to reduce the amount of repetition in our code. Each module reduces time spent on delivering cloud resources by allowing consumers to provide a handful of inputs with … Supports an object of defaults, and outputs are suitable for the VM and VMSS modules. Surprisingly, a lot of beginners skip over Terraform modules for the sake of simplicity, or so they think.