Terraform Output Values

Step-01: Introduction

• Understand about Output Values and implement them
• Query outputs using terraform output
• Understand about redacting secure attributes in output values
• Generate machine-readable output

Step-02: Basics of Output Values

• Reference Sub folder: terraform-manifests
• Understand Output Values
• You can export both Argument & Attribute References
• Terraform AWS EC2 Instance

  # Initialize Terraform
  terraform init
  
  # Validate Terraform configuration files
  terraform validate
  
  # Format Terraform configuration files
  terraform fmt
  
  # Review the terraform plan
  terraform plan 
  
  # Create Resources
  terraform apply -auto-approve
  
  # Access Application
  http://<Public-IP>
  http://<Public-DNS>
  

Step-03: Query Terraform Outputs

• Terraform will load the project state in state file, so that using terraform output command we can query the state file.

  # Terraform Output Commands
  terraform output
  terraform output ec2_publicdns
  

Step-04: Output Values - Suppressing Sensitive Values in Output

• We can redact the sensitive outputs using sensitve = true in output block
• This will only redact the cli output for terraform plan and apply
• When you query using terraform output, you will be able to fetch exact values from terraform.tfstate files
• Add sensitve = true for output ec2_publicdns

  # Attribute Reference - Create Public DNS URL with http:// appended
  output "ec2_publicdns" {
    description = "Public DNS URL of an EC2 Instance"
    value = "http://${aws_instance.my-ec2-vm.public_dns}"
    sensitive = true
  }
  

• Test the flow

  # Terraform Apply
  terraform apply -auto-approve
  Observation: You should see the value as sensitive
  
  # Query using terraform output
  terraform output ec2_publicdns
  Observation: You should get non-redacted original value from terraform.tfstate file
  

Step-05: Generate machine-readable output

# Generate machine-readable output
terraform output -json

Step-06: Destroy Resources

# Destroy Resources
terraform destroy -auto-approve

# Clean-Up
rm -rf .terraform*
rm -rf terraform.tfstate*

References

• Terraform Output Values

📬 Stay Updated — Weekly Terraform tips, Kubernetes guides & cost optimization strategies.

🎉 New Course

− ×

Ultimate DevOps Real-World Project Implementation on AWS

$15.99 $84.99 81% OFF

MARCH2026 📋 Copy

Enroll Now on Udemy →

🎉 Offer