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Terraform Workspaces with Remote Backend

Step-01: Introduction

  • We are going to use Terraform Remote Backend (Azure Storage)
  • We are going to create 3 workspaces (default, dev, staging, prod) in addition to default workspace
  • We will understand how the Terraform TF State Files get created in Azure Storage Account as part of multiple workspaces concept.

Step-02: c1-versions.tf

  • Add Backend block in Terraform Settings block
# Terraform State Storage to Azure Storage Container
  backend "azurerm" {
    resource_group_name   = "terraform-storage-rg"
    storage_account_name  = "terraformstate201"
    container_name        = "tfstatefiles"
    key                   = "cliworkspaces-terraform.tfstate"
  }

Step-03: Create Workspaces and Verify State files in Storage Account

# Terraform Init
terraform init 
Observation:
1. Go to Azure Management Console -> terraform-storage-tg -> terraformstate201 -> tfstatefiles
2. Verify file with name "cliworkspaces-terraform.tfstate"
3. Verify file size (Approx 155B)

# List Workspaces
terraform workspace list

# Output Current Workspace using show
terraform workspace show

# Create Workspaces
terraform workspace new dev
terraform workspace new staging
terraform workspace new prod

# Verify the workspace file names in Storage Account
cliworkspaces-terraform.tfstate:dev
cliworkspaces-terraform.tfstate:staging
cliworkspaces-terraform.tfstate:prod

# Delete Workspaces
terraform workspace select default
terraform workspace delete dev
terraform workspace delete staging
terraform workspace delete prod

# Verify the workspace file names in Storage Account
Observation:
1. All the workspace specific state files should be deleted automatically when workspaces get deleted.
2. Only `cliworkspaces-terraform.tfstate` default worksapce file should be present because we will not be able to delete default workspace.

Step-04: Clean-Up Local folder

# Clean-Up local folder
rm -rf .terraform*

References