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Terraform Override Files

Step-01: Introduction

Step-02: Review Terraform Configs in terraform-manifests-v1

  • c1-versions.tf
  • c2-variables.tf
  • c3-resource-group.tf
  • c4-virtual-network.tf
  • terraform.tfvars

Step-03: terraform-manifests-v1 - override.tf

  • Define the same Resource Group resource with different location 
    # Resource-1: Azure Resource Group
resource "azurerm_resource_group" "myrg" {
  #name = var.resource_group_name
  name = "${var.business_unit}-${var.environment}-${var.resoure_group_name}"
  location = "westus"
}

Step-04: terraform-manifests-v1 - Execute Terraform Commands

# Change Directory
cd terraform-manifests-v1/

# Terraform Initialize
terraform init

# Terraform Validate
terraform validate

# Terraform Plan
terraform plan

# Observation
1. Review the location for all resources.
2. Location of all resources should be "westus" because it has picked the information from "override.tf"

# Clean-Up
rm -rf .terraform*

Step-05: terraform-manifests-v2 - c3-resource-group_override.tf

# Resource-1: Azure Resource Group
resource "azurerm_resource_group" "myrg" {
  #name = var.resource_group_name
  name = "${var.business_unit}-${var.environment}-${var.resoure_group_name}"
  location = "westus"
}

Step-06: terraform-manifests-v2 - Execute Terraform Commands

# Change Directory
cd terraform-manifests-v2/

# Terraform Initialize
terraform init

# Terraform Validate
terraform validate

# Terraform Plan
terraform plan

# Observation
1. Review the location for all resources.
2. Location of all resources should be "westus" because it has picked the information from "c3-resource-group_override.tf"

# Clean-Up
rm -rf .terraform*

Step-07: Discuss about .gitignore Terraform - Default behavior

  • By default if we use .gitignore of Terraform from github it will have override files ignored.
  • Based on need, you need to comment them in .gitignore if those are required and our .tf files are checked-in to github. 
    # Ignore override files as they are usually used to override resources locally and so
# are not checked in
#override.tf
#override.tf.json
#*_override.tf
#*_override.tf.json

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