The Roadmap To Learn Terraform
The what, benefits, 14-day learning plan, & best resources to learn Terraform
Hey there 👋 - Amrut here!
Happy Saturday to all working hard towards meta-skills mastery!
Today we are diving into the what, benefits, and how to learn Terraform.
I will also provide a 14-day actionable plan to learn the fundamental concepts you must know while using Terraform in the real world.
Let’s dive in!
What is Terraform?
Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that enables you to define, provision, and manage cloud infrastructure resources.
It allows you to create a declarative configuration file that describes the desired state of your infrastructure and then applies that configuration to provide the resources.
Terraform supports various cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and more, and can manage resources such as virtual machines, networks, storage, and more.
It is designed to automate infrastructure provisioning and deployment, making managing and scaling your cloud infrastructure easier.
Why learn Terraform?
Here are 5 benefits of why you should learn to Terraform for infrastructure as code:
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Terraform enables you to define your infrastructure as code, which means you can create, manage, and version your infrastructure in a repeatable, scalable, and maintainable way.
Multi-Cloud Deployment
Terraform is cloud-agnostic. You can use it to deploy infrastructure across multiple cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, and GCP. This makes it easier for organizations to adopt a multi-cloud strategy and avoid vendor lock-in.
Automation
Terraform enables the automation of infrastructure provisioning and deployment. This can save much time and effort that would otherwise be spent on manual tasks.
Collaboration
Terraform allows teams to collaborate on infrastructure changes, versioning, and deployments. This improves collaboration, reduces errors, and increases transparency.
Consistency
With Terraform, infrastructure can be consistently deployed across environments, meaning the same code can be used to create identical environments in development, staging, and production. This improves reliability and reduces the risk of errors.
14-Day Plan To Learn Terraform
Here’s how you can get started learning Terraform today:
Day 1-3: Get started with Terraform basics
Read the official Terraform introduction and tutorial to understand the basics.
Install Terraform and practice creating and destroying resources in a test environment.
Read the “Terraform Up & Running” book by Yevgeniy Brikman for a comprehensive overview of Terraform concepts and usage.
Day 4-6: Learn how to use Terraform with cloud providers
Choose a cloud provider such as AWS or Google Cloud Platform and learn how to use Terraform to create infrastructure on that provider.
Read the Terraform Cloud Providers documentation and practice using Terraform with your chosen provider.
Learn how to manage and version your Terraform code using version control systems like Git.
Day 7-9: Explore Terraform modules
Learn how to create and use Terraform modules to organize and reuse infrastructure code.
Read the Terraform Modules documentation and practice using pre-built modules to deploy infrastructure.
Day 10-12: Automate Terraform workflows
Learn to use Terraform's automation features, such as remote state management, Terraform Cloud, and Terraform Enterprise.
Read the Terraform Automation documentation and practice setting up and using these features.
Day 13-14: Practice with real-world scenarios & get certified.
Find a real-world scenario you want to solve using Terraform, such as deploying a web application or setting up a Kubernetes cluster.
Practice using Terraform to create the required infrastructure for your scenario.
Join Terraform communities like the HashiCorp Discuss forum or Slack channel to get support and learn from other Terraform users.
HashiCorp offers many certifications. Consider getting certified as a HashiCorp Terraform Associate.
Helpful Resources
This is not an exhaustive list but a guide to get you started:
Terraform explained in 15 mins: https://youtu.be/l5k1ai_GBDE
Terraform Tutorials: https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/tutorials?product_intent=terraform
Terraform Up & Running book by Yevgeniy Brikman: https://www.terraformupandrunning.com/
HashiCorp Terraform Associate Certification Course: https://youtu.be/V4waklkBC38
Wrapping Up
There has never been a better time to learn Terraform.
With the demand for DevOps engineers on the rise and companies looking to adopt infrastructure as code solutions for infrastructure management and provisioning, knowing Terraform will give you an edge over others and open up more opportunities for you.
Use the plan I shared and helpful resources to learn today's highest in-demand skill.
Thanks for reading!
Talk to you next week.
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