Operations
What is Terraform?
Terraform declares infrastructure in configuration files and reconciles the real environment against them. A provider with a Terraform provider can be treated as code: instances, addresses and firewall rules become reviewable, versioned artefacts.
Why Terraform matters
A provider with a Terraform provider can be treated as code: instances, addresses and firewall rules become reviewable, versioned artefacts.
Terraform in practice
Terraform turns a server into a set of declarations you can diff, review and roll back. The practice is: the state file is ground truth. You edit a .tf file, run terraform plan, see exactly what will change, then apply. The cost of getting it wrong is an instance rebuilt from scratch, an IP flipped, or a firewall rule deleted. You spend your time reading diffs, not clicking panel buttons.
What people get wrong about Terraform
People treat Terraform like a configuration management tool. It is not: it does not run on the box. It declares the box itself, and reconciles the provider against that declaration. If you change something out-of-band, Terraform reverts it on the next apply.
Terraform — common questions
What is a Terraform provider?
A provider is a plugin that speaks the API of a service, like OnionVPS or AWS. It translates Terraform's declarative resources into API calls. You declare a provider block and a resource, and Terraform creates, updates or destroys the underlying object to match your code.
How does Terraform track what it manages?
It keeps a state file, locally or remotely. That file maps each declared resource to its real ID. Before applying changes, Terraform reads the current state and computes a plan. A stale or missing state file causes drift, which Terraform flags when it diffs reality against configuration.
More from operations
- SLA
- An SLA is a contractual commitment to a service level, usually availability, with defined compensation when it is missed.
- Out-of-band console
- An out-of-band console attaches to a virtual machine's display and keyboard independently of its network connection.
- Custom ISO
- Custom ISO support lets you upload an installer image and boot the instance from it, rather than choosing from a fixed template list.
- Seedbox
- A seedbox is a server dedicated to downloading and seeding torrents at high speed, typically with large storage and a fast uplink.
- Control panel
- A control panel is a web interface for administering servers, websites, mail and databases — cPanel, DirectAdmin, CyberPanel and similar.
- Provisioning
- Provisioning is the process of creating, configuring and delivering a server so that it is ready to use.