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stage | group | info |
---|---|---|
Configure | Configure | To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#designated-technical-writers |
Infrastructure as code with Terraform and GitLab
GitLab managed Terraform State
Terraform remote backends enable you to store the state file in a remote, shared store. GitLab uses the Terraform HTTP backend to securely store the state files in local storage (the default) or the remote store of your choice.
The GitLab managed Terraform state backend can store your Terraform state easily and securely, and spares you from setting up additional remote resources like Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. Its features include:
- Supporting encryption of the state file both in transit and at rest.
- Locking and unlocking state.
- Remote Terraform plan and apply execution.
To get started, there are two different options when using GitLab managed Terraform State.
- Use a local machine
- Use GitLab CI
Get Started using local development
If you are planning to only run terraform plan
and terraform apply
commands from your local machine, this is a simple way to get started.
First, create your project on your GitLab instance.
Next, define the Terraform backend in your Terraform project to be:
terraform {
backend "http" {
}
}
Finally, you need to run terraform init
on your local machine and pass in the following options. The below example is using GitLab.com:
terraform init \
-backend-config="address=https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<YOUR-PROJECT-ID>/terraform/state/<YOUR-PROJECT-NAME>" \
-backend-config="lock_address=https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<YOUR-PROJECT-ID>/terraform/state/<YOUR-PROJECT-NAME>/lock" \
-backend-config="unlock_address=https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/<YOUR-PROJECT-ID>/terraform/state/<YOUR-PROJECT-NAME>/lock" \
-backend-config="username=<YOUR-USERNAME>" \
-backend-config="password=<YOUR-ACCESS-TOKEN>" \
-backend-config="lock_method=POST" \
-backend-config="unlock_method=DELETE" \
-backend-config="retry_wait_min=5"
This will initialize your Terraform state and store that state within your GitLab project.
NOTE: YOUR-PROJECT-ID and YOUR-PROJECT-NAME can be accessed from the project main page.
Get Started using a GitLab CI
Another route is to leverage GitLab CI to run your terraform plan
and terraform apply
commands.
Configure the CI variables
To use the Terraform backend, first create a Personal Access Token with the api
scope. Keep in mind that the Terraform backend is restricted to tokens with Maintainer access to the repository.
To keep the Personal Access Token secure, add it as a CI/CD environment variable. In this example we set ours to the ENV: GITLAB_TF_PASSWORD
.
If you are planning to use the ENV on a branch which is not protected, make sure to set the variable protection settings correctly.
Configure the Terraform backend
Next we need to define the http backend. In your Terraform project add the following code block in a .tf
file such as backend.tf
or wherever you desire to define the remote backend:
terraform {
backend "http" {
}
}
Configure the CI YAML file
Finally, configure a .gitlab-ci.yaml
, which lives in the root of your project repository.
In our case we are using a pre-built image:
image:
name: hashicorp/terraform:light
entrypoint:
- '/usr/bin/env'
- 'PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin'
We then define some environment variables to make life easier. GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS
is the URL of the GitLab instance where this pipeline runs, and TF_ROOT
is the directory where the Terraform commands must be executed.
variables:
GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS: ${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/terraform/state/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}
TF_ROOT: ${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/environments/cloudflare/production
cache:
paths:
- .terraform
In a before_script
, pass a terraform init
call containing configuration parameters.
These parameters correspond to variables required by the
http backend:
before_script:
- cd ${TF_ROOT}
- terraform --version
- terraform init -backend-config="address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}" -backend-config="lock_address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}/lock" -backend-config="unlock_address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}/lock" -backend-config="username=${GITLAB_USER_LOGIN}" -backend-config="password=${GITLAB_TF_PASSWORD}" -backend-config="lock_method=POST" -backend-config="unlock_method=DELETE" -backend-config="retry_wait_min=5"
stages:
- validate
- build
- test
- deploy
validate:
stage: validate
script:
- terraform validate
plan:
stage: build
script:
- terraform plan
- terraform show
apply:
stage: deploy
environment:
name: production
script:
- terraform apply
dependencies:
- plan
when: manual
only:
- master
Push to GitLab
Pushing your project to GitLab triggers a CI job pipeline, which runs the terraform init
, terraform validate
, and terraform plan
commands automatically.
The output from the above terraform
commands should be viewable in the job logs.
Example project
See this reference project using GitLab and Terraform to deploy a basic AWS EC2 within a custom VPC.
Output Terraform Plan information into a merge request
Using the GitLab Terraform Report Artifact,
you can expose details from terraform plan
runs directly into a merge request widget,
enabling you to see statistics about the resources that Terraform will create,
modify, or destroy.
Let's explore how to configure a GitLab Terraform Report Artifact:
-
First, for simplicity, let's define a few reusable variables to allow us to refer to these files multiple times:
variables: PLAN: plan.tfplan PLAN_JSON: tfplan.json
-
Next we need to install
jq
, a lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor. We will also create an alias for a specificjq
command that parses out the extact information we want to extract from theterraform plan
output:
before_script:
- apk --no-cache add jq
- alias convert_report="jq -r '([.resource_changes[]?.change.actions?]|flatten)|{\"create\":(map(select(.==\"create\"))|length),\"update\":(map(select(.==\"update\"))|length),\"delete\":(map(select(.==\"delete\"))|length)}'"
- Finally, we define a
script
that runsterraform plan
and also aterraform show
which pipes the output and converts the relevant bits into a store variablePLAN_JSON
. This json is then leveraged to create a GitLab Terraform Report Artifact.
The terraform report obtains a Terraform tfplan.json file. The collected Terraform plan report will be uploaded to GitLab as an artifact and will be automatically shown in merge requests.
plan:
stage: build
script:
- terraform plan -out=$PLAN
- terraform show --json $PLAN | convert_report > $PLAN_JSON
artifacts:
name: plan
paths:
- $PLAN
reports:
terraform: $PLAN_JSON
A full .gitlab-ci.yaml
file could look like this:
image:
name: hashicorp/terraform:light
entrypoint:
- '/usr/bin/env'
- 'PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin'
# Default output file for Terraform plan
variables:
GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS: ${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/terraform/state/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}
PLAN: plan.tfplan
PLAN_JSON: tfplan.json
TF_ROOT: ${CI_PROJECT_DIR}
cache:
paths:
- .terraform
before_script:
- apk --no-cache add jq
- alias convert_report="jq -r '([.resource_changes[]?.change.actions?]|flatten)|{\"create\":(map(select(.==\"create\"))|length),\"update\":(map(select(.==\"update\"))|length),\"delete\":(map(select(.==\"delete\"))|length)}'"
- cd ${TF_ROOT}
- terraform --version
- terraform init -backend-config="address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}" -backend-config="lock_address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}/lock" -backend-config="unlock_address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}/lock" -backend-config="username=${GITLAB_USER_LOGIN}" -backend-config="password=${GITLAB_TF_PASSWORD}" -backend-config="lock_method=POST" -backend-config="unlock_method=DELETE" -backend-config="retry_wait_min=5"
stages:
- validate
- build
- deploy
validate:
stage: validate
script:
- terraform validate
plan:
stage: build
script:
- terraform plan -out=$PLAN
- terraform show --json $PLAN | convert_report > $PLAN_JSON
artifacts:
name: plan
paths:
- ${TF_ROOT}/plan.tfplan
reports:
terraform: ${TF_ROOT}/tfplan.json
# Separate apply job for manual launching Terraform as it can be destructive
# action.
apply:
stage: deploy
environment:
name: production
script:
- terraform apply -input=false $PLAN
dependencies:
- plan
when: manual
only:
- master
-
Running the pipeline displays the widget in the merge request, like this:
-
Clicking the View Full Log button in the widget takes you directly to the plan output present in the pipeline logs:
Example .gitlab-ci.yaml
file
image:
name: hashicorp/terraform:light
entrypoint:
- '/usr/bin/env'
- 'PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin'
# Default output file for Terraform plan
variables:
GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS: ${CI_API_V4_URL}/projects/${CI_PROJECT_ID}/terraform/state/${CI_PROJECT_NAME}
PLAN: plan.tfplan
PLAN_JSON: tfplan.json
TF_ROOT: ${CI_PROJECT_DIR}
cache:
paths:
- .terraform
before_script:
- apk --no-cache add jq
- alias convert_report="jq -r '([.resource_changes[]?.change.actions?]|flatten)|{\"create\":(map(select(.==\"create\"))|length),\"update\":(map(select(.==\"update\"))|length),\"delete\":(map(select(.==\"delete\"))|length)}'"
- cd ${TF_ROOT}
- terraform --version
- terraform init -backend-config="address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}" -backend-config="lock_address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}/lock" -backend-config="unlock_address=${GITLAB_TF_ADDRESS}/lock" -backend-config="username=${GITLAB_USER_LOGIN}" -backend-config="password=${GITLAB_TF_PASSWORD}" -backend-config="lock_method=POST" -backend-config="unlock_method=DELETE" -backend-config="retry_wait_min=5"
stages:
- validate
- build
- deploy
validate:
stage: validate
script:
- terraform validate
plan:
stage: build
script:
- terraform plan -out=$PLAN
- terraform show --json $PLAN | convert_report > $PLAN_JSON
artifacts:
name: plan
paths:
- ${TF_ROOT}/plan.tfplan
reports:
terraform: ${TF_ROOT}/tfplan.json
# Separate apply job for manual launching Terraform as it can be destructive
# action.
apply:
stage: deploy
environment:
name: production
script:
- terraform apply -input=false $PLAN
dependencies:
- plan
when: manual
only:
- master