Method 1: conditional expression
Terraform doesn’t support if statements. Luckily we can achieve the same result by using a specific parameter called count.
You can think about it this way: you can set count to 1 on a specific resource and get one copy of that resource.
However, setting the same count parameter to 0 you won’t get any resource created.
If condition is true then the result is true_val. If condition is false then the result is false_val.
<CONDITION> ? <TRUE_VAL> <FALSE_VAL>Code language: HTML, XML (xml)
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
ami = "ami-053b0d53c279acc90"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
count = var.create_instance ? 1 : 0
tags = {
Name = "My EC2 Instance"
}
}
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)
Method 2: Depends_on
Implicit dependencies are the primary way that Terraform understands the relationships between your resources. Sometimes there are dependencies between resources that are not visible to Terraform, however. The depends_on argument is accepted by any resource or module block and accepts a list of resources to create explicit dependencies for.
Add the following to main.tf. Since both the instance and the SQS Queue are dependent upon the S3 Bucket, Terraform waits until the bucket is created to begin creating the other two resources.
variable "instance_type" {
default = "t2.micro"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
ami = "ami-053b0d53c279acc90"
instance_type = var.instance_type
tags = {
Name = "My EC2 Instance"
}
}
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "example_bucket" {
depends_on = [aws_instance.example]
bucket = "my-unique-bucket-name"
acl = "private"
}Code language: JavaScript (javascript)
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "example" {
acl = "private"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example_c" {
ami = data.aws_ami.amazon_linux.id
instance_type = "t2.micro"
depends_on = [aws_s3_bucket.example]
}
module "example_sqs_queue" {
source = "terraform-aws-modules/sqs/aws"
version = "2.1.0"
depends_on = [aws_s3_bucket.example, aws_instance.example_c]
}Code language: JavaScript (javascript)
Example code for terraform calling multiple modules in dependson
# main.tf
module "module1" {
source = "./module1"
}
module "module2" {
source = "./module2"
}
resource "aws_instance" "example" {
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
depends_on = [
module.module1,
module.module2
]
}
Code language: PHP (php)
In this example, we have two modules, module1 and module2, and an EC2 instance defined in the aws_instance resource. The depends_on argument specifies that the instance should be created only after both module1 and module2 have been created.
I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.
I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.
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