{"id":7580,"date":"2019-10-31T22:52:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T22:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/?p=7580"},"modified":"2021-11-15T11:19:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T11:19:15","slug":"terraform-workspace-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devopsschool.com\/blog\/terraform-workspace-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Terraform workspace explained!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Terraform workspace?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you worked with terraform workflow? such as terraform init\/plan\/apply\/destroy with terraform configuration file? If Yes, you already have worked with Terraform workspace. YES. Thats a default workspace which you always been working with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It allows you to create different and independent states on the same configuration. And as it\u2019s compatible with remote backend this workspaces are shared with your team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each Terraform configuration has an associated backend that defines how operations are executed and where persistent data such as the Terraform state are stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The persistent data stored in the backend belongs to a workspace. Initially the backend has only one workspace, called “default”, and thus there is only one Terraform state associated with that configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain backends support multiple named workspaces, allowing multiple states to be associated with a single configuration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Multiple workspaces are currently supported by the following backends:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • AzureRM<\/li>
  • Consul<\/li>
  • GCS<\/li>
  • Local<\/li>
  • Manta<\/li>
  • Postgres<\/li>
  • Remote<\/li>
  • S3<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    In the 0.9 line of Terraform releases, this concept was known as “environment”. It was renamed in 0.10 based on feedback to workspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Terraform starts with a single workspace named “default”. This workspace is special both because it is the default and also because it cannot ever be deleted. If you’ve never explicitly used workspaces, then you’ve only ever worked on the “default” workspace<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are a couple of advantages to using Workspaces:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • They are defined by Hashicorp, so it’s possible that improved features could be developed in the future<\/li>
    • They reduce the usage of code<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      However, Workspaces also present a couple of challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • They are still an early implementation<\/li>
      • They are not yet supported by all backends<\/li>
      • It is not clear at the time of deployment (terraform apply) which workspace will be used (terraform workspace show)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Working with Terraform workspace?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

        \n$ terraform -help workspace\nUsage: terraform workspace\n\n  New<\/span>, list<\/span>, show, select and<\/span> delete Terraform workspaces.\n\nSubcommands:\n    delete    Delete a workspace\n    list<\/span>      List<\/span> Workspaces\n    new<\/span>       Create a new<\/span> workspace\n    select    Select a workspace\n    show      Show the name of the current workspace<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Demo Code – <\/strong>https:\/\/github.com\/devopsschool-sample-projects\/terraform\/tree\/master\/demo.3<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        So lets create a new dev workspace by running terraform workspace new dev and then run terraform apply. As we can see below instead of creating a terraform.tfstate file in the working folder Terraform created a new folder called terraform.tfstate.d\/dev<\/strong> and places the state file within that.<\/p>\n\n\n
        \n\u251c\u2500\u2500 deploy_website<\/span>.sh<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 instance<\/span>.tf<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 provider<\/span>.tf<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfstate<\/span>.d<\/span>\n\u2502   \u2514\u2500\u2500 dev<\/span>\n\u2502       \u2514\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfstate<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfvars<\/span>\n\u2514\u2500\u2500 vars<\/span>.tf<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Ok so our webserver is now up and we are happy with the results, lets create and switch to a prod workspace. So we run terraform workspace new prod. This automatically places us in the prod workspace.<\/p>\n\n\n
        \n$ terraform workspace list<\/span>\ndefault<\/span>\ndev\n* prod<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Now lets run terraform apply again. Note if we were not using a different workspace Terraform would say no changes were needed as the remote and local state would match.<\/p>\n\n\n
        \n\u251c\u2500\u2500 deploy_website<\/span>.sh<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 instance<\/span>.tf<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 provider<\/span>.tf<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfstate<\/span>.d<\/span>\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 dev<\/span>\n\u2502   \u2502   \u2514\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfstate<\/span>\n\u2502   \u2514\u2500\u2500 prod<\/span>\n\u2502       \u2514\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfstate<\/span>\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 terraform<\/span>.tfvars<\/span>\n\u2514\u2500\u2500 vars<\/span>.tf<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> CSS<\/span> (<\/span>css<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        And now we have a prod folder with a new state file. So as we can see above we can use Terraform workspaces to manage differences between development, staging, and production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        You can also backup the remote state of each workspace to S3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n
        \nbackend.tf:\n\n# Backend configuration is loaded early so we can't use variables<\/span>\nterraform {\n  backend \"s3\"<\/span> {\n    region = \"eu-central-1\"<\/span>\n    bucket = \"devopsschool.com\"<\/span>\n    key = \"state.tfstate\"<\/span>\n    encrypt = true<\/span>    #AES-256 encryption<\/span>\n  }\n}<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Create workspaces:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        \n$ terraform workspace new<\/span> dev\nCreated and switched to workspace 'dev'<\/span>\n$ terraform workspace new<\/span> preprod\nCreated and switched to workspace 'preprod'<\/span>\n$ terraform workspace new<\/span> prod\nCreated and switched to workspace 'prod'<\/span><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> JavaScript<\/span> (<\/span>javascript<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        Select the dev workspace:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        \n$ terraform workspace select dev\n<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n\n
        List workspaces:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n
        \n$ terraform workspace list<\/span>\ndefault<\/span>\n* dev\npreprod\nprod\n<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> PHP<\/span> (<\/span>php<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
        With this workspace configuration, when a  terraform apply  is successfully executed, your tfstate will be now stored in the good environment folder in the s3 bucket:<\/p>\n\n\n
        \ndevopsschool.com\nenv:\/\n    dev\/\n       state.tfstate    \n    preprod\/\n        state.tfstate    \n    prod\/\n        state.tfstate<\/code><\/span><\/pre>\n\n