Skip to content

Terraform with Azure

Introduction to Azure Provider

The Azure provider is used to interact with the many resources supported by Azure Resource Manager (ARM). It needs to be configured with proper credentials before it can be used.

Provider Configuration

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

Authentication

There are several ways to authenticate:

  1. Azure CLI
  2. Managed Service Identity
  3. Service Principal with a Client Secret
  4. Service Principal with a Client Certificate

Example using a Service Principal:

provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
  subscription_id = var.subscription_id
  client_id       = var.client_id
  client_secret   = var.client_secret
  tenant_id       = var.tenant_id
}

Common Azure Resources

  1. Resource Group
resource "azurerm_resource_group" "example" {
  name     = "example-resources"
  location = "West Europe"
}
  1. Virtual Machine
resource "azurerm_virtual_machine" "example" {
  name                  = "example-vm"
  location              = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
  resource_group_name   = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  network_interface_ids = [azurerm_network_interface.example.id]
  vm_size               = "Standard_DS1_v2"
  # ... other configurations
}
  1. Storage Account
resource "azurerm_storage_account" "example" {
  name                     = "examplestorageaccount"
  resource_group_name      = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
  location                 = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
  account_tier             = "Standard"
  account_replication_type = "GRS"
}

Best Practices

  1. Use Managed Identities when possible for authentication
  2. Implement least privilege principle for Azure AD roles
  3. Use Terraform workspaces or separate state files for different environments
  4. Utilize Azure-specific modules from the Terraform Registry

Advanced Topics

  1. Working with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
  2. Managing Azure SQL Databases
  3. Setting up Application Gateways
  4. Implementing Azure Functions

Always refer to the official Terraform AzureRM provider documentation for the most up-to-date information on available resources and their arguments.