Your First Terraform Configuration

Last updated on 2025-11-30 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do I create a Terraform project?
  • What is a main.tf file and what belongs in it?
  • How does Terraform know what cloud resources to manage?

Objectives

  • Create a new Terraform working directory.
  • Write a minimal main.tf file.
  • Initialize Terraform and interpret the output.
  • Explain how providers connect Terraform to AWS.

Creating the Terraform Project Directory

Terraform works inside a folder that contains configuration files, usually ending in .tf. Start by creating a clean directory:

BASH 

mkdir terraform-dataverse
cd terraform-dataverse

Inside that folder, we create our first configuration file.

Writing a Minimal main.tf

A minimal Terraform configuration needs two blocks:

  1. A required provider declaration
  2. A provider configuration (here, AWS)
terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-west-2"
}

What this does

  • The terraform block tells Terraform which provider plugin to use.
  • The provider "aws" block sets your AWS region.
  • Terraform does not create any infrastructure yet. It only knows how to talk to AWS.
Callout

Terraform Supports Many Providers

Although this lesson focuses on AWS, Terraform can manage infrastructure across hundreds of platforms.
A provider is a plugin that enables Terraform to create, update, and destroy resources within an ecosystem.

Common categories of Terraform providers include:

  • Cloud platforms
    AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, DigitalOcean, Linode

  • Version control and CI/CD
    GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, CircleCI

  • Containers & orchestration
    Kubernetes, Helm, Docker

  • Networking & security
    Cloudflare, Palo Alto Networks, Okta, Auth0

  • Databases & analytics
    PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, Databricks

  • SaaS & productivity tools
    PagerDuty, Datadog, New Relic, Fastly

Terraform’s strength is that it provides a single workflow for all these platforms, even though they typically use very different APIs.

Initialize Terraform

Before Terraform can do anything, it needs to download provider plugins:

BASH 

terraform init

You should see output confirming that the AWS provider was installed.

Running Your First Plan

Even though we haven’t defined resources yet, it’s safe to run:

BASH 

terraform plan

Expected output:

No changes. Your infrastructure matches the configuration.

This means:

  • Terraform is working correctly
  • Terraform can talk to AWS
  • Terraform sees no resources yet (because we haven’t defined any)
Callout

Why is this useful?

This episode establishes the foundation.
If init and plan work now, troubleshooting future problems becomes much easier.
Most Terraform issues start with authentication or provider errors.

Key Points
  • Terraform configurations live in directories containing .tf files.
  • The terraform and provider blocks define how Terraform interacts with AWS.
  • terraform init downloads provider plugins.
  • terraform plan previews changes, even when the configuration is empty.
  • A clean plan confirms your AWS authentication is working.