Terraform CI CD Pipeline with GitHub Actions Tutorial

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a Terraform CI CD pipeline with GitHub Actions. Terraform is a popular infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that allows you to manage and provision infrastructure resources such as virtual machines, networks, and databases. GitHub Actions is a continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) platform that allows you to automate the build, test, and deployment of your software applications.

Prerequisites

Before you start this tutorial, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

• A GitHub account
• A Terraform installation on your machine
• A basic understanding of Terraform and GitHub Actions

Step 1: Create a New GitHub Repository

Create a new GitHub repository to store your Terraform configuration files. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your GitHub account
2. Click on the + button in the top right corner of the dashboard
3. Select New repository
4. Enter a name for your repository, such as terraform-ci-cd-pipeline
5. Select the visibility of your repository (public or private)
6. Click on the Create repository button

Step 2: Create a New Terraform Configuration File

Create a new Terraform configuration file to define your infrastructure resources. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Create a new file called main.tf in the root of your repository
2. Add the following code to the file:

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

resource "aws_instance" "example" {
  ami           = "ami-0c94855ba95c71c99"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
}

This code defines an AWS provider and a single EC2 instance resource.

Step 3: Create a New GitHub Actions Workflow File

Create a new GitHub Actions workflow file to automate the deployment of your Terraform configuration. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Create a new file called .github/workflows/deploy.yml in the root of your repository
2. Add the following code to the file:

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - name: Install Terraform
        uses: hashicorp/[email protected]
      - name: Initialize Terraform
        run: terraform init
      - name: Apply Terraform
        run: terraform apply -auto-approve

This code defines a GitHub Actions workflow that automates the deployment of your Terraform configuration.

Step 4: Trigger the GitHub Actions Workflow

Trigger the GitHub Actions workflow by pushing changes to your repository. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Make changes to your Terraform configuration file (e.g. update the instance type)
2. Commit the changes to your repository
3. Push the changes to your GitHub repository

The GitHub Actions workflow will automatically trigger and deploy your Terraform configuration.

Common Mistakes

Here are some common mistakes to avoid when creating a Terraform CI CD pipeline with GitHub Actions:

• Forgetting to install Terraform in the GitHub Actions workflow
• Not specifying the correct Terraform version in the GitHub Actions workflow
• Not using the -auto-approve flag when applying Terraform changes

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to create a Terraform CI CD pipeline with GitHub Actions. We created a new GitHub repository, defined a Terraform configuration file, and automated the deployment of our Terraform configuration using a GitHub Actions workflow. By following these steps, you can create a robust and automated infrastructure deployment pipeline using Terraform and GitHub Actions.