Provision and Manage StackPath Infrastructure with New Terraform Plugin

Resource

Blog

Topic

Edge Compute

Date

Jan 31, 2020

Author

Terraform allows developers to build, configure, and update infrastructure safely and efficiently—and StackPath has just released a new Terraform plugin for edge compute containers.

With the StackPath plugin you can provision and manage your StackPath containers through Terraform. And as we continue to develop the plugin you’ll be able to manage other edge compute products through Terraform.

You can view example usage and argument references for the new StackPath plugin here.

Use Cases for Terraform

Using the StackPath-Terraform plugin introduces new features into your edge compute environments such as:

  • Infrastructure as Code: Describe your containers using a configuration syntax that can be versioned, shared, and re-used, allowing administrators to increase productivity and reduce human error.
  • Visualization for execution plans: The terraform graph command creates a visual dependency graph according to configuration files, giving administrators insight into their infrastructure dependencies and the most efficient way to develop infrastructure.
  • Change automation: Implement changes with minimal human interaction while maintaining full visibility into applying large, complex changesets to your environment by utilizing Terraform’s execution plans and resource graphs.

In addition to managing StackPath infrastructure, Terraform makes it easy to augment traditional cloud compute infrastructure with low-latency edge compute infrastructure. Whether you’re using Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud, you can easily augment your existing cloud setup with StackPath to improve your hybrid infrastructure.

The HashiCorp Ecosystem, the company’s global partnering program, has over 160 different providers with integrated HashiCorp products.

Key Features and Benefits of Terraform

For developers not already using Terraform, there are features and benefits that extend beyond the bulleted list above. In addition to managing infrastructure as code, creating dependency graphs, and simplifying infrastructure updates, Terraform also supports the following:

  • Multi-provider orchestration: Terraform’s versatility allows you to manage your systems even if you use multiple providers or have load-balanced environments, such as using both StackPath and on-prem backups.
  • Automated snapshots and simplified rollbacks: When you initiate a configuration change to your environment, Terraform automatically takes and retains a snapshot beforehand. With this feature, upgrading environments becomes a smooth and bug-free process, and rolling back to a prior version can be done in one click.
  • Modules: Terraform’s built-in modules allow developers to package configuration files and reuse them multiple times with a simple module call, such as:
module "servers" {
  source = "./app-cluster"

  servers = 5
}

With these built-in features and the new StackPath-Terraform plugin, you’re faced with an endless number of possibilities.

Installing the plugin enables you to:

  • Codify the setup of software defined networking (SDN)
  • Manage complex multi-tier environments
  • Implement and maintain self-serve infrastructure
  • Spin up multiple environments for software demos

And so much more—all at the lightning-fast speed that comes with StackPath edge computing.

Getting Started with Terraform

Getting started is easy! Now that StackPath is an official Terraform provider, Terraform will find and install the StackPath provider automatically.

For instance, given a provider.tf file that declares StackPath credentials, the following will appear:

$ terraform init
Initializing the backend...
Initializing provider plugins...
- Checking for available provider plugins...
- Downloading plugin for provider "stackpath" (terraform-providers/stackpath) 1.0.0...
The following providers do not have any version constraints in configuration,
so the latest version was installed.
To prevent automatic upgrades to new major versions that may contain breaking
changes, it is recommended to add version = "..." constraints to the
corresponding provider blocks in configuration, with the constraint strings
suggested below.
* provider.stackpath: version = "~> 1.0"
Terraform has been successfully initialized!
You may now begin working with Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see
any changes that are required for your infrastructure. All Terraform commands
should now work.
If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform,
rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other
commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary.

Again, you can view example usage and argument references for the new StackPath plugin here.

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