Terraform Provider

What is it?

Terraform is one of our go-to infrastructure-as-code tools because it is a staple in the world of platform engineering.

Why do we love it?

• Low Barrier to Entry: HashiCorp offers a comprehensive open-source version in addition to its proprietary Enterprise product, which means price is not an issue. Similarly, there isn’t time lost over coding language barrier since HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) is very basic and simple to learn.

• Cloud-Agnostic: Terraform is cloud-agnostic, just like us!

• Mature: It has a reliable codebase that is well-documented, meaning there won’t be a shortage of help options or external addons that could be converted to use with Metal.

• More Cost, Time, Security Savings: Masterless and agentless, Terraform is an IaC tool that doesn’t rely on excess infrastructure or agent software management updates. That means lower costs, and less exposed ports that need configuring for authentication.

• Reusable Code & Immutable Infrastructure: Not all infrastructure-as-code tools allow you to reuse your code as is, but since Terraform focuses on the end state, you can have a true “recipe” that, for example, ends with the same number of devices every time, regardless of the existing state of infrastructure or order of procedure. More importantly, its enforcement of immutable infrastructure means you will avoid configuration drift bugs that arise over time from changing individual devices post deployment.

• Preview: The ability to see changes in Plan mode before implementation is a fan-favorite.

• Simplify complex tasks. Popular downloaded modules include:

  • Creating a Fabric L2 connection
  • Quickly deploying brand specific router or firewalls.
  • Installing vSphere, k8s, Anthos, MinIO, OpenStack Cloud, OpenShift, and more.

How do you use it?

The easiest way to get started is to go to follow our Terraform on Equinix workshop.

You can also visit the Terraform registry for detailed provider usage instructions and example modules that use our provider.

Get support on the Equinix Metal Community Slack and Community Site.

Submit new feature requests on the Equinix Metal Roadmap.