Key Concepts

1. Default Workspace: When you initialize a Terraform project, a default workspace is created. This is where Terraform commands operate if no other workspace is specified.
2. Custom Workspaces: You can create additional workspaces to manage separate states for different environments or configurations.

Creating and Switching Workspaces

• Create a Workspace:
  sh

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  terraform workspace new <workspace_name>

• List Workspaces:
  sh

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  terraform workspace list

• Switch to a Workspace:
  sh

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  terraform workspace select <workspace_name>

• Delete a Workspace:
  sh

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  terraform workspace delete <workspace_name>


Example Use Cases

Example 1: Managing Multiple Environments

Suppose you have a Terraform configuration that sets up infrastructure for a web application. You want to manage separate environments (development, staging, production) using workspaces.

1. Create Workspaces:
   sh

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   terraform workspace new development
terraform workspace new staging
terraform workspace new production

2. Configure Variables: Use workspace-specific variable files or conditionals within your configuration files to manage environment-specific settings.
   hcl

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   variable "environment" {
   description = "The environment for this configuration"
   type = string
   }

   locals {
   environment = terraform.workspace
   }

   resource "aws_instance" "web" {
count = local.environment == "production" ? 3 : 1
ami = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
tags = {
Name = "web-server-${local.environment}"
}
}


3. Switch and Apply Configuration:
   sh

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   terraform workspace select development
   terraform apply

   terraform workspace select staging
   terraform apply

   terraform workspace select production
terraform apply


Each workspace maintains a separate state file, ensuring that the resources for each environment are managed independently.

Example 2: Isolating Client Configurations

Imagine you are managing infrastructure for multiple clients, and you want to keep each client’s resources isolated.

1. Create Workspaces for Clients:
   sh

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   terraform workspace new clientA
terraform workspace new clientB

2. Client-Specific Variables: Define variables or use conditionals based on the workspace name to configure resources for each client.
   hcl

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   variable "client_name" {
   description = "The client for this configuration"
   type = string
   }

   locals {
   client = terraform.workspace
   }

   resource "aws_s3_bucket" "client_bucket" {
bucket = "myapp-${local.client}-bucket"
acl = "private"
}


3. Switch and Apply Configuration:
   sh

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   terraform workspace select clientA
   terraform apply

   terraform workspace select clientB
terraform apply


This ensures that each client’s resources are managed separately, preventing any accidental overlap or interference.

Summary

Workspaces in Terraform provide a powerful way to manage multiple environments or configurations within a single codebase. By using workspaces, you can maintain separate state files and easily switch between different setups, whether for different environments (like development, staging, production) or different clients. This isolation helps to ensure that changes in one workspace do not affect resources in another, providing a more organized and secure way to manage infrastructure.

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The TWO most commonly implemented ones would be the managed infrastructure services pipeline (or just infra pipeline) and the app pipeline.

A Foundational Pipeline would include setting up the original organization and folder structure in GCP.

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Terraform modules can be common to any CI CD pipeline (whether Azure Devops or gitops).  One typically starts with a baseline module – sometimes called a Landing Zone.

GCP

GCP Terraform Landing Zone ( Cloud Foundation Toolkit)

Azure

Azure Terraform Landing Zone

AWS

A fairly simple landing zone. AWS itself has some Cloud formation and terraform modules available for landing zones.

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Azure Boards, Azure Repos and Azure Credentialing is what will be part of any Azure Devops project.

With Git, you have gitlab (preferably over github), git repos and git credentialing.

User friendliness wise, Azure Devops wins hands down. However, there is a  cost associated with ADO adoption across the enterprise.

Where does Terraform fit in? 

See this post for cloud landing zones created with terraform.

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