Use either the data block or the terraform_remote_state block to retrieve external data.

However, there are scenarios where the data block does not exist in the provider or terraform_remote_state cannot be used, such as when we need to process with an external API or need to use a local tool and process its output.

# Read the JSON payload from stdin
$jsonpayload = [Console]::In.ReadLine()

# Convert JSON to a string
$json = ConvertFrom-Json $jsonpayload
$environment = $json.environment

if($environment -eq "Production"){
$location="westeurope"
}else{
$location="westus"
}

# Write output to stdout
Write-Output "{ ""location"" : ""$location""}"

Retrieving External data

data "external" "getlocation" {
program = ["Powershell.exe", "./GetLocation.ps1"]
query = {
environment = "${var.environment_name}"
  }
}

Summary

External data sources are extremely useful in terraform – the data ‘external’ is defined for just this use case.

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