HashiCorp Terraform and Red Hat Ansible Integration and Export using Google Cloud

Terraform and Ansible are popular tools for managing infrastructure and configuration on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Together, they can be used to automate the deployment and management of cloud resources in a consistent and repeatable manner.

To get started with Terraform and Ansible on GCP, you’ll need to install and configure both tools on your local machine. You’ll also need to create a GCP project and set up a service account with the necessary permissions to create and manage resources.

Once you have everything set up, you can start using Terraform to define your infrastructure as code. This involves writing configuration files in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) that describe the resources you want to create, such as compute instances, storage buckets, and networking resources.

To deploy your infrastructure, you can use the terraform apply command, which will create and configure the resources defined in your configuration files. You can also use Terraform to update or delete your resources by modifying your configuration files and running the appropriate commands.

After your infrastructure is in place, you can use Ansible to configure and manage your servers. Ansible uses playbooks, which are written in YAML, to specify the tasks you want to run on your servers. These tasks can include installing packages, modifying configuration files, and running scripts.

You can use ansible to configure your servers as part of the Terraform deployment process by specifying the playbook in your Terraform configuration file. This allows you to automate the entire deployment process, from creating infrastructure to configuring servers.

Using Terraform and ansible together on GCP allows you to automate the deployment and management of your cloud resources in a consistent and repeatable manner. This can save time and reduce the risk of errors, making it easier to manage your cloud infrastructure.

To export your Google Cloud resources into Terraform, you can use the terraform import command. This command allows you to import existing resources into your Terraform configuration.

Here’s an example of how you can import a Google Cloud Storage bucket:

For example:

terraform import google_storage_bucket.my_bucket keremceliker-Bucket

This will import the bucket-name bucket into your Terraform configuration, and create a new resource named my_bucket in your configuration file.

You can also use the gcloud command-line tool to export your Google Cloud resources as a Terraform configuration. To do this, use the gcloud alpha resource-manager export command, followed by the path to the directory where you want to save the configuration files.

For example:

gcloud alpha resource-manager export - destination=path/to/config

This will export all of your Google Cloud resources to a set of Terraform configuration files in the specified directory.

Note that the terraform import command and the gcloud alpha resource-manager export command are just two options for exporting your Google Cloud resources to Terraform. There are also a number of other tools and services available that can help you automate the process of exporting your resources to Terraform.

Important points to consider when using Terraform on google cloud as following below ;

1. Use Terraform workspaces: Terraform workspaces allow you to easily switch between different environments (e.g. staging, production) and manage multiple resources. You can use workspaces to keep your resources organized and maintain separate configurations for different environments.
2. Use version control: It’s a good idea to version control your Terraform configuration files, as this allows you to track changes and roll back if necessary. You can use a version control system like Git to track changes to your configuration files.
3. Use modules: Modules allow you to reuse your code and make it easier to manage your infrastructure as code. You can use modules to define common patterns or configurations and reuse them across different resources or environments.
4. Use remote state: Terraform stores the state of your infrastructure in a local file. To avoid conflicts and ensure consistency, it’s a good idea to use remote state to store your state file in a central location. This allows you to collaborate with other team members and manage your infrastructure more effectively.
5. Use automated testing: Automated testing can help you ensure that your infrastructure is working as expected and catch any issues before they become problems. You can use tools like Terratest or the Google Cloud Build Terraform testing extension to automate your testing process.
6. Use the Google Cloud provider: The Google Cloud provider is the recommended way to interact with Google Cloud resources using Terraform. It provides access to all of the Google Cloud APIs and allows you to manage your resources using Terraform.
7. Use the Google Cloud Console: The Google Cloud Console provides a web-based interface for managing your Google Cloud resources. You can use the console to create, modify, and delete resources, as well as view their status and logs. The console can be a helpful tool for quickly making changes or troubleshooting issues.

By the way, i would like to show you some example codes how you can use Ansible with Terraform on Google Cloud.

First, you’ll need to configure the Google Cloud provider in your Terraform configuration file:

provider "google" {
. credentials = file("account.json")
. project. = "KEREMCELIKER-PROJECT"
. region. = "us-central1"
}

Next, you can define a compute instance resource in Terraform, and use the provisioner block to specify an ansible playbook to run after the instance is created:

resource "google_compute_instance" "my_instance" {
. …
. provisioner "local-exec" {
. command = "ansible-playbook -i 'localhost,' -c local playbook.yml"
. }
}

This will run the specified ansible playbook on the compute instance after it is created. You can use the playbook to install packages, modify configuration files, or perform any other tasks you need to configure the instance.

You can also use the ansible provisioner to run ansible playbooks on existing resources. For example, to run an ansible playbook on an existing compute instance, you can use the following configuration:

resource "google_compute_instance" "my_instance" {
. …
}
resource "null_resource" "run_ansible_playbook" {
. depends_on = [google_compute_instance.my_instance]
. provisioner "ansible" {
. hosts = "${google_compute_instance.my_instance.network_interface.0.access_config.0.nat_ip}"
. playbook = "playbook.yml"
. }
}

This will run the ansible playbook on the compute instance after it is created, using the nat_ip of the instance as the host.

These are just a few examples of how you can use ansible with Terraform on Google Cloud. You can find more information and examples in the Terraform documentation and the Red Hat Ansible documentation…

References:

Using Ansible playbooks - Ansible Documentation

Terraform Registry