Deploy a Custom Provider with Terraform

Creating and deploying a custom provider with Terraform is a relatively simple process, but it can be time-consuming if you’re new to the platform. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through the steps necessary to create and deploy a custom provider, as well as discuss some of the more advanced features and techniques that you can use to make your provider more powerful and effective.

To begin with, you’ll need to make sure that you have the following prerequisites installed on your system:

• Terraform: The latest version of Terraform can be downloaded from the official website.
• Go: Go is the programming language that is used to develop custom providers for Terraform. You can download and install Go from the official website.

Once you have these prerequisites installed, you can proceed with the following steps:

1. Create a new directory for your provider and navigate to it. This will be the root directory for your provider, and it should be located in the $GOPATH/src directory.
2. Create the following directory structure within your provider directory:

- provider
  - internal
  - provider.go
  - schema.go
  - terraform-provider-<name>

3. Add the following code to the provider.go file. This code defines the Provider struct and the func (p *Provider) methods that are required by Terraform to manage the lifecycle of your provider:

package main

import (
  "github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/schema"
)

type Provider struct {
  // ...
}

func (p *Provider) Resources() map[string]*schema.Resource {
  // ...
}

func (p *Provider) DataSources() map[string]*schema.Resource {
  // ...
}

func (p *Provider) Configure(d *schema.ResourceData) (interface{}, error) {
  // ...
}

4. Add the following code to the schema.go file. This code defines the Provider schema and the func (p *Provider) methods that are used to configure your provider and validate its input parameters:

package main

import (
  "github.com/hashicorp/terraform/helper/schema"
)

func providerSchema() *schema.Schema {
  // ...
}

func providerConfigure(d *schema.ResourceData) (interface{}, error) {
  // ...
}

5. Add the following code to the terraform-provider-<name> file. This is the entry point for your provider, and it is responsible for calling the func (p *Provider) methods that you defined in the previous steps:

package main

import (
  "github.com/hashicorp/terraform/plugin"
)

func main() {
  plugin.Serve(&plugin.ServeOpts{
    ProviderFunc: provider,
  })
}

6. Use the go build command to compile your provider. This will create a binary file with the name terraform-provider-<name> in your provider directory.
7. Test your provider using the terraform init and terraform plan commands. To do this, you’ll need to create a main.tf file in your working directory and add the following code to it:

provider "<name>" {
  // Your provider configuration goes here
}

resource "<name>" "<instance>" {
  // Your resource configuration goes here
}

Replace <name> and <instance> with the appropriate names for your provider and resource.

8. If your provider passes the terraform init and terraform plan tests, you can proceed to the next step, which is to deploy your provider to a Terraform registry.
9. To deploy your provider to a registry, you’ll first need to create an account on the registry website. Once you’ve done that, you can use the terraform login command to log in to your account.
10. Next, you’ll need to create a terraform.tf file in your provider directory and add the following code to it:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    "<name>" = {
      source = "<source>"
    }
  }
}

Replace <name> and <source> with the appropriate values for your provider.

11. Use the terraform providers command to publish your provider to the registry. This will make your provider available to other users who want to use it in their Terraform configurations.
12. Once your provider is published, you can use it in your Terraform configurations by adding a provider block to your main.tf file, like this:

provider "<name>" {
  source = "<source>"
}

Replace <name> and <source> with the appropriate values for your provider.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully created and deployed a custom provider with Terraform. You can now use your provider to manage your infrastructure in a consistent and reliable way.

As you continue to work with Terraform, you may want to explore some of the more advanced features and techniques that are available. For example, you can use the helper/schema package to define custom input parameters for your provider and resource types, or you can use the terraform plan and terraform apply commands to manage the lifecycle of your infrastructure.

With a little practice, you’ll be able to master these techniques and use them to create powerful and effective Terraform configurations.

In conclusion, creating and deploying a custom provider with Terraform is a relatively simple process, but it requires some knowledge of the Go programming language and the Terraform platform. By following the steps outlined in this tutorial, you can create your own custom provider and use it to manage your infrastructure in a consistent and reliable way.

To learn more about custom providers and the advanced features and techniques that are available, you can refer to the official Terraform documentation, as well as the many online resources and tutorials that are available on the web. With a little practice and experimentation, you’ll be able to master the art of creating custom providers and use them to manage your infrastructure in a powerful and effective way.