Store state on Azure

expected time	requirements
45 minutes	A computer and terraform knowledge.

Goal: See how remote state on Azure works.

Explanation

So far you have been using a “local state”, basically just some files in your repository. This does not allow collaboration, the state is only on your laptop.

There are multiple reasons to use remote state:

1. Collaborate; others can use the state too.
2. Local state files can be lost.
3. Remote state can have access permissions.

This example looks at Azure mostly, but there are many more place where you can store remote state:

1. Terraform Enterprise.
2. Terraform Cloud.
3. AWS S3.
4. GCP.
5. Many more.

Do not confuse the data object remote state with remote state. (Although it’s interesting!)

Demo

See this repo.

Assignment

In this assignment we are going to migrate the local state to Azure.

1. Pick any of the repositories you have already created.
2. Run terraform apply to create the resources. State will be local.

You are now ready to migrage state.

1. Make a storage container. (Either manually, or using Terraform.)
2. Add or edit terraform.tf and set the backend to azurerm.
3. Set the correct resource_group_name, storage_account_name and container_name.
4. Run terraform init -migrate-state.

When you’ve answered ‘yes’, your state is remote. We’re going to migrate back to a local state file.

1. Comment all lines in, or remove terraform.tf.
2. Run terraform init -migrate-state.

When you’ve answerd ‘yes’, your state is now local again.

Questions:

1. Are you using, or would you consider to use remote state?
2. What are some disadvanteges of remote state?

Sources

• HashiCorp on remote state.