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Introduction to Terraform on GCP

Getting Started

This guide will show you how to install a simple web application on a Google Compute instance using Terraform, a popular open source provisioning tool. The web app is called HashiCat, also known as the Meow World application. It's a simple web application that shows pictures of cats. 😻

Time to complete: About 10 minutes

Click the Start button to move to the next step.

What is Terraform?

Terraform code is easy to learn and can be used to build any type of Google Compute infrastructure. Terraform is pre-installed on your Google Cloud workstation. Go ahead and try running the terraform version command now:

terraform version

Tip: Click the Copy to Cloud Shell button on the side of the code box and then hit Enter in your terminal. You can also click the copy button on the side of the code box and paste the command in the Cloud Shell terminal to run it.

Click Next to proceed to the next step.

Create a Google Cloud Project

You can use an existing Google Cloud Project or create a new one. The project menu is right at the top of your Google Cloud Platform dashboard:

https://console.cloud.google.com/home/dashboard

Once you have created a project (or selected an existing one), you'll need to enable the Compute Engine API. Visit the APIs dashboard and click on the +Enable APIs and Services button. Search for 'compute' and select the Compute Engine API. Click on the blue Enable button.

https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard

Now in the cloudshell terminal run the following command to set your project as a Terraform environment variable. Make sure to replace my-project-id with your own!

export TF_VAR_project="my-project-id"

Click Next to proceed.

Edit Terraform Variables

In order for Terraform to work we need to edit a config file named terraform.tfvars. Rename the sample terraform.tfvars.example file with the following command:

mv terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

Next you can edit the file using the Cloud Shell editor:

cloudshell edit terraform.tfvars

First you should uncomment the prefix line by deleting the # symbol at the beginning.

Replace the prefix variable with your own. The prefix can be any short string of lower-case letters.

Click Next to proceed.

Run Terraform Init

Next you can run the terraform init command. When you run it Terraform will analyze your code and download any required providers that it needs to build your infrastructure.

terraform init

Click Next to proceed.

Run Terraform Plan

Terraform comes with the ability to do a 'dry run'. This is also known as terraform plan. Run it now to see what would be built if you applied the code:

terraform plan

Click Next to proceed.

Run Terraform Apply

Here we run terraform apply to actually implement our changes and build real infrastructure. You'll need to respond 'yes' to confirm the run. Try it now:

terraform apply

Wait for a few minutes as your Terraform code builds the Meow World application. Click on main.tf in the text editor if you'd like to browse through the code that builds the app.

Click Next to proceed.

Open Your App

At the end of the run you should see some outputs that look like this:

catapp_url = http://34.67.185.21
private_ip = 10.0.10.2

Open the catapp_url link in your web browser to see Kittens as a Service (KaaS). Congratulations, you just built your first GCP application with Terraform!

Click Next to proceed.

Terraform Destroy

You can clean up everything you built with the terraform destroy command. Try it now:

terraform destroy

You'll need to confirm your intention by typing yes again. This is to help prevent accidental deletion of important infrastructure!

Nice work. If you'd like to learn more about Terraform on Google Cloud Platform visit the following link:

https://cloud.google.com/community/tutorials/getting-started-on-gcp-with-terraform