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Providers

Updated Jan 24, 2021 ·

Overview​

Terraform uses providers to interact with various cloud platforms and services. Each provider is responsible for understanding API interactions and exposing resources. Some popular providers include:

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • Kubernetes

For a complete list of providers, see Terraform registry.

For more details about registry documentation and provider resource references, see Registry.

When you run terraform init, Terraform automatically detects and downloads the required providers for your configuration. The provider configuration has two main parts:

  1. Required provider
  2. Actual provider configuration

Provider Configuration​

Each provider requires a configuration block, even if you don’t change any default settings. These blocks can also include multiple providers, not just one.

  • You can define additional providers as needed
  • Each provider corresponds to a different platform or service

This allows a single Terraform run to manage resources across multiple environments or services.

Azure​

Default Azure provider block:

provider "azurerm" { }

Example with customized behavior:

provider "azurerm" {
  features {
    virtual_machine {
      graceful_shutdown                  = true
      delete_os_disk_on_deletion         = true
    }
    template_deployment {
      delete_nested_items_during_deletion = true
    }
    resource_group {
      prevent_deletion_if_contains_resources = false
    }
  }
}

AWS​

AWS provider can use local credentials and a default region:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = ">= 4.16.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  shared_credentials_file = local.creds_file
  profile                 = local.profile
  region                  = var.region
}

You can also specify the access keys. However, hard-coded credentials are not recommended and risks secret leakage should this file ever be committed to a public version control system

provider "aws" {
  # Configuration options
  region     = "ap-southeast-1"
  access_key = "my-access-key"
  secret_key = "my-secret-key"
}

GCP​

GCP provider uses project, region, and zone settings:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    google = {
      version = "4.40.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "google" {
  project = var.project
  region  = var.region
  zone    = var.zone
}

Provider Versions​

When running terraform init, Terraform identifies and downloads the required providers.

If no version is specified, it may also upgrade to a newer provider automatically.

  • Specifying a version (e.g., = 3.14.0) locks the provider to that version
  • Using a range (e.g., ~> 3.14.0) allows automatic upgrades when new versions are released
  • Upgrading automatically can sometimes require changes to your Terraform code

Best practice: Lock to a specific version during development, and upgrade when convenient to avoid unexpected code changes.