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Providers

Updated Jun 11, 2022 ·

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.

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.