Lab: Introduction to the Terraform Variables Block

As you being to write Terraform templates with a focus on reusability and DRY development (don’t
repeat yourself), you’ll quickly being to realize that variables are going to simplify and increase usability
for your Terraform configuration. Input variables allow aspects of a module or configuration to be
customized without altering the module’s own source code. This allows modules to be shared between
different configurations.

Input variables (commonly referenced as just ‘variables’) are often declared in a separate file called
variables.tf, although this is not required. Most people will consolidate variable declaration in this
file for organization and simplification of management. Each variable used in a Terraform configuration
must be declared before it can be used. Variables are declared in a variable block - one block for each
variable. The variable block contains the variable name, most importantly, and then often includes
additional information such as the type, a description, a default value, and other options.

The variable block follows the following pattern:

Template

variable “<VARIABLE_NAME>” {
# Block body
type = <VARIABLE_TYPE>
description = <DESCRIPTION>
default = <EXPRESSION>
sensitive = <BOOLEAN>
validation = <RULES>
}

Example

variable "aws_region" {
type = string
description = "region used to deploy workloads"
default = "us-east-1"
validation {
condition = can(regex("^us-", var.aws_region))
error_message = "The aws_region value must be a valid region in the USA, starting wi
}
}

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The value of a Terraform variable can be set multiple ways, including setting a default value, interac-
tively passing a value when executing a terraform plan and apply, using an environment variable, or
setting the value in a .tfvars file. Each of these different options follows a strict order of precedence
that Terraform uses to set the value of a variable.

Figure 1: Terraform Input Variables - Order of Precedence

• Task 1: Add a new VPC resource block with static values

• Task 2: Define new variable blocks to declare new variables
• Task 3: Modify the value of the variable by adding defaults

Task 1: Add a new VPC resource block with static values

Before we can add any meaningful new variables, we should add a new resource to use as a demo.
Let’s add a new VPC resource that we’ll use in this lab. In the main.tf file, add the following code at
the bottom. Do not remove the existing VPC resource

resource "aws_subnet" "variables-subnet" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.vpc.id

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 cidr_block = "10.0.250.0/24"
availability_zone = "us-east-1a"
map_public_ip_on_launch = true

tags = {
Name = "sub-variables-us-east-1a"
Terraform = "true"
}
}

Task 1.1

Run terraform plan to validate the changes to your configuration. You should see that Terraform is
going to add a new VPC resource that we just added.

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource
+ create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

# aws_subnet.variables-subnet will be created

+ resource "aws_subnet" "variables-subnet" {
+ arn = (known after apply)
+ assign_ipv6_address_on_creation = false
+ availability_zone = "us-east-1a"
+ availability_zone_id = (known after apply)
+ cidr_block = "10.0.250.0/24"
+ id = (known after apply)
+ ipv6_cidr_block_association_id = (known after apply)
+ map_public_ip_on_launch = true
+ owner_id = (known after apply)
+ tags = {
+ "Name" = "sub-variables-us-east-1a"
+ "Terraform" = "true"
}
+ tags_all = {
+ "Name" = "sub-variables-us-east-1a"
+ "Terraform" = "true"
}
+ vpc_id = "vpc-069bc66bf87daccd6"
}

Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

Once the plan looks good, let’s apply our configuration by issuing a terraform apply

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 $ terraform apply

Do you want to perform these actions?

Terraform will perform the actions described above.
Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

Enter a value: yes

You will be prompted to confirm the changes before they’re applied. Respond with yes.

Task 2: Define new variable blocks to declare new variables

Now that we have a new resources to use, let’s change some of those static values to use variables
instead. In your variables.tf file, add the following variable blocks anywhere in the file:

variable "variables_sub_cidr" {
description = "CIDR Block for the Variables Subnet"
type = string
}

variable "variables_sub_az" {
description = "Availability Zone used Variables Subnet"
type = string
}

variable "variables_sub_auto_ip" {
description = "Set Automatic IP Assigment for Variables Subnet"
type = bool
}

Task 2.1

In your main.tf file, let’s remove our static values and replace them with our new variables to make
our configuration a bit more flexible. Update the configuration file so the new VPC resource reflects
the changes shown below:

resource "aws_subnet" "variables-subnet" {

vpc_id = aws_vpc.vpc.id
cidr_block = var.variables_sub_cidr
availability_zone = var.variables_sub_az
map_public_ip_on_launch = var.variables_sub_auto_ip

tags = {
Name = "sub-variables-${var.variables_sub_az}"

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 Terraform = "true"
}
}

Task 2.2

We now have new variables declared in our variables.tf file along with a modified resource (our
new subnet) to use those variables. Let’s run a terraform plan to see what happens with our new
resource and variables. Did you get something similar to what is shown below?

$ terraform plan
var.variables_sub_auto_ip
Set Automatic IP Assigment for variables Subnet

Enter a value:

At this point, we’ve declared the variables and have referenced them in our subnet resource, but
Terraform has no idea what value you want to use for the new variables. Let’s provide it with our
values.

• for var.variables_sub_auto_ip, type in “true” and press enter

• for var.variables_sub_az, type in “us-east-1a” and press enter
• for var.variables_sub_cidr, type in “10.0.250.0/24” and press enter

Now that Terraform knows the values we want to use, it can proceed with our configuration. When
the terraform plan is completed, it should have found that there are no changes needed to our
infrastructure because we’ve defined the same values for our subnet, but using variables instead.

No changes. Your infrastructure matches the configuration.

Terraform has compared your real infrastructure against your configuration and found no

Task 3: Modify the value of the variable by adding defaults

Another common method of providing values for variables is by setting default values in the variable
block. If no other values are provided during a terraform plan or terraform apply, then Ter-
raform will use the default values. This is especially handy when you have variables where the value
doesn’t often change.
In the variables.tf file, modify the new variables we added earlier to now include a default argu-
ment and value.

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 variable "variables_sub_cidr" {
description = "CIDR Block for the Variables Subnet"
type = string
default = "10.0.202.0/24"
}

variable "variables_sub_az" {
description = "Availability Zone used for Variables Subnet"
type = string
default = "us-east-1a"
}

variable "variables_sub_auto_ip" {
description = "Set Automatic IP Assigment for Variables Subnet"
type = bool
default = true
}

Task 3.1

Let’s test our new defaults by running another terraform plan. You should see that Terraform no
longer asks us for a value for the variables since it will just use the default value if you don’t specify
one using another method. And since we provided different values, Terraform wants to update our
infrastructure.

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource
-/+ destroy and then create replacement

Terraform will perform the following actions:

# aws_subnet.variables-subnet must be replaced

-/+ resource "aws_subnet" "variables-subnet" {
~ arn = "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:603991114860:subnet/sub
~ availability_zone_id = "use1-az6" -> (known after apply)
~ cidr_block = "10.0.250.0/24" -> "10.0.202.0/24" # forces re
~ id = "subnet-0b424eed2dc2822d0" -> (known after app
+ ipv6_cidr_block_association_id = (known after apply)
- map_customer_owned_ip_on_launch = false -> null
~ owner_id = "603991114860" -> (known after apply)
tags = {
"Name" = "sub-variables-us-east-1a"
"Terraform" = "true"
}
# (5 unchanged attributes hidden)
}

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 Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 1 to destroy.

Task 3.1

Let’s go ahead and apply our new configuration, which will replace the subnet with one using the
CIDR block of “10.0.202.0/24”. Run a terraform apply. Don’t forget to accept the changes by typing
yes.