491 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
491 lines
18 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
layout: "docs"
|
|
page_title: "Modules - Configuration Language"
|
|
sidebar_current: "docs-config-modules"
|
|
description: |-
|
|
Modules allow multiple resources to be grouped together and encapsulated.
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
# Modules
|
|
|
|
-> **Note:** This page is about Terraform 0.12 and later. For Terraform 0.11 and
|
|
earlier, see
|
|
[0.11 Configuration Language: Modules](../configuration-0-11/modules.html).
|
|
|
|
A _module_ is a container for multiple resources that are used together.
|
|
|
|
Every Terraform configuration has at least one module, known as its
|
|
_root module_, which consists of the resources defined in the `.tf` files in
|
|
the main working directory.
|
|
|
|
A module can call other modules, which lets you include the child module's
|
|
resources into the configuration in a concise way. Modules
|
|
can also be called multiple times, either within the same configuration or
|
|
in separate configurations, allowing resource configurations to be packaged
|
|
and re-used.
|
|
|
|
This page describes how to call one module from another. Other pages in this
|
|
section of the documentation describe the different elements that make up
|
|
modules, and there is further information about how modules can be used,
|
|
created, and published in [the dedicated _Modules_ section](/docs/modules/index.html).
|
|
|
|
## Calling a Child Module
|
|
|
|
To _call_ a module means to include the contents of that module into the
|
|
configuration with specific values for its
|
|
[input variables](./variables.html). Modules are called
|
|
from within other modules using `module` blocks:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
module "servers" {
|
|
source = "./app-cluster"
|
|
|
|
servers = 5
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
A module that includes a `module` block like this is the _calling module_ of the
|
|
child module.
|
|
|
|
The label immediately after the `module` keyword is a local name, which the
|
|
calling module can use to refer to this instance of the module.
|
|
|
|
Within the block body (between `{` and `}`) are the arguments for the module.
|
|
Most of the arguments correspond to [input variables](./variables.html)
|
|
defined by the module, including the `servers` argument in the above example.
|
|
Terraform also defines a few meta-arguments that are reserved by Terraform
|
|
and used for its own purposes; we will discuss those throughout the rest of
|
|
this section.
|
|
|
|
All modules require a `source` argument, which is a meta-argument defined by
|
|
Terraform CLI. Its value is either the path to a local directory of the
|
|
module's configuration files, or a remote module source that Terraform should
|
|
download and use. This value must be a literal string with no template
|
|
sequences; arbitrary expressions are not allowed. For more information on
|
|
possible values for this argument, see [Module Sources](/docs/modules/sources.html).
|
|
|
|
The same source address can be specified in multiple `module` blocks to create
|
|
multiple copies of the resources defined within, possibly with different
|
|
variable values.
|
|
|
|
After adding, removing, or modifying `module` blocks, you must re-run
|
|
`terraform init` to allow Terraform the opportunity to adjust the installed
|
|
modules. By default this command will not upgrade an already-installed module;
|
|
use the `-upgrade` option to instead upgrade to the newest available version.
|
|
|
|
## Accessing Module Output Values
|
|
|
|
The resources defined in a module are encapsulated, so the calling module
|
|
cannot access their attributes directly. However, the child module can
|
|
declare [output values](./outputs.html) to selectively
|
|
export certain values to be accessed by the calling module.
|
|
|
|
For example, if the `./app-cluster` module referenced in the example above
|
|
exported an output value named `instance_ids` then the calling module
|
|
can reference that result using the expression `module.servers.instance_ids`:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
resource "aws_elb" "example" {
|
|
# ...
|
|
|
|
instances = module.servers.instance_ids
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
For more information about referring to named values, see
|
|
[Expressions](./expressions.html).
|
|
|
|
## Module Versions
|
|
|
|
We recommend explicitly constraining the acceptable version numbers for
|
|
each external module to avoid unexpected or unwanted changes.
|
|
|
|
Use the `version` attribute in the `module` block to specify versions:
|
|
|
|
```shell
|
|
module "consul" {
|
|
source = "hashicorp/consul/aws"
|
|
version = "0.0.5"
|
|
|
|
servers = 3
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The `version` attribute value may either be a single explicit version or
|
|
a version constraint expression. Constraint expressions use the following
|
|
syntax to specify a _range_ of versions that are acceptable:
|
|
|
|
* `>= 1.2.0`: version 1.2.0 or newer
|
|
* `<= 1.2.0`: version 1.2.0 or older
|
|
* `~> 1.2.0`: any non-beta version `>= 1.2.0` and `< 1.3.0`, e.g. `1.2.X`
|
|
* `~> 1.2`: any non-beta version `>= 1.2.0` and `< 2.0.0`, e.g. `1.X.Y`
|
|
* `>= 1.0.0, <= 2.0.0`: any version between 1.0.0 and 2.0.0 inclusive
|
|
|
|
When depending on third-party modules, references to specific versions are
|
|
recommended since this ensures that updates only happen when convenient to you.
|
|
|
|
For modules maintained within your organization, a version range strategy
|
|
may be appropriate if a semantic versioning methodology is used consistently
|
|
or if there is a well-defined release process that avoids unwanted updates.
|
|
|
|
Version constraints are supported only for modules installed from a module
|
|
registry, such as the [Terraform Registry](https://registry.terraform.io/) or
|
|
[Terraform Cloud's private module registry](/docs/cloud/registry/index.html).
|
|
Other module sources can provide their own versioning mechanisms within the
|
|
source string itself, or might not support versions at all. In particular,
|
|
modules sourced from local file paths do not support `version`; since
|
|
they're loaded from the same source repository, they always share the same
|
|
version as their caller.
|
|
|
|
## Other Meta-arguments
|
|
|
|
Along with the `source` meta-argument described above, module blocks have
|
|
some more meta-arguments that have special meaning across all modules,
|
|
described in more detail in other sections:
|
|
|
|
* `version` - (Optional) A [version constraint](#module-versions)
|
|
string that specifies which versions of the referenced module are acceptable.
|
|
The newest version matching the constraint will be used. `version` is supported
|
|
only for modules retrieved from module registries.
|
|
|
|
* `providers` - (Optional) A map whose keys are provider configuration names
|
|
that are expected by child module and whose values are corresponding
|
|
provider names in the calling module. This allows
|
|
[provider configurations to be passed explicitly to child modules](#passing-providers-explicitly).
|
|
If not specified, the child module inherits all of the default (un-aliased)
|
|
provider configurations from the calling module.
|
|
|
|
In addition to the above, the argument names `depends_on` and
|
|
`lifecycle` are not currently used by Terraform but are reserved for planned
|
|
future features.
|
|
|
|
Since modules are a complex feature in their own right, further detail
|
|
about how modules can be used, created, and published is included in
|
|
[the dedicated section on modules](/docs/modules/index.html).
|
|
|
|
## Providers within Modules
|
|
|
|
In a configuration with multiple modules, there are some special considerations
|
|
for how resources are associated with provider configurations.
|
|
|
|
While in principle `provider` blocks can appear in any module, it is recommended
|
|
that they be placed only in the _root_ module of a configuration, since this
|
|
approach allows users to configure providers just once and re-use them across
|
|
all descendent modules.
|
|
|
|
Each resource in the configuration must be associated with one provider
|
|
configuration, which may either be within the same module as the resource
|
|
or be passed from the parent module. Providers can be passed down to descendent
|
|
modules in two ways: either _implicitly_ through inheritance, or _explicitly_
|
|
via the `providers` argument within a `module` block. These two options are
|
|
discussed in more detail in the following sections.
|
|
|
|
In all cases it is recommended to keep explicit provider configurations only in
|
|
the root module and pass them (whether implicitly or explicitly) down to
|
|
descendent modules. This avoids the provider configurations from being "lost"
|
|
when descendent modules are removed from the configuration. It also allows
|
|
the user of a configuration to determine which providers require credentials
|
|
by inspecting only the root module.
|
|
|
|
Provider configurations are used for all operations on associated resources,
|
|
including destroying remote objects and refreshing state. Terraform retains, as
|
|
part of its state, a reference to the provider configuration that was most
|
|
recently used to apply changes to each resource. When a `resource` block is
|
|
removed from the configuration, this record in the state is used to locate the
|
|
appropriate configuration because the resource's `provider` argument (if any)
|
|
is no longer present in the configuration.
|
|
|
|
As a consequence, it is required that all resources created for a particular
|
|
provider configuration must be destroyed before that provider configuration is
|
|
removed, unless the related resources are re-configured to use a different
|
|
provider configuration first.
|
|
|
|
### Provider Version Constraints in Modules
|
|
|
|
To declare that a module requires particular versions of a specific provider,
|
|
use a [`required_providers`](terraform.html#specifying-required-provider-versions)
|
|
block inside a `terraform` block:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
terraform {
|
|
required_providers {
|
|
aws = ">= 2.7.0"
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Shared modules should constrain only the minimum allowed version, using a `>=`
|
|
constraint. This specifies the minimum version the provider is compatible
|
|
with while allowing users to upgrade to newer provider versions without
|
|
altering the module source code.
|
|
|
|
### Implicit Provider Inheritance
|
|
|
|
For convenience in simple configurations, a child module automatically inherits
|
|
default (un-aliased) provider configurations from its parent. This means that
|
|
explicit `provider` blocks appear only in the root module, and downstream
|
|
modules can simply declare resources for that provider and have them
|
|
automatically associated with the root provider configurations.
|
|
|
|
For example, the root module might contain only a `provider` block and a
|
|
`module` block to instantiate a child module:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
region = "us-west-1"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
module "child" {
|
|
source = "./child"
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The child module can then use any resource from this provider with no further
|
|
provider configuration required:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "example" {
|
|
bucket = "provider-inherit-example"
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This approach is recommended in the common case where only a single
|
|
configuration is needed for each provider across the entire configuration.
|
|
|
|
In more complex situations there may be [multiple provider instances](/docs/configuration/providers.html#multiple-provider-instances),
|
|
or a child module may need to use different provider settings than
|
|
its parent. For such situations, it's necessary to pass providers explicitly
|
|
as we will see in the next section.
|
|
|
|
### Passing Providers Explicitly
|
|
|
|
When child modules each need a different configuration of a particular
|
|
provider, or where the child module requires a different provider configuration
|
|
than its parent, the `providers` argument within a `module` block can be
|
|
used to define explicitly which provider configs are made available to the
|
|
child module. For example:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
# The default "aws" configuration is used for AWS resources in the root
|
|
# module where no explicit provider instance is selected.
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
region = "us-west-1"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
# A non-default, or "aliased" configuration is also defined for a different
|
|
# region.
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "usw2"
|
|
region = "us-west-2"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
# An example child module is instantiated with the _aliased_ configuration,
|
|
# so any AWS resources it defines will use the us-west-2 region.
|
|
module "example" {
|
|
source = "./example"
|
|
providers = {
|
|
aws = "aws.usw2"
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The `providers` argument within a `module` block is similar to
|
|
the `provider` argument within a resource as described for
|
|
[multiple provider instances](/docs/configuration/providers.html#multiple-provider-instances),
|
|
but is a map rather than a single string because a module may contain resources
|
|
from many different providers.
|
|
|
|
Once the `providers` argument is used in a `module` block, it overrides all of
|
|
the default inheritance behavior, so it is necessary to enumerate mappings
|
|
for _all_ of the required providers. This is to avoid confusion and surprises
|
|
that may result when mixing both implicit and explicit provider passing.
|
|
|
|
Additional provider configurations (those with the `alias` argument set) are
|
|
_never_ inherited automatically by child modules, and so must always be passed
|
|
explicitly using the `providers` map. For example, a module
|
|
that configures connectivity between networks in two AWS regions is likely
|
|
to need both a source and a destination region. In that case, the root module
|
|
may look something like this:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "usw1"
|
|
region = "us-west-1"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "usw2"
|
|
region = "us-west-2"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
module "tunnel" {
|
|
source = "./tunnel"
|
|
providers = {
|
|
aws.src = "aws.usw1"
|
|
aws.dst = "aws.usw2"
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
In the `providers` map, the keys are provider names as expected by the child
|
|
module, while the values are the names of corresponding configurations in
|
|
the _current_ module. The subdirectory `./tunnel` must then contain
|
|
_proxy configuration blocks_ like the following, to declare that it
|
|
requires configurations to be passed with these from the `providers` block in
|
|
the parent's `module` block:
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "src"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "dst"
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Each resource should then have its own `provider` attribute set to either
|
|
`"aws.src"` or `"aws.dst"` to choose which of the two provider instances to use.
|
|
|
|
A proxy configuration block is one that is either completely empty or that
|
|
contains only the `alias` argument. It serves as a placeholder for
|
|
provider configurations passed between modules. Although an empty proxy
|
|
configuration block is valid, it is not necessary: proxy configuration blocks
|
|
are needed only to establish which _alias_ provider configurations a child
|
|
module is expecting.
|
|
|
|
A proxy configuration block must not include the `version` argument. To specify
|
|
version constraints for a particular child module without creating a local
|
|
module configuration, use the [`required_providers`](/docs/configuration/terraform.html#specifying-required-provider-versions)
|
|
setting inside a `terraform` block.
|
|
|
|
## Multiple Instances of a Module
|
|
|
|
Use the `count` or `for_each` arguments to create multiple instances of a module.
|
|
These arguments have the same syntax and type constraints as
|
|
[`count`](./resources.html#count-multiple-resource-instances-by-count) and
|
|
[`for_each`](./resources.html#for_each-multiple-resource-instances-defined-by-a-map-or-set-of-strings)
|
|
as defined for managed resources.
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
# my_buckets.tf
|
|
module "bucket" {
|
|
for_each = toset(["assets", "media"])
|
|
source = "./publish_bucket"
|
|
name = "${each.key}_bucket"
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
```hcl
|
|
# publish_bucket/bucket-and-cloudfront.tf
|
|
variable "name" {} # this is the input parameter of the module
|
|
|
|
resource "aws_s3_bucket" "example" {
|
|
# ...
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
resource "aws_iam_user" "deploy_user" {
|
|
# ...
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This example defines a local child module in the `./publish_bucket`
|
|
subdirectory. That module has configuration to create an S3 bucket. The module
|
|
wraps the bucket and all the other implementation details required to configure
|
|
a bucket.
|
|
|
|
We declare multiple module instances by using the `for_each` attribute,
|
|
which accepts a map (with string keys) or a set of strings as its value. Additionally,
|
|
we use the `each.key` in our module block, because the
|
|
[`each`](/docs/configuration/resources.html#the-each-object) object is available when
|
|
we have declared `for_each` on the module block. When using the `count` argument, the
|
|
[`count`](/docs/configuration/resources.html#the-count-object) object is available.
|
|
|
|
Resources from child modules are prefixed with `module.module_name[module index]`
|
|
when displayed in plan output and elsewhere in the UI. For a module with without
|
|
`count` or `for_each`, the address will not contain the module index as the module's
|
|
name suffices to reference the module.
|
|
|
|
In our example, the `./publish_bucket` module contains `aws_s3_bucket.example`, and so the two
|
|
instances of this module produce S3 bucket resources with [resource addresses](/docs/internals/resource-addressing.html) of `module.bucket["assets"].aws_s3_bucket.example`
|
|
and `module.bucket["media"].aws_s3_bucket.example` respectively. These full addresses
|
|
are used within the UI and on the command line, but only [outputs](docs/configuration/outputs.html)
|
|
from a module can be referenced from elsewhere in your configuration.
|
|
|
|
When refactoring an existing configuration to introduce modules, moving
|
|
resource blocks between modules causes Terraform to see the new location
|
|
as an entirely separate resource to the old. Always check the execution plan
|
|
after performing such actions to ensure that no resources are surprisingly
|
|
deleted.
|
|
|
|
### Limitations when using module expansion
|
|
|
|
Modules using `count` or `for_each` cannot pass different sets of providers to different instances.
|
|
This is because when a module instance is destroyed (such as a key-value being removed from the
|
|
`for_each` map), the provider must be available in order to perform the destroy. You can pass
|
|
different sets of providers by using multiple `module` blocks:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
# my_buckets.tf
|
|
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "usw1"
|
|
region = "us-west-1"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
provider "aws" {
|
|
alias = "usw2"
|
|
region = "us-west-2"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
provider "google" {
|
|
alias = "usw1"
|
|
credentials = "${file("account.json")}"
|
|
project = "my-project-id"
|
|
region = "us-west1"
|
|
zone = "us-west1-a"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
provider "google" {
|
|
alias = "usw2"
|
|
credentials = "${file("account.json")}"
|
|
project = "my-project-id"
|
|
region = "us-west2"
|
|
zone = "us-west2-a"
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
module "bucket_w1" {
|
|
source = "./publish_bucket"
|
|
providers = {
|
|
aws.src = "aws.usw1"
|
|
google.src = "google.usw2"
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
module "bucket_w2" {
|
|
source = "./publish_bucket"
|
|
providers = {
|
|
aws.src = "aws.usw2"
|
|
google.src = "google.usw2"
|
|
}
|
|
}
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Each module block may optionally have different providers passed to it
|
|
using the [`providers`](/docs/configuration/modules.html#passing-providers-explicitly)
|
|
argument. This can be useful in situations where, for example, a duplicated set of
|
|
resources must be created across several regions or datacenters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Tainting resources within a module
|
|
|
|
The [taint command](/docs/commands/taint.html) can be used to _taint_ specific
|
|
resources within a module:
|
|
|
|
```shell
|
|
$ terraform taint -module=salt_master aws_instance.salt_master
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
It is not possible to taint an entire module. Instead, each resource within
|
|
the module must be tainted separately.
|