terraform/website/source/docs/configuration/resources.html.md

layout	page_title	sidebar_current	description
docs	Configuring Resources	docs-config-resources	The most important thing you'll configure with Terraform are resources. Resources are a component of your infrastructure. It might be some low level component such as a physical server, virtual machine, or container. Or it can be a higher level component such as an email provider, DNS record, or database provider.

Resource Configuration

The most important thing you'll configure with Terraform are resources. Resources are a component of your infrastructure. It might be some low level component such as a physical server, virtual machine, or container. Or it can be a higher level component such as an email provider, DNS record, or database provider.

This page assumes you're familiar with the configuration syntax already.

Example

A resource configuration looks like the following:

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
    ami = "ami-123456"
    instance_type = "m1.small"
}

Description

The resource block creates a resource of the given TYPE (first parameter) and NAME (second parameter). The combination of the type and name must be unique.

Within the block (the { }) is configuration for the resource. The configuration is dependent on the type, and is documented for each resource type in the providers section.

There are meta-parameters available to all resources:

• count (int) - The number of identical resources to create. This doesn't apply to all resources. You can use the ${count.index} interpolation to reference the current count index in your resource.

• depends_on (array of strings) - Explicit dependencies that this resource has. These dependencies will be created before this resource. The dependencies are in the format of TYPE.NAME, for example aws_instance.web.

• lifecycle (configuration block) - Customizes the lifecycle behavior of the resource. The specific options are documented below.

The lifecycle block allows the following keys to be set:

• create_before_destroy (bool) - This flag is used to ensure the replacement of a resource is created before the original instance is destroyed. As an example, this can be used to create an new DNS record before removing an old record.

---

Within a resource, you can optionally have a connection block. Connection blocks describe to Terraform how to connect to the resource for provisioning. This block doesn't need to be present if you're using only local provisioners, or if you're not provisioning at all.

Resources provide some data on their own, such as an IP address, but other data must be specified by the user.

The full list of settings that can be specified are listed on the provisioner connection page.

---

Within a resource, you can specify zero or more provisioner blocks. Provisioner blocks configure provisioners.

Within the provisioner block is provisioner-specific configuration, much like resource-specific configuration.

Provisioner blocks can also contain a connection block (documented above). This connection block can be used to provide more specific connection info for a specific provisioner. An example use case might be to use a different user to log in for a single provisioner.

Syntax

The full syntax is:

resource TYPE NAME {
	CONFIG ...
	[count = COUNT]
    [depends_on = [RESOURCE NAME, ...]]
    [LIFECYCLE]

	[CONNECTION]
	[PROVISIONER ...]
}

where CONFIG is:

KEY = VALUE

KEY {
	CONFIG
}

where LIFECYCLE is:

lifecycle {
    [create_before_destroy = true|false]
}

where CONNECTION is:

connection {
	KEY = VALUE
	...
}

where PROVISIONER is:

provisioner NAME {
	CONFIG ...

	[CONNECTION]
}