55 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: "docs"
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page_title: "State: Remote Storage"
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sidebar_current: "docs-state-remote"
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description: |-
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Terraform can store the state remotely, making it easier to version and work with in a team.
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---
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# Remote State
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By default, Terraform stores state locally in a file named "terraform.tfstate".
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Because this file must exist, it makes working with Terraform in a team
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complicated since it is a frequent source of merge conflicts. Remote state
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helps alleviate these issues.
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With remote state, Terraform stores the state in a remote store. Terraform
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supports storing state in [Atlas](https://atlas.hashicorp.com),
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[Consul](https://www.consul.io), S3, and more.
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Remote state is a feature of [backends](/docs/backends). Configuring and
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using backends is easy and you can get started with remote state quickly.
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If you want to migrate back to using local state, backends make that
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easy as well.
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## Delegation and Teamwork
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Remote state gives you more than just easier version control and
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safer storage. It also allows you to delegate the
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[outputs](/docs/configuration/outputs.html) to other teams. This allows
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your infrastructure to be more easily broken down into components that
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multiple teams can access.
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Put another way, remote state also allows teams to share infrastructure
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resources in a read-only way.
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For example, a core infrastructure team can handle building the core
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machines, networking, etc. and can expose some information to other
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teams to run their own infrastructure. As a more specific example with AWS:
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you can expose things such as VPC IDs, subnets, NAT instance IDs, etc. through
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remote state and have other Terraform states consume that.
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For example usage see the
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[terraform_remote_state](/docs/providers/terraform/d/remote_state.html) data source.
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## Locking and Teamwork
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Terraform will automatic lock state depending on the
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[backend](/docs/backends) used. Please see the full page dedicated
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to [state locking](/docs/state/locking.html).
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[Atlas by HashiCorp](https://atlas.hashicorp.com) is a commercial offering
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that in addition to locking supports remote operations that allow you to
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safely queue Terraform operations in a central location. This enables
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teams to safely modify infrastructure concurrently.
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