IntermediatePhone
2 min
Purpose of Terraform State
TerraformIaCCloud
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Interview Question
What is Terraform state and why is it important to store it remotely?
Key Points to Cover
- State maps resources in cloud to config for diff/plan
- Remote state enables collaboration and locking
- Protects against drift and concurrent changes
Evaluation Rubric
Defines Terraform state accurately34% weight
Explains benefits of remote state/locking33% weight
Mentions drift/concurrency concerns33% weight
Hints
- 💡Backends: S3+DynamoDB lock, GCS, Azure Blob.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ⚠️Forgetting to configure remote state and state locking, especially when working in a team or CI/CD environment, leading to state conflicts and corruption.
- ⚠️Manually editing the Terraform state file, which can easily lead to inconsistencies, corruption, or a misalignment between the state and the actual infrastructure.
- ⚠️Storing sensitive data directly within the state file without proper encryption or integrating with a dedicated secrets management solution.
- ⚠️Using a single, monolithic state file for a vast or overly complex infrastructure, leading to slow `plan` and `apply` operations and a larger blast radius for changes.
- ⚠️Ignoring or not regularly reconciling state drift, which causes the Terraform state to diverge from the actual cloud infrastructure, leading to unexpected changes or inability to manage resources.
Potential Follow-up Questions
- ❓What’s `terraform import` for?
- ❓How do workspaces relate to state?
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