First time at Zeet?

11 Mar
2024
-
20
min read

What Is A Terraform Module: Complete Guide for 2024

Learn all about Terraform modules in this detailed guide. Find out how to leverage them to streamline your infrastructure management.

Jack Dwyer

Product
How To
Content
heading2
heading3
heading4
heading5
heading6
heading7

Share this article

What Is Terraform?

man helping junior in understanding Terraform Module

What is Terraform: Terraform is an open-source infrastructure as code software tool created by HashiCorp that enables engineers to define and provision data center infrastructure using a declarative configuration language. This tool allows teams to manage their cloud, on-premises, and hybrid infrastructure efficiently and consistently. 

By using Terraform, engineering teams can codify their infrastructure requirements into configuration files, making it easier to version control, manage changes, and apply infrastructure updates seamlessly.

Automating Infrastructure Deployment with Terraform and Modules

With Terraform, engineers can define their desired state of infrastructure, and the tool takes care of provisioning and managing the resources to match that state. This approach helps teams automate the deployment of infrastructure, ensuring consistency across different environments. 

Terraform modules further enhance this capability by allowing teams to encapsulate reusable infrastructure components into shareable units. Modules can abstract complex configurations, making it easier to reuse code, maintain consistency, and scale infrastructure deployments effectively.

Boosting Productivity and Collaboration

By leveraging Terraform modules, engineering teams can streamline their infrastructure provisioning process, reduce human error, and increase productivity. The modular approach fosters collaboration among team members, as they can share and reuse standardized components across projects. Zeet helps you to get more from your cloud, Kubernetes, and Terraform investments and helps your engineering team become strong individual contributors through our CI/CD deployment platform. 

Contact Zeet to learn more about how Zeet help you get seamless cloud deployments every time, and helps your team to become a top-performing engineering team.

Related Reading

What Is A Terraform Module?

reusable code blocks - Terraform Module

Terraform modules are encapsulated groups of resources that are used together to define a set of infrastructure components within Terraform. They enable reusability, modularity, and abstraction in infrastructure as code, allowing engineers to define, configure, and manage complex infrastructure setups more efficiently and effectively. 

By breaking down infrastructure into smaller, manageable components, Terraform modules promote best practices such as DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) and separation of concerns, making it easier to maintain and scale infrastructure deployments.

Benefits of Terraform Modules

1. Reusability

Modules can be reused across different projects, environments, and teams, promoting consistency and reducing duplication of code. This reusability saves time and effort by allowing engineers to leverage pre-built modules for common infrastructure patterns.

2. Modularity

Breaking infrastructure into modules enables teams to focus on developing and maintaining specific components independently. This modularity enhances collaboration, as different teams can work on separate modules simultaneously, promoting parallel development and faster iteration cycles.

3. Abstraction

Modules abstract away the complexity of underlying infrastructure details, providing a higher-level interface for defining resources. This abstraction simplifies infrastructure management, making it easier for engineers to understand, update, and troubleshoot infrastructure configurations.

4. Scalability

With Terraform modules, scaling infrastructure deployments becomes more manageable. Engineers can easily replicate and adjust modules to accommodate changing requirements, whether it's adding new resources, updating configurations, or expanding to support increased workloads.

5. Consistency

Modules enforce consistency in infrastructure configurations by defining standard patterns and practices that can be applied uniformly across environments. This consistency reduces the risk of configuration drift and ensures that infrastructure deployments are reliable and predictable.

Zeet: Empowering Your Engineering Team with Seamless Cloud Deployments

Zeet helps you to get more from your cloud, Kubernetes, and Terraform investments, enabling your engineering team to excel as strong individual contributors through our CI/CD deployment platform. 

Contact Zeet to learn more about how Zeet can help you achieve seamless cloud deployments every time, empowering your team to become a top-performing engineering team.

Zeet Terraform and Helm Product Overview

Related Reading

Complete Guide On Terraform Modules for Engineering Teams

remote employee understanding basics of Terraform Module

Terraform modules are reusable, encapsulated collections of Terraform configurations that represent a set of resources. Modules allow you to abstract, package, and share infrastructure components, promoting code reuse and modular design in your infrastructure as code (IAC) projects.

Benefits of Using Terraform Modules

Implementing Terraform modules in your infrastructure code offers several benefits:

1. Reusability

Modules can be reused across projects, enabling consistency and saving time.

2. Abstraction

Modules hide complexity by encapsulating resources and configurations.

3. Modularity

Promotes a modular design, making code easier to manage, update, and understand.

4. Scalability

Facilitates scaling infrastructure by replicating modules across environments.

5. Collaboration

Encourages collaboration by sharing and versioning modules within teams.

Creating Terraform Modules

To create a Terraform module, follow these steps:

1. Module Structure

Organize your module with a directory structure containing `.tf` files.

2. Inputs and Outputs

Define input variables for customization and output values for communication.

3. Resources

Include the resources to be provisioned within the module.

4. Main Configuration

Create a main configuration file (`main.tf`) that specifies the module's resources.

5. Variables

Declare variables in a variable file (`variables.tf`) to parameterize the module.

6. Outputs

Define outputs in an outputs file (`outputs.tf`) to expose important information.

hcl # Example of a Terraform module structure module ├── main.tf ├── variables.tf ├── outputs.tf

Using Terraform Modules

To use a Terraform module within your configurations:

1. Module Block

Instantiate the module using a `module` block in your Terraform code.

2. Inputs

Provide values for the module's input variables.

3. Outputs

Access any output values exposed by the module for further use.

hcl # Example of using a Terraform module module "example_module" {  source = "./path/to/module"  variable1 = "value1"  variable2 = "value2" } output "example_output" {  value = module.example_module.output_value }

Terraform Module Registry

The Terraform Module Registry is a repository for discovering, sharing, and collaborating on Terraform modules. It provides a centralized location to find pre-built modules for common infrastructure needs, streamlining development and promoting best practices.

Best Practices for Terraform Modules

Follow these best practices when working with Terraform modules:

1. Versioning

Version modules to track changes and ensure reproducibility.

2. Documentation

Provide clear documentation for module inputs, outputs, and usage.

3. Testing

Implement tests to verify module functionality and prevent regressions.

4. Security

Secure sensitive information and credentials within modules.

5. Review

Conduct code reviews to maintain quality and consistency across modules.

Get Seamless Cloud Deployments with Zeet

Zeet helps you to get more from your cloud, Kubernetes, and Terraform investments and helps your engineering team become strong individual contributors through our CI/CD deployment platform. Contact Zeet to learn more about how Zeet help you get seamless cloud deployments every time, and helps your team to become a top-performing engineering team.

12 Main Use Cases of Terraform Modules

notebook for use cases of Terraform Module

1. Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Terraform modules allow for the definition of infrastructure as code, enabling teams to manage, version, and provision cloud resources efficiently.

2. Reusability and Scalability

Modules promote code reusability, enabling teams to leverage existing configurations to scale infrastructure easily across different projects and environments.

3. Simplified Resource Provisioning

With modules, engineers can streamline resource provisioning by encapsulating complex configurations into reusable components, enhancing operational efficiency.

4. Consistent Infrastructure Deployment

By utilizing modules, teams can ensure consistent infrastructure deployment across development, staging, and production environments, reducing errors and discrepancies.

5. Collaboration and Standardization

Modules facilitate collaboration among team members by establishing standard practices for infrastructure provisioning, promoting consistency and best practices.

6. Dependency Management

Terraform modules help manage dependencies between resources, ensuring that changes in one component do not impact others, enhancing system stability.

7. Version Control

Teams can leverage version control systems to track changes in Terraform modules, enabling easy rollbacks and audits for improved governance and compliance.

8. Automated Testing

Modules support automated testing of infrastructure configurations, allowing engineers to validate changes before deployment, reducing risks and errors.

9. Environment Isolation

By encapsulating resources within modules, teams can achieve environment isolation, preventing conflicts between different infrastructure components.

10. Customization and Flexibility

Engineers can customize modules to meet specific requirements, tailoring infrastructure configurations while maintaining the benefits of reusability.

11. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)

Modules integrate seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, enabling automated testing, validation, and deployment of infrastructure changes for rapid iteration.

12. Governance and Security

Terraform modules support governance and security best practices by enforcing policies, access controls, and compliance requirements across infrastructure deployments.

Get Seamless Cloud Deployments with Zeet

Zeet helps you to get more from your cloud, Kubernetes, and Terraform investments and helps your engineering team become strong individual contributors through our CI/CD deployment platform. Contact Zeet to learn more about how Zeet help you get seamless cloud deployments every time, and helps your team to become a top-performing engineering team.

Zeet Contact Us

Become A Top Performing Engineering Team With Zeet's CI/CD Deployment Platform for Kubernetes and Terraform

Zeet offers a cutting-edge CI/CD deployment platform that optimizes your cloud, Kubernetes, and Terraform investments. By leveraging Zeet, your engineering team can easily achieve seamless cloud deployments every time, enhancing efficiency and productivity.

With Zeet, your team gains access to advanced tools and features that streamline the deployment process, making it easier to manage Terraform modules and configurations. This platform empowers individual contributors within your team, enabling them to become top-performing engineers.

By partnering with Zeet, you can unlock the full potential of your cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes clusters, and Terraform modules. Experience the power of Zeet's solutions and elevate your team's capabilities to drive success in your projects.

Related Reading

Subscribe to Changelog newsletter

Jack from the Zeet team shares DevOps & SRE learnings, top articles, and new Zeet features in a twice-a-month newsletter.

Thank you!

Your submission has been processed
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.