Terraform on Azure
Terraform is available natively in Azure Cloud Shell and is HashiCorp’s declarative-based open source Infrastructure as Code (IAC) tool.
It allows the life cycle of codified infrastructure to be managed by declaring the infrastructure components to be provisioned with cloud providers in descriptive configuration files; this allows us to automate the ability to provision, change, and tear down any infrastructure components.
This codified infrastructure defined in .tf file type text files can be controlled and governed in a manner that is repeatable and predictable, and safe for any existing environments that this defined infrastructure is to be deployed into; this can be achieved by previewing and validating any impact this will have on any infrastructure changes before they are committed as adds, changes, or removes. Since they’re text-based configuration files, it is easy to integrate them with source control (version control) systems such as Git and Azure DevOps.
Configuration files are created using the Terraform language, which uses the HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) syntax, though JSON syntax (easier for machines to parse) can also be used in the files. The benefit of the .tf format is that it is both machine- and human-readable.
As shown in the following screenshot, you can check the version of Terraform that’s been installed in Azure Cloud Shell by running the terraform –version command:
Figure 6.5 – Terraform version
As shown in the following screenshot, you can check the available commands by running the terraform -h command:
Figure 6.6 – Terraform commands
This section looked at Terraform on Azure. In the next section, we will at the Azure mobile app, which you can use to interact with your Azure resources from wherever you have access to a mobile device or tablet.
Azure mobile app
The Azure mobile app allows you to monitor and interact with your Azure resources via an Android or iOS device and stay connected anytime, from anywhere.
The app can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store and Google Play; it is optimized for smartphones and works on tablets. The Azure mobile app supports iOS 11.0 and later and Android 6.0 and later.
The Azure mobile app is great when you cannot access a computer; maybe you only have a mobile or a tablet. Still, you need visibility to resources to be able to check their status, health, and the ability to diagnose and fix issues quickly, as well as being able to access Azure Cloud Shell. You will always have a portable way to access a Shell environment and a CLI. The following screenshot shows some of the Azure mobile app screens:
Figure 6.7 – Azure mobile app interface
The preceding screenshot shows the Mobile App experience. More information on the Azure mobile app can be found at https://azure.microsoft.com/get-started/azure-portal/mobile-app.
This section looked at using the Azure mobile app to interact with Azure resources via an Android or iOS device. The following section looks at Azure Advisor.
