Description: The ‘terraform plan’ command is a fundamental tool in the Terraform ecosystem, designed to show users what actions will be taken to modify the infrastructure defined in the configuration files. When this command is executed, Terraform performs a thorough analysis of the current state of the infrastructure and compares it with the desired configuration. This allows users to visualize a detailed plan of the operations that will be executed, such as creating, modifying, or deleting resources. This planning process is crucial as it provides an opportunity to review and validate proposed changes before they are applied, thus minimizing the risk of errors or service interruptions. Additionally, ‘terraform plan’ generates a report that includes information about the resources that will be added or removed, as well as any changes to the properties of existing resources. This ability to anticipate the effects of changes is one of the most valued features of Terraform, as it enables DevOps teams and system administrators to manage infrastructure more efficiently and securely.
History: Terraform was created by HashiCorp and first released in July 2014. Since its launch, it has significantly evolved, incorporating new features and improvements in infrastructure management as code. The ‘terraform plan’ command was introduced as part of this tool to facilitate the visualization of changes before implementation, which has been a key aspect in the adoption of Terraform by development and operations teams.
Uses: The ‘terraform plan’ command is primarily used in the infrastructure management lifecycle. It allows users to anticipate the changes that will be made to the infrastructure before executing them, which is essential to avoid costly errors. It is commonly used in diverse environments to validate configurations and ensure that proposed changes are as intended.
Examples: A practical example of using ‘terraform plan’ would be in a development environment where a DevOps engineer wants to add a new server to the infrastructure. By executing the command, a plan will be generated showing the creation of the new resource, allowing the engineer to review the changes before applying the configuration with ‘terraform apply.’
