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Civo Terraform provider

Overview​

Terraform is an infrastructure as code (IaC) tool that can help you manage cloud resources using code. In order to use Terraform on a cloud service, you need to set up the Provider for that service. A provider (also known as plugin) is the middle layer between the Terraform CLI that you will be using and the cloud platform that you are using. It's implemented in Go and interface with the cloud platform's API using a client library — which also written in Go. Civo maintains a Terraform provider that gives users access to resources in their accounts.

Setting up the Civo Terraform provider​

In order to use the Civo Terraform provider, you need to set up the Terraform command-line interface itself first. It's available for Mac, Linux and Windows on the official site.

The following setup guide and the examples in the Civo product documentation assume you have the Terraform CLI installed.

Create a Provider file​

To create a provider file for Terraform to read, create a file called provider.tf in a text editor of your choice.

The file should contain the provider information from the Civo Terraform Provider page that you get when you select "Use Provider":

Terraform provider page with highlighted sections to use the Civo provider

In your editor, replace the # Configuration options line with token = "<YOUR_CIVO_API_KEY>". The <YOUR_CIVO_API_KEY> block should be the API key for the account you wish to manage using Terraform.

As an example, the file may look like the following

terraform {
  required_providers {
    civo = {
      source = "civo/civo"
      version = "1.0.19"
    }
  }
}

provider "civo" {
  token = "RE4wnvq3oEHD4rdjkidaBdKJRHau1ToYyGPTTgXyD90Va3nFyq"
}

For the latest feature set, make sure your version line matches the latest version on the Terraform Provider page.

Once you save the file, you can proceed to initialize a new Terraform project.

Initialize a Terraform Project using the Civo provider​

In order to initialize our Terraform project, run the command below to download the Civo Terraform provider and set it up it with required files and folders:

terraform init

This should output a success message:

Terraform project initialized

Congratulations! You now have a working Terraform project. You can use this setup to manage cloud resources on Civo according to the product and service-specific documentation.

As some examples, you can do all of the following with Terraform:

Upgrading the Terraform provider​

If you see that your Terraform provider version is behind the latest Civo provider release, you can upgrade your project as follows:

Update the Terraform provider file​

First, update the version line of the provider.tf file for your project to match the version in the provider registry and save the file.

Upgrade the Terraform project​

Second, use the Terraform CLI to initialize an upgrade to your project:

terraform init --upgrade

You should see an update message confirming the provider version has changed.