What is variable.tf and terraform.tfvars?

Terraform variable.tf is a file where you can define variables for your Terraform configuration. This file can contain the variable definitions as well as the optional default value for the variable. Here is an example of variable.tf which has -

1. Two variables with no default value - instance_type, github_repo

2. One variable with default value - location

    1# variable.tf 
    2
    3 # No default value
    4 variable "instance_type" {
    5   type = string
    6   description = "EC2 Instance Type"
    7 }
    8
    9 # No default value
   10 variable "tag" {
   11   type = string
   12   description = "The tag for the EC2 instance"
   13 }
   14
   15 # default value for the variable location
   16 variable "location" {
   17   type = string
   18   description = "The project region"
   19   default = "eu-central1"
   20 }
   

Terraform.tfvars is a file where you actually assign a values to the variables. I am just gonna use the previous variable.tf and assign the values to the variables -

1 # terraform-dev.tfvars
2 
3 instance_type   =   "t2.micro"
4 tag             =   "EC2 Instnace for DEV"
5 location        =    "eu-central-1"

Here are the benefits of using terraform.tfvars -

1. You can have multiple terraform.tfvars based on your project setup for example -
   • DEV - terraform-dev.tfvars
   • QA - terraform-qa.tfvars
   • PROD -terraform-prod.tfvars

Table of Content

1. How to create variable.tf?
2. How to create terraform.tfvars?
3. How to create multiple .tfvars files for different environments?
4. How do you pass a variable(.tfvars) to the command line to Terraform using --var-file?
5. Best practices for using variable.tf and terraform.tfvars
6. Difference between terraform.tfvars vs variables.tf
7. Terraform variable loading preference - How do terraform loads variables?
8. How to pass variables into a module in Terraform?
9. Conclusion

Pre-requisite

Before we start working with Terraform variables, here are the pre-requisites -

1. You must install terraform (click here on how to install terraform)
2. You must have either AWS or Google Cloud account (Click to here for AWS and Google Cloud terraform setup tutorial)

1. How to create variable.tf?

Let's take a very basic example to understand the concept of variable.tf in terraform. In this example, we are going to set up an EC2 Instance on AWS..

For setting up an EC2 Instance we will need the following information -

1. Region - location
2. Instance Type - instance_type
3. Tags - tag

1.1 Let's create variable.tf file for region, instance type, and tags -

Here is the code for variable.tf -

 1# variable.tf 
 2
 3# No default value
 4variable "instance_type" {
 5   type = string
 6   description = "EC2 Instance Type"
 7}
 8
 9# No default value
10variable "tag" {
11   type = string
12   description = "The tag for the EC2 instance"
13}
14
15# default value for the variable location
16variable "location" {
17   type = string
18   description = "The project region"
19   default = "eu-central1"
20}

1.2 Create main.tf for provisioning EC2 instance -

Here is the code for main.tf file

 1provider "aws" {
 2   region     = var.location
 3   access_key = "<INSERT_YOU_ACCESS_KEY>"
 4   secret_key = "<INSERT_YOU_SECRET_KEY>"
 5}
 6
 7resource "aws_instance" "ec2_example" {
 8
 9   ami           = "ami-0767046d1677be5a0"
10   instance_type =  var.instance_type
11
12   tags = {
13           Name = var.tag
14   }
15} 

2. How to create terraform.tfvars?

After creating the variables.tf in Step-1, let's create .tfvars and in that file, we are going to assign values to the variable -

1. location - "eu-central-1"
2. instance_type - "t2.micro"
3. tag- "EC2 Instnace for DEV"

1# terraform.tfvars 
2
3instance_type   =   "t2.micro"
4tag             =   "EC2 Instnace for DEV"
5location        =    "eu-central-1" 

3. How to create multiple .tfvars files for different environments?

There can be a situation where you need to create multiple tfvars files based on the environment like DEV, QA, PRODUCTION.

So in such scenario, you can create one tfvars file for each environment -

1. terraform-dev.tfvars
2. terraform-qa.tfvars
3. terraform-prod.tfvars

Here is the content of terraform-dev.tfvars, terraform-qa.tfvars, terraform-prod.tfvars based on different environment types -

DEV

1# terraform-dev.tfvars
2
3instance_type   =   "t2.micro"
4tag             =   "EC2 Instnace for DEV"
5location        =    "eu-central-1"

QA

1# terraform-qa.tfvars
2
3instance_type   =   "t2.micro"
4tag             =   "EC2 Instnace for QA"
5location        =    "eu-central-1"

PROD

1# terraform-prod.tfvars
2
3instance_type   =   "t2.micro"
4tag             =   "EC2 Instnace for PROD"
5location        =    "eu-central-1"

4. How do you pass a variable(.tfvars) to the command line to Terraform using --var-file?

Referencing the same example from Step-2 we can pass the variables terraform-dev.tfvars, terraform-qa.tfvars, terraform-prod.tfvars based on the environment we are working.

Here is how I am going to run the terraform init, terraform plan and terraform apply command in DEV, QA, and PROD environment.

DEV - Keep in mind that you have to supply the correct .tfvars file based on the environment you are working on.

 1# 1. terraform init for DEV 
 2
 3terraform init --var-file="terraform-dev.tfvars"
 4
 5# 2. terraform plan for DEV 
 6
 7terraform plan --var-file="terraform-dev.tfvars"
 8
 9# 3. terraform apply for DEV 
10
11terraform apply --var-file="terraform-dev.tfvars"

QA - Keep in mind that you have to supply the correct .tfvars file based on the environment you are working on.

 1# 1. terraform init for QA 
 2
 3terraform init --var-file="terraform-qa.tfvars"
 4
 5# 2. terraform plan for QA 
 6
 7terraform plan --var-file="terraform-qa.tfvars"
 8
 9# 3. terraform apply for QA 
10
11terraform apply --var-file="terraform-qa.tfvars"

PROD - Keep in mind that you have to supply the correct .tfvars file based on the environment you are working on.

 1# 1. terraform init for PROD 
 2
 3terraform init --var-file="terraform-prod.tfvars"
 4
 5# 2. terraform plan for PROD 
 6
 7terraform plan --var-file="terraform-prod.tfvars"
 8
 9# 3. terraform apply for PROD 
10
11terraform apply --var-file="terraform-prod.tfvars"

5. Best practices for using variable.tf and terraform.tfvars

1. Separate reusable variables into a separate tfvars file: Having a separate .tfvars file for all reusable variables provides clarity, readability, and maintainability. Below you will find a screenshot of my project where i have 3 different tfvars for DEV, QA, PROD environment -

2. Lockdown read/write access: Ensure that only the appropriate people can modify the variable values, whether through IAM policies or other security controls.

3. Use default values: Whenever possible, set default values for variables that can be overridden later. This simplifies the process of managing variable values and reduces risk. Here is an example of how to set default values -

   1# default value assigned for variable `location`
   2
   3variable "location" {
   4  type = string
   5  description = "The project region"
   6  default = "eu-central1"
   7} 
   

4. Reuse variable names: Reusing variable names between variable.tf and terraform.tfvars helps reduce confusion and ensures that all variable values referenced in variable.tf can be overridden in terraform.tfvars.

5. Organize variable values: Organize, group, and document the variables to provide context and clarity. This will reduce the amount of time needed to understand what values are being used for

6. Difference between terraform.tfvars vs variables.tf

Here are my 5 key differences between terraform.tfvars and variables.tf -

7. Terraform variable loading preference - How do terraform loads variables?

Terraform variable loading preference refers to the order in which Terraform on loads variables when multiple sources specify the same variable. By default, Terraform looks in the following order to find variables with the same name.

1. Environment variables
2. Variable files (files with a .tfvars or terraform.tfvars.json extension)
3. From Terraform files (using .tf files)
4. From the command line (using the -var flag)

Once all relevant sources are checked, the first encountered value for a given variable is used. Variables can be made available by setting them in the environment, or in a variable file. If a variable is set in multiple sources, the ordering described above is followed.

8. How to pass variables into a module in Terraform?

There are three ways to define the variables for module -

1. Define variables inside the module's main.tf: The first and the easiest way to define the variables inside the main.tf of terraform module. Here is the screenshot of my project in which I have created main.tf and in the same file I have declared the variables -

2. Create variables.tf for each module: The most recommended way of passing variables to the module is by creating individual variables.tf for each module so that your terraform code is more optimized.

Please have a look at the screenshot of my project structure. In this screenshot, you will find two modules -

• module-1 : There is variables.tf for module-1
• module-2 : As well as there is separate variables.tf for module-2

3. Common project level variables.tf for all modules: The third option would be to create common variables.tf at the project level so that all the modules within that project can access the same variables.tf.

Here is the screenshot of the project in which I have created common variables.tf for all the modules -

3. Pass variables to modules from the command line: Just like we pass variable from the command line in terraform similarly you can also the variables from the command line to all the modules within that project.

But the variables passed via the command line will override all the local variables.

Here are some example commands for passing the variables to modules -

1terraform init --var-file="terraform.tfvars"
2
3terraform plan--var-file="terraform.tfvars"
4
5terraform apply--var-file="terraform.tfvars"

9. Conclusion

I hope this article will help you to understand the variables.tf and terraform.tfvars in more detailed way. You can clone my GitHub Repo for Terraform where I have created all the sample codes.

Read More - Terragrunt -

1. How to use Terragrunt?