Terraform data sources

Terraform data sources allow you to get up-to-date information about the existing cloud resources and use this data in your infrastructure configuration.

With the Yandex Cloud Terraform provider, you can get information about various cloud resources, including VMs, disks, cloud networks, etc.

Data sources are available as read only, which prevents any changes to external resources.

Let's use Terraform data sources to get an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS image ID from Cloud Marketplace.

To get an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS image ID using Terraform:

1. Prepare your cloud.
2. Install and configure Terraform.
3. Describe the data source.
4. Check the result.

Prepare your cloudPrepare your cloud

Sign up for Yandex Cloud and create a billing account:

1. Go to the management console and log in to Yandex Cloud or create an account if you do not have one yet.
2. On the Yandex Cloud Billing page, make sure you have a billing account linked and it has the ACTIVE or TRIAL_ACTIVE status. If you do not have a billing account, create one.

If you have an active billing account, you can go to the cloud page to create or select a folder for your infrastructure to operate in.

Learn more about clouds and folders.

Install and configure TerraformInstall and configure Terraform

Install TerraformInstall Terraform

Get the authentication credentialsGet the authentication credentials

Use a service account to manage the Yandex Cloud infrastructure using Terraform. It will help you flexibly configure access permissions to resources.

You can also access Terraform from your Yandex account,, or a federated account, but this method is less secure. For more information, see the end of this section.

1. If you do not have the Yandex Cloud command line interface, install it.

2. Set up the CLI profile to run operations on behalf of the service account:

   CLI

   1. Create an authorized key for your service account and save the file:

      yc iam key create \
        --service-account-id <service_account_ID> \
        --folder-name <service_account_folder_name> \
        --output key.json
      

      Where:

      • service-account-id: Service account ID.
      • folder-name: Name of the folder in which the service account was created.
      • output: Name of the file with the authorized key.

      Result:

      id: aje8nn871qo4********
      service_account_id: ajehr0to1g8b********
      created_at: "2022-09-14T09:11:43.479156798Z"
      key_algorithm: RSA_2048
      

   2. Create a CLI profile to run operations on behalf of the service account. Name the profile:

      yc config profile create <profile_name>
      

      Result:

      Profile 'sa-terraform' created and activated
      

   3. Set the profile configuration:

      yc config set service-account-key key.json
      yc config set cloud-id <cloud_ID>
      yc config set folder-id <folder_ID>
      

      Where:

      • service-account-key: File with the service account authorized key.
      • cloud-id: Cloud ID.
      • folder-id: Folder ID.

3. Add the credentials to the environment variables:

   Bash

   PowerShell

   export YC_TOKEN=$(yc iam create-token)
   export YC_CLOUD_ID=$(yc config get cloud-id)
   export YC_FOLDER_ID=$(yc config get folder-id)
   

   Where:

   • YC_TOKEN: IAM token.
   • YC_CLOUD_ID: Cloud ID.
   • YC_FOLDER_ID: Folder ID.

   $Env:YC_TOKEN=$(yc iam create-token)
   $Env:YC_CLOUD_ID=$(yc config get cloud-id)
   $Env:YC_FOLDER_ID=$(yc config get folder-id)
   

   Where:

   • YC_TOKEN: IAM token.
   • YC_CLOUD_ID: Cloud ID.
   • YC_FOLDER_ID: Folder ID.

   Note

   The IAM token lifetime does not exceed 12 hours; however, we recommend requesting it more often, such as once per hour.

export YC_TOKEN=$(yc iam create-token)
export YC_CLOUD_ID=$(yc config get cloud-id)
export YC_FOLDER_ID=$(yc config get folder-id)

$Env:YC_TOKEN=$(yc iam create-token)
$Env:YC_CLOUD_ID=$(yc config get cloud-id)
$Env:YC_FOLDER_ID=$(yc config get folder-id)

Create a Terraform configuration fileCreate a Terraform configuration file

1. Create a directory with any name, for example, cloud-terraform. It will store the Terraform configuration files.
2. Create a configuration file with the .tf extension in this directory, for example, example.tf.

Configure a providerConfigure a provider

1. If you previously configured a provider from the HashiCorp registry, save its settings:

   Linux/macOS

   Windows

   mv ~/.terraformrc ~/.terraformrc.old
   

   mv $env:APPDATA/terraform.rc $env:APPDATA/terraform.rc.old
   

2. Specify the source the provider will be installed from.

   Linux/macOS

   Windows

   Open the Terraform CLI configuration file:

   nano ~/.terraformrc
   

   Note

   The .terraformrc file must be in the user's home root folder, e.g., /home/user/ or /User/user/.

   Open the Terraform CLI configuration file named terraform.rc in your user's %APPDATA% folder.

   To find out the absolute path to the %APPDATA% folder, run the echo %APPDATA% command for cmd or the $env:APPDATA command for PowerShell.

   Add the following section to the file:

   provider_installation {
     network_mirror {
       url = "https://terraform-mirror.yandexcloud.net/"
       include = ["registry.terraform.io/*/*"]
     }
     direct {
       exclude = ["registry.terraform.io/*/*"]
     }
   }
   

   For more information about setting up mirrors, see the documentation.

3. Add the following sections at the top of the .tf configuration file:

   terraform {
     required_providers {
       yandex = {
         source = "yandex-cloud/yandex"
       }
     }
     required_version = ">= 0.13"
   }
   
   provider "yandex" {
     zone = "<default_availability_zone>"
   }
   

   Where:

   • source: Provider's global source address.
   • required_version: Minimum Terraform version the provider is compatible with.
   • provider: Provider name.
   • zone: Availability zone where all cloud resources will be created by default.

4. Run the terraform init command in the folder containing the .tf configuration file. This command initializes the providers specified in the configuration files and allows you to work with the provider resources and data sources.

If the provider installation failed, create a support request stating provider name and version.

If you used the .terraform.lock.hcl file, prior to the initialization, run the terraform providers lock command specifying the URL of the mirror to upload the provider from and the platforms the configuration will run on:

terraform providers lock -net-mirror=https://terraform-mirror.yandexcloud.net -platform=<platform_1_name> -platform=<platform_2_name> yandex-cloud/yandex

Where:

• -net-mirror: Address of the mirror to upload the provider from.
• -platform: Platforms to use the configuration on. The possible values include:
  • windows_amd64: 64-bit Windows
  • linux_amd64: 64-bit Linux
  • darwin_arm64: 64-bit macOS

If you used the Terraform modules, first run terraform init, then delete the lock file. After that, run the terraform providers lock command.

For more information about the terraform providers lock command, see the Terraform documentation.

Describe a data sourceDescribe a data source

1. In the configuration file, paste this code after the provider settings:

   data "yandex_compute_image" "my_image" {
     family = "ubuntu-2204-lts"
   }
   
   output "my_image_id" {
     value = data.yandex_compute_image.my_image.id
   }
   

   Where:

   • data "yandex_compute_image": Disk image description as a data source:
     • family: Image family.
   • output "resource_active": Output variable with information about the current image ID for the specified family:
     • value: Returned value.

   For more information about the yandex_compute_image data source parameters, see the provider documentation.

2. Create resources:

   1. In the terminal, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.

   2. Make sure the configuration file is correct using the command:

      terraform validate
      

      If the configuration is correct, the following message is returned:

      Success! The configuration is valid.
      

   3. Run the command:

      terraform plan
      

      The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes are made at this step. If the configuration contains errors, Terraform will point them out.

   4. Apply the configuration changes:

      terraform apply
      

   5. Confirm the changes: type yes in the terminal and press Enter.

   Terraform will create the required resources and display the output variable values in the terminal.

Check the resultCheck the result

To check the results, run:

terraform output

Result:

my_image_id = "fd8li2lvvfc6bdj4c787"

Then you can use this ID to create a VM, e.g.:

resource "yandex_compute_disk" "boot-disk" {
  name     = "<disk_name>"
  type     = "<disk_type>"
  zone     = "<availability_zone>"
  size     = "<disk_size>"
  image_id = data.yandex_compute_image.my_image.id
}

...

See alsoSee also

• Getting started with Terraform.
• Uploading Terraform states to Object Storage.
• Locking Terraform states using Managed Service for YDB.
• Using Yandex Cloud modules in Terraform.