HashiCorp Terraform Associate Exam (v3)

Introduction

• Instructor: Andrew Brown
• Course available on FreeCoCamp.
• Utilizes:
  • Theoretical content
  • Practical labs
  • Practice exams

Course Objectives

• Obtain the HashiCorp Terraform Associate certification.
• Demonstrate skills in DevOps and infrastructure automation.
• Improve employment prospects in Cloud and DevOps roles.

Course Structure

• Content divided into sections: theory and practice.
• Format: a mix of lectures and labs (aiming to solidify knowledge through constant practice).

Initial Recommendations

• It's recommended to learn the basics of AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure before Terraform.
• Ideally, have some level of cloud associate certification.
• Growing demand in the job market for Terraform.
• The exam is not difficult but learning Terraform can be confusing.

Multi-Cloud Roadmap

• Start with a cloud Associate certification (AWS SysOps, Azure Admin, or Google Ace).
• Then proceed with specialized certifications like Terraform Associate.
• Complete with other advanced certifications (Vault, Cloud Security, etc).

Study Duration

• Beginners: up to 30 hours or more.
• With experience in IaC: around 12 hours.
• General recommendation: 1 to 2 hours daily over 14 days.

Exam Details

• Focuses on practical knowledge and use of Terraform.
• Importance of conducting labs and practice exams.
• Evaluation system through weighted scoring.
• Required 70% to pass.
• Exam format: multiple choice and short answer (commands).

Exam Contents

Knowledge Domains (Nine in Total)

1. Basic Concepts of IaC and Terraform:
   • Declarative vs Imperative
   • Popular methods and tools
   • Examples: ARM, CloudFormation, BICEP
2. Understanding Basic Terraform:
   • Purpose of Terraform
   • Commands: init, validate, plan, apply, destroy
3. Beyond the Basic Workflows:
   • Import existing infrastructures
   • View Terraform State
   • Enable detailed logging
4. Interacting with Modules:
   • Contrast and use different module source options
   • Module variables and submodules
5. Implementing and Maintaining State:
   • Work with local and remote states
   • Resource drift management
6. Re-generation and Configuration Modification:
   • Use of variables and outputs
   • Connection between resources
7. Terraform Cloud Capabilities:
   • Infrastructure management and collaboration using Terraform Cloud
8. Automating Changes:
   • Action planning/planning and execution
9. IaC Security Practices:

Recertification and Validity

• Certification validity for 24 months.
• Option to take the new exam starting 18 months after the previous certification.

Additional Practices

• Use of .tfvars files to pass values to multiple variables at once.
• Advanced techniques like spread operators (*), filtering, and more.
• State management and related commands.

Provisioners in Terraform

• Last resort for provisioning specific tools.
• Examples: Cloud init and Packer.

Terraform Cloud

Featured Characteristics

• Remote state management
• Version control integration
• Workspace management
• Secure storage of variables
• Remote execution
• Private module registry
• Team and permission management
• Cost estimation

Terraform Cloud Architecture

• Organization and Workspaces
• Permission levels

Version Control System (VCS) Integration

• Support for: GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, etc.
• Workflows: Automated, API-controlled, and CLI

Security and Costs

• Free plan: Up to 5 users
• Teams plan: $20 USD per user
• Advanced features available in higher plans (Governance, Audits, etc.)

Uses of Terraform Cloud Agents

• Use in disconnected or private environments

Sentinel Implementation

• Sentinel: policy as code framework
• Issuing warnings and rejections based on specific policies.
• Applied post-plan, pre-apply changes in Terraform.
• Paid software, available in Team & Governance.

Complementary Tools

Packer

• HashiCorp tool for image creation.
• Use of AMI, other cloud providers.
• Integration with CI/CD pipelines and Terraform.

Vault

• Secure storage and management of secrets.
• Use of short-lived secret injections.
• Integration with Terraform to inject variables upon apply.

Consul

• Service networking platform.
• Remote state storage and provider for Terraform.

Atlantis

• Tool for automating Terraform pull requests.
• Alternative to Terraform Cloud.

CDK for Terraform

• Use of AWS CDK to generate Terraform templates.
• Support for multiple languages like Python, Typescript, etc.

Gruntwork

• Company that produces tools compatible with Terraform.
• Featured Tools: Terra Grunt for keeping Terraform configurations more D.R.Y.