Creating Terraform Configurations with Implicit Dependencies in Azure

Terraform uses graph theory to plot relationships between resources. This mathematical process is used to determine the necessary steps to take for provisioning and destroying infrastructure. Understanding how to create resource dependencies within Terraform configurations is crucial for Terraform developers. It can prevent headaches in the future with timing issues and bugs in infrastructure deployments.

In this lab, you will learn how to create implicit dependencies between resources and experience firsthand what happens when Terraform resource dependencies are overlooked.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this lab you will be able to:

• Understand how Terraform deploys resources in order
• Troubleshoot Terraform dependency issues

Intended Audience

This lab is intended for:

• Individuals studying to take the HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate exam
• Anyone interested in learning how to use Terraform to manage Cloud Service Providers

Prerequisites

You should be familiar with:

• Cloud Services
• DevOps
• Basic understanding of Terraform deployments

The following course and lab can be used to fulfill the prerequisites:

• Introduction to DevOps
• Deploying Infrastructure with Terraform in Azure

Updates

May 20th, 2025 - Updated to use the QA Platform in-browser IDE

June 24th, 2021 - Updated VM Size for the lab to increase resource allocation