github.com/hobbeswalsh/terraform@v0.3.7-0.20150619183303-ad17cf55a0fa/website/source/intro/index.html.markdown (about)

     1  ---
     2  layout: "intro"
     3  page_title: "Introduction"
     4  sidebar_current: "what"
     5  description: |-
     6    Welcome to the intro guide to Terraform! This guide is the best place to start with Terraform. We cover what Terraform is, what problems it can solve, how it compares to existing software, and contains a quick start for using Terraform.
     7  ---
     8  
     9  # Introduction to Terraform
    10  
    11  Welcome to the intro guide to Terraform! This guide is the best
    12  place to start with Terraform. We cover what Terraform is, what
    13  problems it can solve, how it compares to existing software,
    14  and contains a quick start for using Terraform.
    15  
    16  If you are already familiar with the basics of Terraform, the
    17  [documentation](/docs/index.html) provides a better reference
    18  guide for all available features as well as internals.
    19  
    20  ## What is Terraform?
    21  
    22  Terraform is a tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure
    23  safely and efficiently. Terraform can manage existing and popular service
    24  providers as well as custom in-house solutions.
    25  
    26  Configuration files describe to Terraform the components needed to
    27  run a single application or your entire datacenter.
    28  Terraform generates an execution plan describing
    29  what it will do to reach the desired state, and then executes it to build the
    30  described infrastructure. As the configuration changes, Terraform is able
    31  to determine what changed and create incremental execution plans which
    32  can be applied.
    33  
    34  The infrastructure Terraform can manage includes
    35  low-level components such as
    36  compute instances, storage, and networking, as well as high-level
    37  components such as DNS entries, SaaS features, etc.
    38  
    39  Examples work best to showcase Terraform. Please see the
    40  [use cases](/intro/use-cases.html).
    41  
    42  The key features of Terraform are:
    43  
    44  * **Infrastructure as Code**: Infrastructure is described using a high-level
    45    configuration syntax. This allows a blueprint of your datacenter to be
    46    versioned and treated as you would any other code. Additionally,
    47    infrastructure can be shared and re-used.
    48  
    49  * **Execution Plans**: Terraform has a "planning" step where it generates
    50    an _execution plan_. The execution plan shows what Terraform will do when
    51    you call apply. This lets you avoid any surprises when Terraform
    52    manipulates infrastructure.
    53  
    54  * **Resource Graph**: Terraform builds a graph of all your resources,
    55    and parallelizes the creation and modification of any non-dependent
    56    resources. Because of this, Terraform builds infrastructure as efficiently
    57    as possible, and operators get insight into dependencies in their
    58    infrastructure.
    59  
    60  * **Change Automation**: Complex changesets can be applied to
    61    your infrastructure with minimal human interaction.
    62    With the previously mentioned execution
    63    plan and resource graph, you know exactly what Terraform will change
    64    and in what order, avoiding many possible human errors.
    65  
    66  ## Next Steps
    67  
    68  See the page on [Terraform use cases](/intro/use-cases.html) to see the
    69  multiple ways Terraform can be used. Then see
    70  [how Terraform compares to other software](/intro/vs/index.html)
    71  to see how it fits into your existing infrastructure. Finally, continue onwards with
    72  the [getting started guide](/intro/getting-started/install.html) to use
    73  Terraform to manage real infrastructure and to see how it works.