github.com/jzbruno/terraform@v0.10.3-0.20180104230435-18975d727047/website/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
    45  
    46  Infrastructure is described using a high-level configuration syntax. This allows
    47  a blueprint of your datacenter to be versioned and treated as you would any
    48  other code. Additionally, infrastructure can be shared and re-used.
    49  
    50  ### Execution Plans
    51  
    52  Terraform has a "planning" step where it generates an _execution plan_. The
    53  execution plan shows what Terraform will do when you call apply. This lets you
    54  avoid any surprises when Terraform manipulates infrastructure.
    55  
    56  ### Resource Graph
    57  
    58  Terraform builds a graph of all your resources, and parallelizes the creation
    59  and modification of any non-dependent resources. Because of this, Terraform
    60  builds infrastructure as efficiently as possible, and operators get insight into
    61  dependencies in their infrastructure.
    62  
    63  ### Change Automation
    64  
    65  Complex changesets can be applied to your infrastructure with minimal human
    66  interaction. With the previously mentioned execution plan and resource graph,
    67  you know exactly what Terraform will change and in what order, avoiding many
    68  possible human errors.
    69  
    70  ## Next Steps
    71  
    72  See the page on [Terraform use cases](/intro/use-cases.html) to see the
    73  multiple ways Terraform can be used. Then see
    74  [how Terraform compares to other software](/intro/vs/index.html)
    75  to see how it fits into your existing infrastructure. Finally, continue onwards with
    76  the [getting started guide](/intro/getting-started/install.html) to use
    77  Terraform to manage real infrastructure and to see how it works.