Guide To Success: HashiCorp Infrastructure Automation Certification

Understand infrastructure as code (IaC) concepts

• Explain what IaC is
• Describe the advantages of IaC patterns

Understand the purpose of Terraform (vs other IaC)

• Explain multi-cloud and provider-agnostic benefits
• Explain the benefits of state

Understand Terraform basics

• Install and version Terraform providers
• Write Terraform configuration using multiple providers
• Describe how Terraform finds and fetches providers
• Describe the plugin-based architecture

Use Terraform outside of the core workflow

• Describe when to use terraform import to import existing infrastructure into your Terraform state
• Describe when to enable verbose logging and what the outcome/value is
• Use terraform state to view Terraform state

Interact with Terraform modules

• Contrast and use different module source options including the public Terraform Module Registry
• Interact with module inputs and output
• Describe variable scope within modules/child modules
• Set module version

Use the core Terraform workflow

• Describe Terraform workflow ( Write -> Plan -> Create )
• Initialize a Terraform working directory (terraform init)
• Validate a Terraform configuration (terraform validate)
• Generate and review an execution plan for Terraform (terraform plan)
• Generate and review an execution plan for Terraform (terraform plan)
• Destroy Terraform managed infrastructure (terraform destroy)
• Apply formatting and style adjustments to a configuration (terraform fmt)

Implement and maintain state

• Describe default local backend
• Describe state locking
• Handle backend and cloud integration authentication methods
• Differentiate remote state back-end options
• Manage resource drift and Terraform state
• Describe backend block and cloud integration in configuration
• Understand secret management in state files

Read, generate, and modify the configuration

• Demonstrate the use of variables and outputs
• Describe secure secret injection best practice
• Understand the the use of collection and structural types
• Create and differentiate resource and data configuration
• Use resource addressing and resource parameters to connect resources together
• Use HCL and Terraform functions to write configuration
• Describe built-in dependency management (order of execution based)

Understand Terraform Cloud capabilities

• Explain how Terraform Cloud helps to manage infrastructure
• Describe how Terraform Cloud enables collaboration and governance