Infrastructure as Code FAQ: Top Questions

Terraform Workspaces provide a mechanism to manage multiple distinct versions of the same infrastructure within a single configuration — typically used to manage different environments like dev, staging, and production.

🗺️ Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Initialize your Terraform project using terraform init.
2. Create a new workspace using terraform workspace new <name>.
3. Switch between workspaces using terraform workspace select <name>.
4. Apply infrastructure changes specific to each workspace — each has its own isolated state.

📥 Example Input:

# Create workspaces
terraform workspace new dev
terraform workspace new prod

# Select and apply
terraform workspace select dev
terraform apply

terraform workspace select prod
terraform apply

🏆 Expected Output:

Separate infrastructure is deployed for each workspace with independent state tracking.

✅ Terraform Workspace Commands:

terraform workspace list
terraform workspace show
terraform workspace new staging
terraform workspace select prod
terraform workspace delete dev

📘 Detailed Explanation:

• State Isolation: Each workspace maintains its own terraform.tfstate file.
• Multi-Env Management: Easily manage separate environments (dev, staging, prod) without duplicating configuration files.
• Non-Destructive Switching: Switching workspaces doesn’t affect infrastructure in others.
• Scalability: Enables scaling deployments across multiple environments using the same codebase.

🛠️ Use Cases:

• Managing multiple deployment environments from a single Terraform project.
• Testing infrastructure changes in dev before promoting to prod.
• Facilitating CI/CD pipelines with isolated state for preview environments.
• Reducing human error by isolating changes per workspace.