Prerequisites

In order to get the most from this course, you need to install a few small applications on your own system. You could do this all in a Docker container if you so choose, but leaving you with the tools to continue working with Terraform is one of the goals of the course. The requirements differ slightly between MacOS and Windows, but there is no reason you can't work with Terraform in any supported OS.

MacOS

Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager for MacOS which is extremely useful in managing installed binaries on your Mac. The initial setup can take some time, and if there are issues they can be tricky to troublshoot, so make sure to run this well in advance of the class.

Check homebrew is installed already

where brew

Install homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Terraform

Terraform is installed a single binary, which you can install by running:

brew tap hashicorp/tap
brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform

Windows

First off, you can use Windows Services for Linux (Ubuntu/Debian) if you wish, but you definitely don't have to. All of the commands you will need can be run natively in Windows, typically using a PowerShell shell. There are several things you need first, however, which can be installed using winget.

While not required, the Windows Terminal is an excellent application for devops use. If your system does not have it already (it probably does), you can install it by running winget install 9N0DX20HK701

Git

This is tangiential to Terraform itself, but is absolutely essential for modern devops. This install will likely pop up and ask you to accept various options. The defaults here are fine, but feel free to choose alternatives if you wish.

winget install git.git

Terraform

Terraform is installed a single binary, which you can install by running:

winget install Hashicorp.Terraform

VS Code

For this course you can really run (modern) code editor you wish, but all of our examples will be in Visual Studio Code. If you wish, you can install this by running:

MacOS

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Windows

winget install -e --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode

VS Code Plugins

Install these recommended plugins:

• HashiCorp Terraform (opens in a new tab)