The lifecycle Meta-Argument

lifecycle is a block that has arguments which allow you to control how Terraform manages resources throughout their lifecycle.

create_before_destroy

resource "akamai_edgeworker" "my_edgeworker" {
  # ... other configuration ...
 
  lifecycle {
    create_before_destroy = true
  }
}

• When set to true, Terraform creates the new resource before destroying the old one
• Useful for zero-downtime deployments

prevent_destroy

resource "akamai_datastream" "my_datastream" {
  # ... other configuration ...
 
  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true
  }
}

• Prevents the resource from being destroyed
• Will cause an error if you try to destroy the resource

replace_triggered_by

resource "akamai_cloudaccess_key" "my_access_key" {
  # ... other configuration ...
 
  lifecycle {
    replace_triggered_by = [
        akamai_property.my_property.latest_version
    ]
  }
}

• Forces replacement of the resource when specified attributes of other resources change
• Useful for dependencies that require recreation of resources

ignore_changes

The most common use case for ignore_changes on Akamai is for arguments that may change frequently. For example, in a GitOps operation the note argument in the akamai_property_activation might contain things like commit IDs, timestamps, or other values that change frequently.

resource "akamai_property_activation" "my_activation" {
    property_id                    = "prp_12345"
    network                        = "staging"
    contact                        = ["jsmith@example.com"]
    note                           = var.activation_notes
    version                        = "1"
    auto_acknowledge_rule_warnings = true
 
  lifecycle {
    ignore_changes = [
        note
    ]
  }
}

• Without ignore_changes, every time the note changes, Terraform would try to create a new activation
• By ignoring changes to note, Terraform won't trigger a new activation just because the note changed
• This prevents unnecessary activations while still maintaining the desired state of other important configuration

Exercise