Practicing Terraform locally offers several advantages, especially for those who are new to infrastructure as code (IaC) or want to experiment without incurring cloud costs. Here are some key benefits:

1. Cost-Effective Learning: You can experiment and learn Terraform without the need for cloud resources, which can be costly.
2. Rapid Iteration: Local environments allow for quick testing and iteration, speeding up the learning process.
3. Isolated Environment: A local setup provides a sandboxed environment where you can make mistakes without affecting production systems.
4. No Cloud Dependencies: You can practice Terraform without needing access to cloud providers, making it accessible to everyone.
5. Realistic Environment: Using tools like kind (Kubernetes IN Docker) allows you to simulate a real Kubernetes cluster locally.

Before diving into Terraform configurations, let’s start by setting up a local Kubernetes cluster using kind (Kubernetes IN Docker). This will provide the foundation for our Terraform practice environment.

Creating a Kind Cluster

Kind is a lightweight tool for running local Kubernetes clusters using Docker containers as nodes. Here’s how to get started

1. Install Kind

If you haven’t already installed kind, you’ll need to do so first:

For macOS (using Homebrew)

brew install kind

For Linux

curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.20.0/kind-linux-amd64
chmod +x ./kind
sudo mv ./kind /usr/local/bin/kind

For Windows (using Chocolatey)

choco install kind

2. Create a Basic Kind Configuration File

Create a file named kind-config.yaml with the following content

kind: Cluster
apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
nodes:
  - role: control-plane
  - role: worker
  - role: worker

3. Create the Cluster

Now, create your kind cluster using the configuration file

kind create cluster --name terraform-practice --config kind-config.yaml

You should see output similar to

Creating cluster "terraform-practice" ...
 ✓ Ensuring node image (kindest/node:v1.27.3) 🖼
 ✓ Preparing nodes 📦
 ✓ Writing configuration 📜
 ✓ Starting control-plane 🕹️
 ✓ Installing CNI 🔌
 ✓ Installing StorageClass 💾
Set kubectl context to "kind-terraform-practice"
You can now use your cluster with:

kubectl cluster-info --context kind-terraform-practice

Have a question, bug, or feature request? Let us know! https://kind.sigs.k

4. Verify Your Cluster

Ensure that your cluster is running and kubectl is properly configured to use it

kubectl cluster-info --context kind-terraform-practice

You should see information about your Kubernetes control plane and CoreDNS.

Also, check that your nodes are ready

kubectl get nodes

The output should show your node with status “Ready”.

Terraform Configuration Files

Now that your kind cluster is up and running, you can proceed with your Terraform configurations. Here are the files you need:

1. main.tf – Provider Configuration

terraform {
  required_providers {
    kubernetes = {
      source  = "hashicorp/kubernetes"
      version = "~> 2.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "kubernetes" {
  config_path = "~/.kube/config"
}

2. nginx-deployment.tf – NGINX Deployment Configuration

resource "kubernetes_deployment" "nginx" {
  metadata {
    name = "nginx-deployment"
    labels = {
      app = "nginx"
    }
  }

  spec {
    replicas = 3

    selector {
      match_labels = {
        app = "nginx"
      }
    }

    template {
      metadata {
        labels = {
          app = "nginx"
        }
      }

      spec {
        container {
          image = "nginx:latest"
          name  = "nginx"
          port {
            container_port = 80
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

3. nginx-service.tf – Service Configuration for Exposing NGINX

resource "kubernetes_service" "nginx" {
  metadata {
    name = "nginx-service"
  }

  spec {
    selector = {
      app = "nginx"
    }

    port {
      port        = 80
      target_port = 80
      node_port   = 30080  
    }

    type = "NodePort"
  }
}

---

Deploying with Terraform

With your kind cluster ready, you can now follow these steps to deploy your infrastructure

Initialize Terraform

terraform init

Plan your deployment

terraform plan

Apply the configuration

terraform apply

Verify the deployment

kubectl get deployments
kubectl get pods
kubectl get services

Accessing Your NGINX Service

You can manually forward the port by running

kubectl port-forward svc/nginx-service 8080:80

Then, visit: http://localhost:8080

You should see the default NGINX welcome page.

Cleaning Up

When you’re done practicing, you can

Destroy your Terraform resources

terraform destroy

Delete your kind cluster

kind delete cluster --name terraform-practice

This complete workflow gives you a practical way to experiment with Terraform locally using a kind Kubernetes cluster, without any cloud provider costs or dependencies.