Terraform & Infrastructure as Code: Zero to Production
Course Syllabus
4 sections · 16 curated lessonsSection 1: Foundations, HCL2 Grammar & The Core Lifecycle
Understand declarative state convergence, HCL2 block taxonomy, the lifecycle loop, and dependency graph generation.
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Section 1: Foundations, HCL2 Grammar & The Core Lifecycle
Understand declarative state convergence, HCL2 block taxonomy, the lifecycle loop, and dependency graph generation.
Section 2: Deep Dive into State, Remote Backends & Drift Management
Master terraform.tfstate JSON schema, remote S3 storage with DynamoDB state locking, drift detection, and state surgery.
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Section 2: Deep Dive into State, Remote Backends & Drift Management
Master terraform.tfstate JSON schema, remote S3 storage with DynamoDB state locking, drift detection, and state surgery.
Section 3: Variables, Expressions, Loops & Meta-Arguments
Parameterize code with validated variables, masked outputs, count vs for_each loops, and dynamic blocks.
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Section 3: Variables, Expressions, Loops & Meta-Arguments
Parameterize code with validated variables, masked outputs, count vs for_each loops, and dynamic blocks.
Section 4: Enterprise Modular Architecture, GitOps & Production Security
Design reusable child modules, multi-environment directory isolation, zero-downtime moved blocks, and GitHub Actions GitOps CI/CD.
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Section 4: Enterprise Modular Architecture, GitOps & Production Security
Design reusable child modules, multi-environment directory isolation, zero-downtime moved blocks, and GitHub Actions GitOps CI/CD.
About this course
Course Overview
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is the bedrock of modern cloud engineering. Spinning up cloud resources by clicking through web consoles or running unversioned shell scripts creates brittle snowflakes, security vulnerabilities, and unpredictable downtime. HashiCorp Terraform enables you to treat your entire cloud topology: VPCs, databases, subnets, Kubernetes clusters, and security policies: with the exact same rigor, code reviews, and automated CI/CD testing as application software.
Terraform & Infrastructure as Code: Zero to Production takes you on a comprehensive, hands-on journey from your first local configuration block to multi-tier cloud architectures running across segregated enterprise environments. You will master the inner mechanics of the Terraform engine, state graph compilation, remote state locking with S3 and DynamoDB, modular architecture design, and automated GitOps pipelines.
What You Will Build
- Declarative Multi-Tier VPC: Architect a highly available, multi-AZ production network with public and private subnets, internet gateways, NAT gateways, and routing tables.
- Encrypted Remote Backend: Bootstrap an enterprise S3 remote state storage pipeline with DynamoDB mutual-exclusion locking and customer-managed KMS encryption.
- Drift Detection & State Surgery: Reconcile out-of-band console changes and refactor production resources without recreation using
terraform state mvand declarativeimport {}blocks. - Defensive Variable Contracts: Implement custom validation rules with regex patterns and CIDR checks that halt invalid plans before reaching cloud APIs.
- Reusable Enterprise Modules: Package infrastructure patterns into versioned, composable child modules with clear input and output contracts.
- Zero-Downtime Refactoring: Restructure monoliths into child modules using native
moved {}blocks with zero downtime and zero resource destruction. - GitOps CI/CD Pipelines: Build automated GitHub Actions workflows that authenticate via AWS OIDC (zero static access keys), run security scanners (TFLint, Trivy), and execute speculative plans on Pull Requests.
Course Structure
Section 1: Foundations, HCL2 Grammar & The Core Lifecycle
Declarative convergence vs imperative scripting, HCL2 blocks and types, the lifecycle loop (init, plan, apply, destroy), and Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) generation.
Section 2: Deep Dive into State, Remote Backends & Drift Management
The terraform.tfstate JSON schema, remote S3 backends with DynamoDB locking, out-of-band drift reconciliation, and surgical state operations.
Section 3: Variables, Expressions, Loops & Meta-Arguments
Defensive input variable validation, sensitive output masking, decoupled remote state data sources, count vs for_each, and dynamic blocks.
Section 4: Enterprise Modular Architecture, GitOps & Production Security
Reusable module contracts, multi-environment directory isolation, zero-downtime moved blocks, and GitHub Actions GitOps with OIDC authentication.
Student Starter Pack & Code Downloads
Complete Terraform Starter Bundle (.zip)
Includes production-ready VPC modules, remote backend bootstrap configs, sample GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows, and cheat sheets.
Prerequisites
Basic familiarity with cloud computing concepts (IP addresses, CIDR notation, subnets, virtual machines) and general command-line navigation. An active AWS free-tier account is helpful, though all exercises can be completed locally using simulated providers (Docker, local-file, or LocalStack).