Terraform uses structured files that require editing. To assist you in this process the best tool is some editor that understands the Terraform semantics. For this lab you will be using a web based integrated development environment that uses the code that is inside Microsofts Visual Studio Code. When Microsoft wrote Visual Studio Code it built the IDE on top of a platform called electron. This allowed for cross platform development and is based on javascript.
Each student will be provided with a specific instance of this editor to go through the different parts of the lab. This editor has three panes that you will be using. It would look like the following:
- The left pane with the files
- The right pane with the file contents
- And the bottom you will be leveraging the Terminal to issue commands
Step 1 - Open a new Terminal in the IDE
To get you started, first you will have to open a terminal window in the IDE to access the underlying operating system and work the lab. On the top left corner you can click for the menu.
This will open a terminal at the bottom of the screen. This will be the area that you will execute all the terraform commands after making changes to the terraform files.