Terraform Data Sources – How They Are Utilized

Data sources in Terraform are used to gather information from existing resources and incorporate it into the configuration. They serve as a bridge between the current infrastructure and the desired configuration, allowing for more dynamic and context-aware provisioning. Data sources play a crucial role in sharing resource information when multiple infrastructure components are being developed using separate Terraform projects. They can be used to access external resource attributes, access data from remote state files, access sensitive data from remote state, create dynamic configurations with data sources, manage resource dependencies with data sources, validate inputs with data sources, and manage configuration drift. By integrating external information from various sources, such as cloud providers' APIs, databases, and other systems, Terraform data sources enable configurations to be dynamically shaped according to real-time requirements.