Managing Terraform State – Best Practices & Examples

This article discusses the management of Terraform state files, which are crucial for tracking resources created by Terraform and ensuring proper updates and deletions. Storing state files remotely in shared storage like Azure Storage or Amazon S3 is recommended, especially when working with a team or using automation and CI/CD pipelines. State files should not be stored in source control due to security risks and potential issues with file locking and human error. Isolating state files for different environments or resources can reduce the "blast radius" of any mistakes made during configuration changes. The terraform_remote_state data source can be used to reference outputs from remote state files, while the terraform state command allows manipulation of the contents of the state file.