Introduction

Open a Terraform repository you have never seen before. There is a good chance it looks like this: one main.tf with eight hundred lines in it, a variables.tf where required and optional inputs are shuffled together in alphabetical order, a provider block with no version constraint at all, and a README.md that documented the inputs accurately about four months ago.

None of that is anybody’s fault. Terraform doesn’t care how you arrange your files. Every file ending in .tf in a directory gets concatenated before anything is evaluated, so the language gives you no reason to prefer one layout over another. The tutorials all put everything in main.tf because they’re teaching one resource at a time, and then that becomes the shape of the repo forever.

Introduction

In my last post, I covered the four challenges I hit running Vault Enterprise on OpenShift. That same lab cluster also runs Terraform Enterprise (TFE) in active-active mode, using that Vault cluster as its secrets backend. TFE brought its own set of OpenShift-specific problems — some in TFE itself, some in the supporting PostgreSQL and object storage layers, and one that turned out to be the same VSO bug from the Vault post showing up again in a different place.

Introduction

I recently set up a three-node Vault Enterprise HA cluster on OpenShift, using HCP Vault as the auto-unseal provider via the transit secrets engine. On paper this is a straightforward combination of well-documented features. In practice, it was a series of traps — some subtle, some spectacular — that took multiple sessions to fully work through.

This post covers the four main challenge areas I hit: getting IPC_LOCK right on OpenShift, wiring up the auto-unseal token flow securely, managing Raft quorum safely during rolling updates, and working around a reconciliation bug in Vault Secrets Operator. I’ll focus on what caught me off guard and what the correct solution looks like.

Introduction

In my last post, I covered how I set up VSCode for Terraform. The second most popular question is how I set up my workstation for Terraform development.

As with most things in the tech world, there are many ways to do things. The following is the way that works for me. I am always looking for ways to improve my workflow, so if you have suggestions, please let me know.

Introduction

One of the first questions I get when teaching Terraform is, “What editor should I use?” My answer is always, “Use what you are comfortable with. If you don’t have a preference, I recommend Visual Studio Code.” Over the years, I have used everything from vi to Notepad++ to Sublime Text to Atom to Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code is easy to pick up for new users and easy to customize to your liking.