Terraform State Management

Summary

Terraform tracks the real-world resources it manages in a state file — mishandling state (losing it, or two people applying simultaneously) is one of the most common and costly Terraform mistakes.

• 1Learn what Terraform state actually contains and why it must stay in sync with real infrastructure.
• 2Set up remote state storage (e.g. an S3 backend) instead of a local state file.
• 3Understand state locking and why it prevents two people from applying changes simultaneously.