🍏 INSTALL TERRAFORM ON macOS (100% working)

You have two options:

✅ OPTION 1 — Install Terraform using Homebrew (RECOMMENDED)

Step 1: Update Homebrew

brew update

Step 2: Install Terraform

brew tap hashicorp/tap
brew install hashicorp/tap/terraform

Step 3: Verify the installation

terraform -version

You should see something like:

Terraform v1.7.x

🧹 OPTION 2 — Manual Installation for Mac

Step 1: Download Terraform

Go to:

https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/downloads

Download:

macOS 64-bit .zip file

Step 2: Unzip

Double-click the .zip → you will get a single file:

terraform

Step 3: Move Terraform binary to `/usr/local/bin`

Run:

sudo mv terraform /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/terraform

Step 4: Verify:

terraform -version

Done.

🪟 INSTALL TERRAFORM ON WINDOWS

You can install Terraform in two ways.

✅ OPTION 1 — Install Terraform using Chocolatey (BEST)

Step 1 — Install Chocolatey (if not installed)

Open PowerShell as Administrator
Run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; `
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = `
[System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol `
-bor 3072; `
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Step 2 — Install Terraform

choco install terraform -y

Step 3 — Verify

terraform -version

Done.

🧹 OPTION 2 — Manual Installation for Windows

Step 1 — Download Terraform

Visit:

https://developer.hashicorp.com/terraform/downloads

Download:

Windows 64-bit .zip

Step 2 — Unzip

You get:

terraform.exe

Step 3 — Move it to system PATH

Create a folder:

C:terraform

Move terraform.exe into that folder.

Step 4 — Add to PATH

Open Control Panel
Click System
Click Advanced system settings
Click Environment Variables
Under System Variables, find Path
Click Edit
Click New
Add:

C:terraform

Save & close.

Step 5 — Verify

Open new PowerShell:

terraform -version

Done.

🎉 Terraform is installed on both systems!

🌱 What is Terraform?

Terraform is:

IaC — Infrastructure as Code
Declarative tool → you write WHAT you want, Terraform decides HOW to build it
Cloud-agnostic → AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, GitHub, Datadog, Cloudflare, etc.

Terraform workflow:

Write → Plan → Apply → Destroy

State file:

terraform.tfstate

Holds the real world infrastructure state.
Terraform compares:

desired (your code) vs real (state)

And creates an execution plan.

🌱 Basic Concepts

1️⃣ Providers

Example: AWS provider.

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

2️⃣ Resources

The objects Terraform creates.

resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  ami = "ami-123"
  instance_type = "t2.micro"
}

3️⃣ Variables

Reusable values.

variable "region" {
  default = "us-east-1"
}

4️⃣ Outputs

Show results after apply.

output "public_ip" {
  value = aws_instance.web.public_ip
}

5️⃣ Terraform commands

terraform init
terraform validate
terraform plan
terraform apply
terraform destroy

🌿 State Management

State is the MOST important Terraform concept.

Local state:

Stored at:

terraform.tfstate

Remote state:

Recommended for teams.

Example: S3 + DynamoDB lock

terraform {
  backend "s3" {
    bucket         = "tf-state-1234"
    key            = "prod/terraform.tfstate"
    region         = "us-east-1"
    dynamodb_table = "terraform-lock"
    encrypt        = true
  }
}

Benefits:

Team collaboration
State locking
No corruption
Secure

🌿 Terraform Best Practices

📌 1 — Use `.tfvars` for environment values

dev.tfvars
prod.tfvars

📌 2 — Use modules (DRY code)

Modules = reusable infrastructure blocks.

Directory structure:

modules/
  vpc/
  ec2/
  s3/
envs/
  dev/
  prod/

Real module example:

module "vpc" {
  source = "../modules/vpc"
  cidr   = "10.0.0.0/16"
}

📌 3 — Use workspaces (optional)

terraform workspace new dev
terraform workspace select dev

📌 4 — Follow naming standards

🌳 Intermediate (4–5 Years DevOps Experience)

At this level you must understand:

✔️ 1 — Terraform modules (deep)

Reusable infrastructure packages.

Module structure:

modules/vpc
  main.tf
  outputs.tf
  variables.tf
  versions.tf

Module example:

module "eks" {
  source          = "terraform-aws-modules/eks/aws"
  cluster_name    = "my-eks"
  cluster_version = "1.29"
  subnets         = module.vpc.private_subnets
}

✔️ 2 — Terraform Lifecycle Rules

resource "aws_security_group" "sg" {
  lifecycle {
    create_before_destroy = true
    prevent_destroy       = false
    ignore_changes        = [tags]
  }
}

Used to avoid outages and control recreations.

✔️ 3 — Data sources

Read existing resources:

data "aws_ami" "ubuntu" {
  most_recent = true
  owners      = ["099720109477"]
}

✔️ 4 — Managing secrets (VERY IMPORTANT)

DO NOT store passwords in Terraform.

Use:

AWS Secrets Manager
SSM Parameter Store
Vault

Example:

data "aws_ssm_parameter" "db_password" {
  name = "/prod/db/password"
}

✔️ 5 — Integrating Terraform in CI/CD

Typical pipeline:

terraform fmt → terraform validate → terraform plan → terraform apply

Using tools:

GitHub Actions
GitLab CI
Jenkins
Azure DevOps

Pipeline best practice:

No one runs terraform apply manually
Only pipeline applies to PROD
PR triggers plan output

✔️ 6 — Terraform Import

Import existing resources:

terraform import aws_s3_bucket.mybucket mybucket-name

THEN you write the code for it.

✔️ 7 — Terraform Workspaces (when to use and when not)

Use workspaces for:

Small projects
Quickly switching environments

Do NOT use workspaces for:

Large teams
Lots of environments

Better: separate folders or separate state files.

🌳 Advanced DevOps (5–6 Years)

At this level you must know:

🛑 1 — Terraform Architecture for Large Organizations

You must be able to design:

Multi-account AWS structure
Shared VPC
Shared modules
Remote state separation
State locking
IAM permissions per team

Example enterprise layout:

terraform/
  global/
  network/
  platform/
  environments/
    dev/
    prod/
modules/

🛑 2 — Terraform with Terragrunt

Terragrunt solves:

Duplicate code
DRY principle
Remote state automatically
Module versioning

Terragrunt structure:

live/
  prod/
    vpc/
    eks/
  dev/
modules/

🛑 3 — Policy as Code (OPA + Sentinel)

Used to enforce rules such as:

No public S3
No 0.0.0.0/0
Mandatory tags
Only approved instance types

Terraform Cloud uses Sentinel
Local workflows can use OPA Conftest:

Example:

deny[msg] {
  input.resource.aws_security_group[*].ingress[*].cidr_blocks[_] == "0.0.0.0/0"
}

🛑 4 — Terraform for Kubernetes (Helm + EKS)

Terraform can:

Create cluster
Create IAM roles
Install Helm charts
Manage namespaces
Deploy OPA Gatekeeper
Deploy Argo CD

🛑 5 — Terraform for Serverless

Terraform manages:

Lambda
API Gateway
DynamoDB
Step Functions
EventBridge
SQS/SNS

🛑 6 — Troubleshooting (Senior Level)

You must know how to solve:

❌ Drift

Infrastructure changed manually.

Fix:

terraform plan
terraform refresh

❌ State corruption

Fix with:

backup state
remote state repair

❌ Orphaned resources

Caused by deleting from code only.

🌟 LEVEL 6 — Senior DevOps Knowledge (Interview Answers)

Here’s how you answer:

Q: How do you structure Terraform in your organization?

Senior answer:

I design Terraform using a modular approach with separate state files per environment, stored in S3 with DynamoDB locking.
Each environment has its own pipeline that runs fmt, validate, plan, and apply.
Sensitive variables come from Secrets Manager.
We enforce security rules using OPA/Conftest, and we use Terragrunt to avoid repetitive code and manage multiple accounts.

Q: How do you handle Terraform state in a team?

We use remote S3 backend with DynamoDB locking.
CI/CD pipelines control all changes, and no one applies manually.
State is encrypted with SSE-KMS.
We use versioned state and tags for tracking deployments.

Q: How do you create reusable infrastructure?

Using modules with versioning, stored in a shared Git repository.
Each module includes variables, outputs, documentation, and examples.

Q: How do you prevent security issues in Terraform?

Using OPA Gatekeeper, Conftest, and Sentinel policies to detect public resources, uncontrolled IAM privileges, and missing encryption.

🎬 Watch the Video

🍏 INSTALL TERRAFORM ON macOS (100% working)

✅ OPTION 1 — Install Terraform using Homebrew (RECOMMENDED)

Step 1: Update Homebrew

Step 2: Install Terraform

Step 3: Verify the installation

🧹 OPTION 2 — Manual Installation for Mac

Step 1: Download Terraform

Step 2: Unzip

Step 3: Move Terraform binary to /usr/local/bin

Step 4: Verify:

🪟 INSTALL TERRAFORM ON WINDOWS

✅ OPTION 1 — Install Terraform using Chocolatey (BEST)

Step 1 — Install Chocolatey (if not installed)

Step 2 — Install Terraform

Step 3 — Verify

🧹 OPTION 2 — Manual Installation for Windows

Step 1 — Download Terraform

Step 2 — Unzip

Step 3 — Move it to system PATH

Step 4 — Add to PATH

Step 5 — Verify

🎉 Terraform is installed on both systems!

🌱 ** What is Terraform? **

🌱 ** Basic Concepts**

1️⃣ Providers

2️⃣ Resources

3️⃣ Variables

4️⃣ Outputs

5️⃣ Terraform commands

🌿 ** State Management**

Local state:

Remote state:

🌿 *Terraform Best Practices *

📌 1 — Use .tfvars for environment values

📌 2 — Use modules (DRY code)

📌 3 — Use workspaces (optional)

📌 4 — Follow naming standards

🌳 ** Intermediate (4–5 Years DevOps Experience)**

✔️ 1 — Terraform modules (deep)

✔️ 2 — Terraform Lifecycle Rules

✔️ 3 — Data sources

✔️ 4 — Managing secrets (VERY IMPORTANT)

✔️ 5 — Integrating Terraform in CI/CD

✔️ 6 — Terraform Import

✔️ 7 — Terraform Workspaces (when to use and when not)

🌳 ** Advanced DevOps (5–6 Years)**

🛑 1 — Terraform Architecture for Large Organizations

🛑 2 — Terraform with Terragrunt

🛑 3 — Policy as Code (OPA + Sentinel)

🛑 4 — Terraform for Kubernetes (Helm + EKS)

🛑 5 — Terraform for Serverless

🛑 6 — Troubleshooting (Senior Level)

❌ Drift

❌ State corruption

❌ Orphaned resources

🌟 LEVEL 6 — Senior DevOps Knowledge (Interview Answers)

Q: How do you structure Terraform in your organization?

Q: How do you handle Terraform state in a team?

Q: How do you create reusable infrastructure?

Q: How do you prevent security issues in Terraform?

Similar Posts

Step 3: Move Terraform binary to `/usr/local/bin`

🌱 What is Terraform?

🌱 Basic Concepts

🌿 State Management

🌿 Terraform Best Practices

📌 1 — Use `.tfvars` for environment values

🌳 Intermediate (4–5 Years DevOps Experience)

🌳 Advanced DevOps (5–6 Years)