Terraform Providers
In Terraform, a provider is a plugin that allows you to manage a specific type of infrastructure. You use providers to interact with APIs and manage resources across cloud platforms, services, and infrastructure components
For example, a provider for Amazon Web Services (AWS) allows you to manage AWS resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and RDS databases. A provider for Microsoft Azure allows you to manage Azure resources like virtual machines, storage accounts, and SQL databases.
It supports a wide range of providers, including major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. It also supports providers for infrastructure components like Kubernetes, MySQL, and VMware.
Vendors typically develop their own Terraform providers, but community members also create third-party providers.
To use a provider in Terraform, you must define it in your configuration file and specify any necessary credentials or configuration options. Once the provider is configured, you can use Terraform to manage resources within that provider.
Providers in Terraform are a key component of its flexibility and ability to manage infrastructure in a variety of environments. By supporting a wide range of providers, Terraform enables you to manage infrastructure resources in a unified and consistent manner, regardless of the underlying infrastructure components.
