CloudCast: Mastering Terraform Naming Conventions & Essential Reads for DevOps

👨💻 Hey DevOps folks!

Today I want to talk about the importance of naming conventions in Terraform. It’s not just about style — good names make life easier, improve readability, and help avoid issues when scaling infrastructure.

Here are my key recommendations:

1. Use underscores to separate words instead of hyphens.
2. Stick to lowercase letters and numbers only.
3. Always use singular nouns for naming resources.
4. Avoid repeating the resource type in the resource name (either partially or fully). Instead of: resource "aws_route_table" "private-aws-route-table" {} Use: resource "aws_route_table" "private" {}
5. If you can’t come up with a descriptive name, use this or main as a fallback.
6. Make sure resource names are logical and meaningful.
7. Output names should describe the attribute they hold. The best structure for this is: {name}_{type}_{attribute}.

By following these simple rules, you’ll avoid many potential problems and speed up your infrastructure workflows.

📰 Interesting Articles of the Week:

• Terraform Modules: From Development to Deployment on Gitlab (P0-P6). A step-by-step guide to modular development in Terraform, from creation to release using GitLab.
• Mastering Terraform: Understanding Variable Precedence for Optimal Configuration Control. A deep dive into Terraform variable precedence for precise configuration management.
• The Secret to Terraform's Efficiency. For those managing complex infrastructures, this article covers how to enhance efficiency with Terraform.
• Terraform Development Pipeline. Learn how to create a development pipeline in Terraform to deploy faster and more reliably.
• Streamlining Terraform Module Management with GitHub Actions, Semantic Releases, and Terraform Docs. Simplifying Terraform module management with GitHub Actions and automated release processes.
• Terraform: How I Split My Monolithic State. Tips on how to break up a monolithic Terraform state for more flexible management.
• A Deep Dive Into Terraform Static Code Analysis Tools. A review of top static code analysis tools for Terraform to boost security and compliance.

🎥 By the way, I once shared insights on Using CAF Terraform for Azure Landing Zones — check out the video here.

🤖 That’s all for this week! I hope these resources help you deepen your Terraform knowledge and optimize your workflows. Got questions or feedback? Feel free to reach out!

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Until next week!

Roman, Cloud Architect | Co-Founder & CTO at Gart Solutions

Specializing in DevOps & Cloud Solutions