HCP Terraform

What this chapter covers

HCP Terraform (formerly Terraform Cloud) is HashiCorp's hosted service for Terraform. It stores state, credentials and variables securely, runs plans and applies on its own infrastructure, and connects to version control systems.

The chapter has two parts: using HCP Terraform to create infrastructure through the VCS, CLI and API driven workflows and the cloud block, then organizing work into workspaces and projects with the collaboration and governance features around them (teams, variable sets, policies, run tasks and health assessments).

Questions are single-answer, multiple-answer ("Pick the 2 correct responses below") and true or false statements, mostly direct recall of commands and behavior plus short HCL snippets that open "Consider the following configuration snippet:". There are no exhibits.

How the topics fit together

An organization holds projects, each project holds workspaces, and every workspace has its own state, variables and run history. Runs start from a VCS push, the Terraform CLI or the API, and governance features control who can run what and which plans may be applied.

• Workflow questions ask which workflow fits a team and what the cloud block and terraform login do.
• Integration questions ask how to migrate local state and how execution modes change where runs happen.
• Workspace questions ask how HCP Terraform workspaces differ from CLI workspaces and what projects add.
• Governance questions ask about team permissions, variable sets, Sentinel and OPA policies, run tasks and drift detection.

How to use these pages

Each topic page has the same shape, so you can skim for what you need.

• What it is: the idea in plain words.
• How it works: the mechanism, with tables and examples.
• What to remember for the exam: the facts to memorize and how questions are phrased.
• Common mistakes: the classic traps.
• Check yourself: three questions to test your understanding.