How Do I Upgrade Terraform Providers?

Install Terraform

The official instructions for installing Terraform are here. I used Ubuntu-based EC2 for this "How do I", instructions for which are here.

Install Docker

The official instructions for installing Docker are here.

Step 1: Make a simple Configuration File.

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.0.0"
  required_providers {
    google = {
      source = "hashicorp/google"
      version = "5.23.0"
    }
  } 
}

Step 2: Execute terraform init.

terraform init

The initialization will commence, and show the following output on the screen

As part of initialization, a .terraform.lock.hcl file is also generated. This file stores a hash for each distinct Provider-Version pairing.

Step 3: Change the Provider version.

In main.tf, make a change (as shown below):

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.0.0"
  required_providers {
    google = {
      source = "hashicorp/google"
      version = "5.27.0"
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Execute terraform init again.

A different Provider version warrants a new initialization of the terraform environment. However, this time, you should get an error instead of the happy green success message.

The .hcl file has the hash for 5.23.0 and is therefore confused when it finds 5.27.0 in the Configuration file.

Step 5: Execute terraform init with -upgrade flag.

terraform init -upgrade

I write to remember, and if, in the process, I can help someone learn about Containers, Orchestration (Docker Compose, Kubernetes), GitOps, DevSecOps, VR/AR, Architecture, and Data Management, that is just icing on the cake.