Infrastructure as Code: Building Your Kubernetes Environment with Terraform

Introduction

Managing Kubernetes clusters manually can lead to configuration drift, inconsistencies, and operational overhead. By using Terraform, we can define Kubernetes resources declaratively, ensuring a version-controlled, reproducible, and scalable infrastructure.

In this post, we’ll walk through setting up a Kubernetes deployment using Terraform with a real-world example.

Why Terraform for Kubernetes?

✅ Declarative Approach – Define your infrastructure as code
✅ Version Control – Track changes using Git
✅ Reproducibility – Deploy identical environments
✅ Automation – Reduce manual configurations

Step 1: Install Terraform

curl -fsSL https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-add-repository "deb [arch=amd64] https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com $(lsb_release -cs) main"
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install terraform

Verify the installation:

terraform -version

Step 2: Set Up Kubernetes Provider in Terraform

Now, let’s define our Terraform configuration for Kubernetes.

Create a new directory and files

mkdir terraform-k8s && cd terraform-k8s
touch main.tf

Terraform Configuration (main.tf)

provider "kubernetes" {
  config_path = "~/.kube/config"
}

resource "kubernetes_deployment" "nginx" {
  metadata {
    name = "nginx-deployment"
    labels = {
      app = "nginx"
    }
  }

  spec {
    replicas = 2

    selector {
      match_labels = {
        app = "nginx"
      }
    }

    template {
      metadata {
        labels = {
          app = "nginx"
        }
      }

      spec {
        container {
          name  = "nginx"
          image = "nginx:latest"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

resource "kubernetes_service" "nginx_service" {
  metadata {
    name = "nginx-service"
  }

  spec {
    selector = {
      app = "nginx"
    }

    port {
      port        = 80
      target_port = 80
    }

    type = "NodePort"
  }
}
Click Here to Copy YAML

Step 3: Initialize Terraform

Run the following command to initialize Terraform:

terraform init

This will download the necessary Kubernetes provider.

Step 4: Validate the Configuration

Ensure there are no syntax errors:

terraform validate

Expected output:

Success! The configuration is valid.

Step 5: Deploy Kubernetes Resources

Run:

terraform apply -auto-approve

Terraform will create:

  • Deployment: Two replicas of an nginx pod
  • Service: A NodePort service exposing the pods

Step 6: Verify the Deployment

Check if the deployment is running:

kubectl get deployments

NAME               READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
nginx-deployment   2/2     2            2          1m

Check the service:

kubectl get svc

Access the service:

minikube service nginx-service --url

Step 7: Cleaning Up

To delete the deployment and service:

terraform destroy -auto-approve

Conclusion

Using Terraform to define Kubernetes resources brings consistency, automation, and version control to your infrastructure. By leveraging Infrastructure as Code (IaC), you eliminate manual errors and ensure smooth deployments across environments.

What’s your experience with Terraform for Kubernetes? Let’s discuss in the comments!👇

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