Integration of Terraform and Ansible Together by IBM

7 min readMay 19, 2025

A word of IBM’s end-to-end value proosition with IaC automation tools; Terraform and Ansible

Introduction

Since 2018, Terraform has been my trusted companion in the realm of infrastructure automation, empowering me to provision resources in a consistently repeatable manner, significantly trimming down deployment times and bolstering overall robustness. As an IBMer, the recent union of HashiCorp and its suite of powerful tools with IBM fills me with genuine excitement. This strategic alignment paves the way for a truly end-to-end automation experience, seamlessly connecting the infrastructure provisioning prowess of Terraform with the configuration management and application deployment capabilities of Ansible, promising a new era of efficiency and integration.

variable "aws_region" {
  description = "The AWS region to deploy resources to"
  type        = string
  default     = "us-east-1"
}

variable "instance_type" {
  description = "The type of EC2 instance to launch"
  type        = string
  default     = "t2.micro"
}

variable "ami_id" {
  description = "The ID of the AMI to use for the EC2 instance"
  type        = string
  default     = "ami-0c55b956cb0f9152a" # Example: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
}

variable "key_name" {
  description = "The name of the SSH key pair to associate with the instance"
  type        = string
}

variable "tags" {
  description = "Tags to apply to the EC2 instance"
  type        = map(string)
  default     = {
    "Name" = "MyEC2Instance"
  }
}

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 4.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = var.aws_region
}

resource "aws_instance" "ec2_instance" {
  ami           = var.ami_id
  instance_type = var.instance_type
  key_name      = var.key_name
  tags          = var.tags
}

output "public_ip" {
  description = "The public IP address of the EC2 instance"
  value       = aws_instance.ec2_instance.public_ip
}

Terraform and it’s versions

Terraform is an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool developed by HashiCorp. It allows you to define and provision infrastructure resources (like virtual machines, storage accounts, and networks) across various cloud providers and on-premises environments using a declarative configuration language called HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). Instead of manually configuring infrastructure, you describe your desired state in code, and Terraform automates the process of creating and managing those resources. This approach brings benefits like version control, repeatability, and collaboration to infrastructure management, treating it like software development.

While the core Terraform is open source and free to use, HashiCorp offers a commercial version called HCP Terraform (HashiCorp Cloud Platform Terraform), previously known as Terraform Cloud. Here are the key differences and advantages of the professional version:

Differences Between Open Source and Professional (HCP Terraform):

Advantages of the Professional (HCP Terraform) Version

HCP Terraform provides significant advantages, especially for teams and organizations managing infrastructure at scale and with higher security and compliance requirements:

Enhanced Collaboration: Teams can work together more effectively with shared state, access controls, and visibility into infrastructure changes through the UI.
Robust State Management: Remote state management eliminates the risks associated with local state files (corruption, security) and simplifies collaboration with state locking and versioning.
Improved Security and Governance: Sentinel policies and OPA integration allow you to enforce security, compliance, and cost management rules directly within your infrastructure code. Secure variable storage protects sensitive information.
Simplified Workflows: Integration with VCS providers automates infrastructure provisioning and management based on code changes, streamlining CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure.
Increased Operational Efficiency: The managed execution environment ensures consistency and reliability. The UI provides a centralized view of your infrastructure, making it easier to manage and troubleshoot.
Enterprise-Grade Support: Access to HashiCorp’s expert support provides timely assistance and helps resolve issues quickly.
Scalability and Reliability: HCP Terraform is designed to handle complex and large-scale infrastructure deployments with high availability.
Private Module Sharing: The private module registry fosters code reuse and standardization within an organization while maintaining security and control over infrastructure components.

In essence, while the open-source Terraform is a powerful tool for individual users and smaller teams, HCP Terraform offers a more comprehensive and collaborative platform with advanced features crucial for larger organizations with stringent security, compliance, and operational needs. It shifts the burden of managing state, security, and collaboration infrastructure to HashiCorp, allowing teams to focus on defining and deploying their infrastructure.

IBM’s acquisition of Hashicorp and the add value

Value for IBM with the Acquisition of HashiCorp:

Comprehensive Hybrid Cloud Platform: The acquisition strengthens IBM’s existing hybrid cloud platform, particularly by adding HashiCorp’s leading infrastructure and security lifecycle management tools. This allows IBM to offer a more comprehensive, end-to-end solution for clients navigating complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Enhanced Automation Capabilities: HashiCorp’s Terraform, a market leader in Infrastructure as Code (IaC), significantly boosts IBM’s automation portfolio. This aligns with the growing need for automation to manage the increasing complexity of cloud infrastructure and AI-driven applications.
Improved Security Offerings: HashiCorp’s Vault provides advanced secrets management and identity-based security solutions. Integrating Vault with IBM’s existing security offerings, such as Red Hat OpenShift and Guardium, enhances the overall security posture for IBM’s clients in hybrid cloud environments.
Strong Developer Ecosystem: HashiCorp has cultivated a large and active community of developers and a rich ecosystem around its tools. This acquisition brings that community and expertise into the IBM fold, potentially driving further innovation and adoption of IBM’s cloud solutions.
Synergies with Red Hat: HashiCorp’s tools, especially Terraform and Vault, are highly complementary to Red Hat’s offerings, such as Ansible and OpenShift. Deepening the integration between these technologies creates a more compelling and unified value proposition for IBM’s customers.
Addressing Multi-Cloud Complexity: With the increasing adoption of multi-cloud strategies, HashiCorp’s ability to manage infrastructure across various cloud providers becomes a critical asset for IBM in helping clients simplify and orchestrate their diverse cloud environments.
Growth in Key Areas: The acquisition supports IBM’s strategic growth areas, including hybrid cloud, AI-driven IT automation, data security, and IT consulting. By integrating HashiCorp’s capabilities, IBM can better assist organizations in optimizing IT spending, reducing cloud costs, and improving overall efficiency.
Market Leadership: HashiCorp is a recognized leader in the infrastructure automation space. Acquiring them strengthens IBM’s position and market share in the rapidly growing cloud services market.

Integration of HashiCorp Terraform with Ansible

The integration of HashiCorp Terraform and Ansible holds significant promise for enhanced infrastructure automation:

Complementary Strengths: Terraform excels at provisioning and managing the lifecycle of infrastructure resources (servers, networks, storage) across different cloud providers using a declarative approach. Ansible, on the other hand, is strong in configuration management and application deployment within those provisioned resources, often using a more procedural approach.
End-to-End Automation: By integrating Terraform and Ansible, organizations can achieve true end-to-end automation of their infrastructure. Terraform can provision the necessary infrastructure, and then Ansible can automatically configure the operating systems, install software, and deploy applications on those resources.
Simplified Workflows: Instead of managing infrastructure provisioning and configuration as separate steps with potentially different tools and processes, a tighter integration can streamline these workflows, making them more efficient and less error-prone.
Dynamic Inventory Management: One potential integration benefit is the dynamic generation of Ansible inventories based on the infrastructure provisioned by Terraform. This eliminates the need for manual inventory updates, ensuring that Ansible always has an accurate view of the target systems.
Consistent Infrastructure State: Terraform’s state management capabilities can provide a reliable source of truth for the provisioned infrastructure, which Ansible can then leverage for configuration, ensuring consistency between the infrastructure and its configuration.
Improved Day-2 Operations: While Terraform is primarily focused on initial provisioning, integrating with Ansible can enhance day-2 operations like updates, patching, and scaling by providing a robust configuration management framework.
Orchestration of Complex Deployments: For complex multi-tier applications, the combined power of Terraform and Ansible can orchestrate the entire deployment process, from spinning up the underlying infrastructure to configuring the application stack.

IBM and HashiCorp have explicitly mentioned their intention to deepen the integration between Terraform and Ansible. Potential areas of focus include:

Dynamically generating Ansible inventory from Terraform state.
Creating official Terraform modules for Ansible playbooks and vice versa.
Improving the Terraform provisioner for Ansible for more seamless invocation.
Developing more comprehensive lifecycle integrations between the two tools.

Ultimately, the tighter integration of HashiCorp Terraform with Ansible under IBM’s umbrella aims to provide a more seamless, efficient, and comprehensive infrastructure automation experience for their customers, allowing them to manage their hybrid cloud environments with greater ease and control.

Integration of Terraform and Ansible Together by IBM

Introduction

Terraform and it’s versions

Advantages of the Professional (HCP Terraform) Version

IBM’s acquisition of Hashicorp and the add value

Integration of HashiCorp Terraform with Ansible

Links

Written by Alain Airom (Ayrom)

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