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Local File System with Terraform

Follow these instructions to bootstrap a local file system folder ready to deploy your platform landing zone with Terraform.

  1. Create a new folder on you local drive called accelerator.

  2. Inside the accelerator create two folders called config and output. You’ll store you input file inside config and the output folder will be the place that the accelerator stores files while it works.

  3. Inside the config folder create a new files called inputs.yaml and platform-landing-zone.tfvars.

    # Windows
    New-Item -ItemType "file" c:\accelerator\config\inputs.yaml -Force
    New-Item -ItemType "file" c:\accelerator\config\platform-landing-zone.tfvars -Force
    New-Item -ItemType "directory" c:\accelerator\output
    
    # Linux/Mac
    New-Item -ItemType "file" /accelerator/config/inputs.yaml -Force
    New-Item -ItemType "file" c:\accelerator\config\platform-landing-zone.tfvars -Force
    New-Item -ItemType "directory" /accelerator/output
    
    📂accelerator
    ┣ 📂config
    ┃ ┣📜inputs.yaml
    ┃ ┗📜platform-landing-zone.tfvars
    ┗ 📂output
    
  4. Open your inputs.yaml file in Visual Studio Code (or your preferred editor) and copy the content from the relevant input file for your chosen starter module:

    1. Azure Verified Modules for Platform Landing Zone (ALZ) - inputs-local.yaml
    2. Financial Services Industry Landing Zone - inputs-local.yaml
    3. Sovereign Landing Zone - inputs-local.yaml
  5. Check through the file and update each input as required. It is mandatory to update items with placeholders surrounded by angle brackets <>:

    The following inputs can also be supplied via environment variables. This may be useful for sensitive values you don’t wish to persist to a file. The Env Var Prefix denotes the prefix the environment variable should have. The environment variable is formatting is <PREFIX>_<variable_name>, e.g. $env:ALZ_iac_type = "terraform" or $env:TF_VAR_github_personal_access_token = "*****...".
    InputEnv Var PrefixPlaceholderDescription
    iac_typeALZterraformThis is the choice of bicep or terraform. Keep this as terraform for this example.
    bootstrap_module_nameALZalz_localThis is the choice of Version Control System. Keep this as alz_local for this example.
    starter_module_nameALZplatform_landing_zoneThis is the choice of Starter Modules, which is the baseline configuration you want for your Azure landing zone. Choose platform_landing_zone for this example.
    bootstrap_locationTF_VAR<region>Replace <region> with the Azure region where you would like to deploy the bootstrap resources in Azure. This field expects the name of the region, such as uksouth. You can find a full list of names by running az account list-locations -o table.
    starter_locationsTF_VAR[<region-1>,<region-2>]Replace <region-1> and <region-2> with the Azure regions where you would like to deploy the starter module resources in Azure. This field expects the name of the regions in and array, such as ["uksouth", "ukwest"]. You can find a full list of names by running az account list-locations -o table.
    root_parent_management_group_idTF_VAR""This is the id of the management group that will be the parent of the management group structure created by the accelerator. If you are using the Tenant Root Group management group, you leave this as an empty string "" or supply the tenant id.
    subscription_id_managementTF_VAR<management-subscription-id>Replace <management-subscription-id> with the id of the management subscription you created in the previous phase.
    subscription_id_identityTF_VAR<identity-subscription-id>Replace <identity-subscription-id> with the id of the identity subscription you created in the previous phase.
    subscription_id_connectivityTF_VAR<connectivity-subscription-id>Replace <connectivity-subscription-id> with the id of the connectivity subscription you created in the previous phase.
    target_directoryTF_VAR""This is the directory where the ALZ module code will be created. This defaults a directory called local-output in the root of the accelerator output directory if not supplied.
    create_bootstrap_resources_in_azureTF_VARtrueThis determines whether the bootstrap will create the bootstrap resources in Azure. This defaults to true.
    bootstrap_subscription_idTF_VAR""Enter the id of the subscription in which you would like to deploy the bootstrap resources in Azure. If left blank, the subscription you are connected to via az login will be used. In most cases this is the management subscription, but you can specifiy a separate subscription if you prefer.
    service_nameTF_VARalzThis is used to build up the names of your Azure and Azure DevOps resources, for example rg-<service_name>-mgmt-uksouth-001. We recommend using alz for this.
    environment_nameTF_VARmgmtThis is used to build up the names of your Azure and Azure DevOps resources, for example rg-alz-<environment_name>-uksouth-001. We recommend using mgmt for this.
    postfix_numberTF_VAR1This is used to build up the names of your Azure and Azure DevOps resources, for example rg-alz-mgmt-uksouth-<postfix_number>. We recommend using 1 for this.
    grant_permissions_to_current_userTF_VARtrueThis determines whether the bootstrap will grant the current user permissions to the management group structure and stroage account created by the accelerator. This defaults to true so that the starter module can be immediately deployed from the local file system. Set this to false if you itend to wire up CI/CD with your own provider.
    architecture_definition_nameTF_VARN/AThis is the name of the architecture definition to use when applying the ALZ archetypes via the architecture definition template. This is only relevant to some starter modules, such as the sovereign_landing_zone starter module. This defaults to null.
  6. Open your platform-landing-zone.tfvars file in Visual Studio Code (or your preferred editor)

  7. Now head over to your chosen starter module documentation to get the specific inputs for that module. Make sure to copy the contents of your chosen configuration file into platform-landing-zone.tfvars.

  8. In your PowerShell Core (pwsh) terminal run the module:

    The following examples include 2 input files. This is the recommended approach for the platform_landing_zone starter module. However, all inputs can be split into multiple files if desired.
    # Windows without a lib folder (adjust the paths to match your setup)
    Deploy-Accelerator `
      -inputs "c:\accelerator\config\inputs.yaml", "c:\accelerator\config\platform-landing-zone.tfvars" `
      -output "c:\accelerator\output"
    
    # Linux/Mac without a lib folder (adjust the paths to match your setup)
    Deploy-Accelerator `
      -inputs "/accelerator/config/inputs.yaml", "/accelerator/config/platform-landing-zone.tfvars" `
      -output "/accelerator/output"
    
    # Windows with a lib folder (adjust the paths to match your setup)
    Deploy-Accelerator `
      -inputs "c:\accelerator\config\inputs.yaml", "c:\accelerator\config\platform-landing-zone.tfvars" `
      -starterAdditionalFiles "c:\accelerator\config\lib" `
      -output "c:\accelerator\output"
    
    # Linux/Mac with a lib folder (adjust the paths to match your setup)
    Deploy-Accelerator `
      -inputs "/accelerator/config/inputs.yaml", "/accelerator/config/platform-landing-zone.tfvars" `
      -starterAdditionalFiles "/accelerator/config/lib" `
      -output "/accelerator/output"
    
  9. You will see a Terraform init and apply happen.

  10. There will be a pause after the plan phase you allow you to validate what is going to be deployed.

  11. If you are happy with the plan, then type yes and hit enter.

  12. The Terraform will apply and your environment will be bootstrapped.

  13. You will find the output in the /accelerator/output/local-output folder if you didn’t specify a different location for target_directory.

Next Steps

Now head to Phase 3