Course Syllabus: Azure Infrastructure Automation with Terraform

Course Overview

• Duration: 6–8 Weeks (Suggested)

• Level: Intermediate

• Prerequisites: Active Microsoft Azure Subscription (Free Tier is sufficient), basic knowledge of Azure core services (VMs, Networking), and Visual Studio Code installed.

• Objective: Learn to design, provision, update, and completely lifecycle-manage production-grade Azure resources and native Azure Automation components using HashiCorp Terraform.

🛠️ Module 1: Foundations of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Azure Setup

Get introduced to the declarative world of Terraform and establish a secure connection to the Azure Cloud environment.

• Introduction to IaC: Mutable vs. Immutable infrastructure; Declarative vs. Imperative automation patterns.

• Terraform Architecture: Understanding the client-only architecture, Terraform core, and the provider ecosystem.

• Local Environment Configuration: Installing the Terraform CLI, Azure CLI, and essential VS Code Extensions.

• Authentication & Permissions: Setting up a service principal in Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID) using client secrets and managed identities.

• Hands-on Lab: Authenticating Terraform to your Azure subscription and configuring the azurerm provider block.

🏗️ Module 2: HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) & Core Azure Provisioning

Master the syntax rules of HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) by deploying fundamental Azure networking components.

• HCL Block Syntax: Understanding provider, resource, data, variable, and output blocks.

• The 4 Core Workflow Commands: In-depth mechanics of terraform init, terraform plan, terraform apply, and terraform destroy.

• Deploying Core Networking: Provisioning Resource Groups, Virtual Networks (VNets), and Subnets.

• Resource Dependency Management: Handling Implicit dependencies (resource references) vs. Explicit dependencies (depends_on).

• Hands-on Lab: Provisioning an isolated VNet architecture with network security groups (NSGs) using custom variables.

💾 Module 3: Deep Dive into State Management & Remote Backends

Understand the state file—the critical blueprint of your infrastructure—and configure secure, multi-user collaboration.

• The Purpose of State: Desired state vs. Actual cloud environment state.

• State Operations: Interpreting the terraform.tfstate file, state security issues, and local security vulnerabilities.

• Remote Backend Architecture: Storing state files securely in an Azure Storage Account Blob Container.

• State Locking: Implementing concurrent execution prevention via Azure Blob Lease functionality to protect state files from corruption.

• Hands-on Lab: Migrating a local state file to a secured Azure Storage backend and verifying state locking capabilities.

⚙️ Module 4: Advanced HCL Logic & Writing Reusable Modules

Transition from rigid scripts to highly modular, environment-agnostic infrastructure code.

• Variables Deep Dive: Input variables, local values (locals), output variables, and validation rules.

• Collection Variables: Handling arrays, objects, sets, and maps within configurations.

• Meta-Arguments: Iterating resource blocks effectively using count and for_each.

• Conditionals & Expressions: Incorporating ternary expressions and dynamic blocks.

• Building Custom Modules: Creating parent-child module hierarchies, passing variables, and consuming private registries.

• Hands-on Lab: Refactoring a standalone Virtual Machine configuration into a reusable custom module.

🤖 Module 5: native Azure Automation & Script-less Execution

Learn to manage native Azure platform-level automation resources cleanly via infrastructure as code.

• Azure Automation Architecture: Purpose, configuration, and structural elements of an Automation Account.

• Provisioning via Terraform: Deploying the azurerm_automation_account and assigning IAM security roles (e.g., Reader, Contributor) using HCL.

• Managing Runbooks: Provisioning PowerShell and Python runbooks via code integrations (azurerm_automation_runbook).

• Variables, Credentials, and Certificates: Managing secure environment variables and assets programmatically inside Azure Automation.

• Schedules & Webhooks: Attaching automation actions to strict schedules using Terraform code.

• Hands-on Lab: Using Terraform to deploy an Azure Automation account that pulls a diagnostic script, saves it as a Runbook, and maps it to a nightly clean-up schedule.

🚀 Module 6: Enterprise Workflows & CI/CD Pipeline Automation

Bring Terraform into a proper enterprise git workflow by automating your deployments through DevOps pipelines.

• The Git Branching Flow: Pull request reviews, state drift isolation, and multi-environment targeting (Dev, Staging, Prod).

• Terraform in Git Automation: Overview of infrastructure tracking via platforms like Azure DevOps (YAML Pipelines) and GitHub Actions.

• Pipeline Task Security: Managing platform client secrets, utilizing secure runner environments, and separating planning from applying.

• Static Analysis & Security Linting: Validating setups with external validation checks (tflint, checkov).

• Hands-on Capstone Project: Building an automated Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline that auto-triggers code validation on code commits, generates a plan output on a main pull request, and securely runs terraform apply upon merge approval.