Passing in variables assigned in Shell script

Question

I am trying to run a Terraform deployment via a Shell script where within the Shell script I first dynamically collect the access key for my Azure storage account and assign it to a variable. I then want to use the variable in a -var assignment on the terraform command line. This method works great when configuring the backend for remote state but it is not working for doing a deployment. The other variables used in the template are being pulled from a terraform.tfvars file. Below is my Shell script and Terraform template:

Shell script:

#!/bin/bash
set -eo pipefail

subscription_name="Visual Studio Enterprise with MSDN"
tfstate_storage_resource_group="terraform-state-rg"
tfstate_storage_account="terraformtfstatesa"

az account set --subscription "$subscription_name"
tfstate_storage_access_key=$(
  az storage account keys list \
  --resource-group "$tfstate_storage_resource_group" \
  --account-name "$tfstate_storage_account" \
  --query '[0].value' -o tsv
)

echo $tfstate_storage_access_key

terraform apply \
  -var "access_key=$tfstate_storage_access_key"

Deployment template:

provider "azurerm" {
  subscription_id = "${var.sub_id}"
}

data "terraform_remote_state" "rg" {
  backend = "azurerm"

  config {
    storage_account_name = "terraformtfstatesa"
    container_name       = "terraform-state"
    key                  = "rg.stage.project.terraform.tfstate"
    access_key           = "${var.access_key}"
  }
}

resource "azurerm_storage_account" "my_table" {
  name                     = "${var.storage_account}"
  resource_group_name      = "${data.terraform_remote_state.rg.rgname}"
  location                 = "${var.region}"
  account_tier             = "Standard"
  account_replication_type = "LRS"
}

I have tried defining the variable in my terraform.tfvars file:

storage_account = "appastagesa"

les_table_name = "appatable

region = "eastus"

sub_id = "abc12345-099c-1234-1234-998899889988"

access_key = ""

The access_key definition appears to get ignored.

I then tried not using a terraform.tfvars file, and created the variables.tf file below:

variable storage_account {
  description = "Name of the storage account to create"
  default     = "appastagesa"
}

variable les_table_name {
  description = "Name of the App table to create"
  default     = "appatable"
}

variable region {
  description = "The region where resources will be deployed (ex. eastus, eastus2, etc.)"
  default     = "eastus"
}

variable sub_id {
  description = "The ID of the subscription to deploy into"
  default     = "abc12345-099c-1234-1234-998899889988"
}

variable access_key {}

I then modified my deploy.sh script to use the line below to run my terraform deployment:

terraform apply \
  -var "access_key=$tfstate_storage_access_key" \
  -var-file="variables.tf"

This results in the error invalid value "variables.tf" for flag -var-file: multiple map declarations not supported for variables Usage: terraform apply [options] [DIR-OR-PLAN] being thrown.

I'm not sure if that's a reduced example but you still need to define the variables you use in variable "var_name" {} style. — ydaetskcoR
– ydaetskcoR, Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 10:35
@ChandanNayak I am unable to execute the terraform command line where I pass in a variable and use a variables file at the same time. — phydeauxman
– phydeauxman, Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 11:59
@ydaetskcoR I forgot about defining the variable as you mentioned but it did not seem to change anything. I edited the original post to reflect how I tried adding the declaration and the outcomes. — phydeauxman
– phydeauxman, Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 12:00
looks like your access_key is getting the value as a map instead of string, what does your "echo $tfstate_storage_access_key" prints ? — Chandan Nayak
– Chandan Nayak, Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 13:32

BMW · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-18 21:49:47Z

After playing with this for hours...I am almost embarrassed as to what the problem was but I am also frustrated with Terraform because of the time I wasted on this issue.

I had all of my variables defined in my variables.tf file with all but one having default values. For the one without a default value, I was passing it in as part of the command line. My command line was where the problem was. Because of all of the documentation I read, I thought I had to tell terraform what my variables file was by using the -var-file option. Turns out you don't and when I did it threw the error. Turns out all I had to do was use the -var option for the variable that had no defined default and terraform just automagically saw the variables.tf file. Frustrating. I am in love with Terraform but the one negative I would give it is that the documentation is lacking.

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