Terraform Apply Command

Apply changes to reach the desired infrastructure state.

Usage

/tf-apply                         # Interactive apply
/tf-apply tfplan                  # Apply saved plan
/tf-apply -auto-approve          # Non-interactive apply
/tf-apply -target=aws_instance.web  # Target specific resource

What This Command Does

1. Reads plan (generates if not provided)
2. Confirms changes with user (unless -auto-approve)
3. Applies changes to infrastructure
4. Updates state file
5. Reports results

Execution Steps

Step 1: Pre-Flight Checks

# Verify initialization
terraform validate

# Review plan first
terraform plan

Step 2: Run Apply

# Interactive (prompts for confirmation)
terraform apply

# Apply saved plan
terraform apply tfplan

# Non-interactive (CI/CD)
terraform apply -auto-approve

# With var file
terraform apply -var-file="prod.tfvars"

Step 3: Verify

# Check outputs
terraform output

# Verify state
terraform state list

Common Options

Option	Description
planfile	Apply saved plan file
-auto-approve	Skip confirmation
-var-file=FILE	Load variables
-var='KEY=VALUE'	Set variable
-target=RESOURCE	Apply to specific resource
-parallelism=N	Limit parallel operations
-lock-timeout=DURATION	State lock timeout
-refresh=false	Skip state refresh

Safety Guidelines

Production Apply

# 1. Always plan first
terraform plan -out=tfplan

# 2. Review the plan carefully
# 3. Apply with timeout protection
terraform apply -lock-timeout=30m tfplan

Never Do This

# Don't auto-approve without review
terraform apply -auto-approve  # Dangerous without prior plan review!

# Don't skip the plan step
terraform apply  # Always plan first

Examples

Standard Workflow

# 1. Plan and save
terraform plan -out=tfplan

# 2. Apply saved plan
terraform apply tfplan

CI/CD Apply

# Apply with timeout and no color
terraform apply \
  -auto-approve \
  -lock-timeout=30m \
  -no-color \
  tfplan

Target Specific Resource

terraform apply -target=aws_instance.web -auto-approve

Troubleshooting

State Lock Error

# Wait for lock or force unlock
terraform apply -lock-timeout=10m
# Or (dangerous): terraform force-unlock LOCK_ID

Partial Apply Failure

# Don't panic - state reflects actual changes
# Fix the issue and re-run
terraform apply