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Variables are fundamental constructs in every programming language because they are inherently useful in building dynamic programs. We use variables to store temporary values so that they can assist programming logic in simple as well as complex programs.
In this post, we discuss the types of Terraform variables and how they are used in Terraform. We will also present examples and 10 best practices to use Terraform variables. 
Terraform uses HCL (Hashicorp Configuration Language) to encode infrastructure. It is declarative in nature, meaning several blocks of code are declared to create a desired set of infrastructure. Before we dive into various types of variables, it is helpful to think of the complete Terraform configuration as a single function. As far as variables are concerned, we use them with function in the form of arguments, return values, and local variables. These are analogous to input variables, output variables, and local variables in Terraform.
We will cover:
<ol>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#what-are-terraform-variables" rel="">What are Terraform variables?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#terraform-variables-types" rel="">Terraform variable types</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#local-variables">Local variables</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#terraform-input-variables">Input variables</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#variable-substitution-using-cli-and-tfvars">Variable substitution using CLI and .tfvars</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#environment-variables">Environment variables</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#variable-precedence">Variable precedence</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#variable-validation">Variable validation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#sensitive-variables">Sensitive variables</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#output-variables">Output variables</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#using-variables-in-foreach-loop">Using variables in for_each loop</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-to-use-terraform-variables#terraform-variables-best-practices">Terraform variables best practices</a></li>
</ol>
Note: New versions of Terraform are placed under the BUSL license, but everything created before version 1.5.x stays open-source. <a href="https://opentofu.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">OpenTofu</a> is an open-source version of Terraform that will expand on Terraform’s existing concepts and offerings. It is a viable alternative to HashiCorp’s Terraform, being forked from Terraform version 1.5.6.

Terraform variables are placeholders for values that you can use to make your configurations more dynamic and reusable. They let you define values that can be reused throughout your Terraform configuration, similar to variables in any programming language. 
Terraform variables are used to accommodate different configurations without altering your code. You can easily change only the values of these variables to achieve different use cases. They make your configuration more dynamic and flexible, and they enhance the parametrization of your code. 
The importance of Terraform variables
Terraform variables are essential for building scalable, maintainable, and adaptable infrastructure configurations, ultimately contributing to efficient infrastructure management and deployment practices.

Terraform has several types of variables, each designed to handle different kinds of data. Below is the full list of Terraform variable types:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">String — This fundamental type stores text values. Use strings for data that doesn&#8217;t require mathematical operations, such as usernames or tags.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Number — This type is used for numeric values that you might need to perform calculations on or use in numeric settings, such as scaling parameters, setting timeouts, and defining a number of instances to deploy.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Bool — Short for Boolean, this type is strictly for true or false values. They are essential for logic and conditional statements in configurations, such as enabling or disabling resource provisioning.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">List — A list is a sequence of values of the same type. This type is ideal for scenarios where you need to manage a collection of similar items, like multiple configuration tags.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Map — Maps are collections of key-value pairs, each unique key mapping to a specific value. This type is useful, for example, when associating server names with their roles or configurations.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Tuple — This type is similar to lists but can contain a fixed number of elements, each potentially of a different type. Tuples are suitable when you need to group a specific set of values with varied types together, like a coordinate of mixed data types.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Object — Objects are used to define a structure with named attributes, each with its own type. They are very flexible, allowing the definition of complex relationships, like a configuration block that includes various attributes of different types.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set — Sets are collections of unique values of the same type. They are useful when you need to ensure no duplicates, such as a list of unique user identifiers or configurations that must remain distinct.</li>
</ul>
We’ll discuss these in more detail with examples later in the article.

Local variables are declared using the <code>locals</code> block. It is a group of key-value pairs that can be used in the configuration. The values can be hard-coded or be a reference to another variable or resource.
Local variables are accessible within the module/configuration where they are declared. Let us take an example of creating a configuration for an EC2 instance using local variables. Add this to a file named <code>main.tf</code>.

In this example, we have declared all the local variables in the locals block. The variables represent the AMI ID (<code>ami</code>), Instance type (<code>type</code>), Subnet Id (<code>subnet</code>), Network Interface (<code>nic</code>) and Tags (<code>tags</code>) to be assigned for the given EC2 instance.
In the <code>aws_instance</code> resource block, we used these variables to provide the appropriate values required for the given attribute. Notice how the local variables are being referenced using a <code>local</code> keyword (without ‘s’).
The usage of local variables is similar to data sources. However, they have a completely different purpose. Data sources fetch valid values from the cloud provider based on the query filters we provide. Whereas we can set our desired values in local variables — they are not dependent on the cloud providers.
It is indeed possible to assign a value from a data source to a local variable. Similar to how we have done it to create the <code>nic</code> local variable, it refers to the <code>id</code> argument in the <code>aws_network_interface</code> resource block.
As a best practice, try to keep the number of local variables to a minimum. Using many local variables can make the code hard to read.
If you want to know more about locals, see: <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-locals">Terraform Locals: What Are They, How to Use Them, Examples</a>

Terraform input variables are used to pass certain values from outside of the configuration or module. They are used to assign dynamic values to resource attributes. The difference between local and input variables is that input variables allow you to pass values before the code execution.
Further, the main function of the input variables is to act as inputs to modules. <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/what-are-terraform-modules-and-how-do-they-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Modules</a> are self-contained pieces of code that perform certain predefined deployment tasks. Input variables declared within modules are used to accept values from the root directory.
Additionally, it is also possible to set certain attributes while declaring input variables, as below:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><code>type</code> — to identify the type of the variable being declared.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><code>default</code> — default value in case the value is not provided explicitly.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><code>description</code> — a description of the variable. This description is also used to generate documentation for the module.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><code>validation</code> — to define validation rules.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><code>sensitive</code> — a boolean value. If true, Terraform masks the variable’s value anywhere it displays the variable.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Terraform input variable types</h3>
Input variables support multiple data types.
They are broadly categorized as simple and complex. <code>String</code>, <code>number</code>, <code>bool</code> are simple data types, whereas <code>list</code>, <code>map</code>, <code>tuple</code>, <code>object</code>, and <code>set</code> are complex data types.
The following snippets provide examples for each of the types we listed.
<h4>String type</h4>
The string type input variables are used to accept values in the form of UNICODE characters. The value is usually wrapped by double quotes, as shown below.

The string type input variables also support a heredoc style format where the value being accepted is a longer string separated by new line characters. The start and end of the value is indicated by “EOF” (End Of File) characters. An example of the same is shown below.

<h4>Number type</h4>
The number type input variable enables us to define and accept numerical values as inputs for their infrastructure deployments. For example, these numeric values can help define the desired number of instances to be created in an auto-scaling group. The code below defines a number type input variable in any given Terraform config.

<h4>Boolean type</h4>
The boolean type input variable is used to define and accept true/false values as inputs for infrastructure deployments to incorporate logic and conditional statements into the Terraform configurations. Boolean input variables are particularly useful for enabling or disabling certain features or behaviors in infrastructure deployments. 
An example of a boolean variable is below.

<h4>Terraform list variable</h4>
Terraform list variables allow us to define and accept a collection of values as inputs for infrastructure deployments. A list is an ordered sequence of elements, and it can contain any data type, such as strings, numbers, or even other complex data structures. However, a single list cannot have multiple data types.
List type input variables are particularly useful in scenarios where we need to provide multiple values of the same type, such as a list of IP addresses, a set of ports, or a collection of resource names. 
The example below is for an input variable of a type list that contains strings.

<h4>Map type</h4>
The map type input variable enables us to define and accept a collection of key-value pairs as inputs for our infrastructure deployments. A map is a complex data structure that associates values with unique keys, similar to a dictionary or an object in other programming languages. For example, a map can be used to <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-tags" target="_blank" rel="noopener">specify resource tags</a>, environment-specific settings, or configuration parameters for different modules.
 The example below shows how a map of string type values is defined in Terraform.

Learn <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-map-variable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how to use the Terraform map variable</a>.

<h4>Object type</h4>
An object represents a complex data structure that consists of multiple key-value pairs, where each key is associated with a specific data type for its corresponding value. The object type input variable allows us to define and accept a structured set of properties or attributes as inputs for our infrastructure deployments. For example, an object is used to define a set of parameters for a server configuration. 
The variable below demonstrates how an object type input variable is defined with multi-typed properties.

<h4>Tuple type</h4>
A tuple is a fixed-length collection that can contain values of different data types. The key differences between tuples and lists are:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Tuples have a fixed length, as against lists.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">With tuples, it is possible to include values with different primitive types. Meanwhile, lists dictate the type of elements included in them.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Values included in tuples are ordered. Due to their dynamic sizes, it is possible to resize and reorder the values in lists.</li>
</ol>
An example of a tuple type input variable:

<h4>Set type</h4>
A set is an unordered collection of distinct values, meaning each element appears only once within the set. As against lists, sets enforce uniqueness &#8211; each element can appear only once within the set. Sets support various inbuilt operations such as union, intersection, and difference, which are used to combine or compare sets. 
An example of a set type input variable is below.

<h4>Map of objects</h4>
One of the widely used complex input variable types is map(object). It is a data type that represents a map where each key is associated with an object value.
It allows us to create a collection of key-value pairs, where the values are objects with defined attributes and their respective values. When using map(object), we define the structure of the object values by specifying the attributes and their corresponding types within the object type definition. Each object within the map can have its own set of attributes, providing flexibility to represent diverse sets of data. 
An example of the same is given below, where the map of objects represents attribute values used for the creation of multiple subnets.

<h4>List of objects</h4>
This type of variable is similar to the Map of objects, except that the objects are not referred to by any “key”. The example used for the Map of objects can also be represented in the form of a list of objects, as shown below. 
The list(object) is an ordered list of objects where each object is referred to using the index. On the other hand, map(object) is an unordered set, and each object is referred to using the key value.

<h3>Terraform input variables example</h3>
Let us work through the same example as before. Only this time, we use variables instead of local variables. Create a new file to declare input variables as <code>variables.tf</code> and add the below content to it.

Here, we have declared 5 variables — <code>ami</code>, <code>nic</code>, <code>subnet</code> and <code>type</code> with the simple data type, and <code>tags</code> with a complex data type object — a collection of key-value pairs with string values. Notice how we have made use of attributes like <code>description</code> and <code>default</code>.
The <code>ami</code> variable also has validation rules defined for them to check the validity of the value provided. We have also marked the <code>type</code> variable as <code>sensitive</code>.
Let us now modify <code>main.tf</code> to use the variables declared above.

Within the resource blocks, we have simply used these variables by using <code>var.&lt;variable name&gt;</code> format. When you proceed to plan and apply this configuration, the variable values will automatically be replaced by default values. The following is a sample plan output.

To check how validation works, modify the default value provided to the <code>ami</code> variable. Make sure to change the <code>ami-</code> part since validation rules are validating the same. Run the <code>plan</code> command, and see the output. You should see the error message thrown on the console as below.

Also, notice how the <code>type</code> value is represented in the plan output. Since we have marked it as <code>sensitive</code>, its value is not shown. Instead, it just displays <code>sensitive</code>.

<ul>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/5-ways-to-manage-terraform-at-scale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 Ways to Manage Terraform at Scale</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-automation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to Automate Terraform Deployments and Infrastructure Provisioning</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/how-specialized-solution-can-improve-your-iac" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to Improve Your Infrastructure as Code using Terraform</a></li>
</ul>

In the previous example, we relied on the default values of the variables. However, variables are generally used to substitute values during runtime. The default values can be overridden in two ways:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Passing the values in CLI as <code>-var</code> argument.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Using .tfvars file to set variable values explicitly.</li>
</ul>
If we want to initialize the variables using the CLI argument, we can do so as below. Running this command results in Terraform using these values instead of the defaults.

While working with <code>plan</code> or <code>apply</code> commands, <code>-var</code> argument should be used for every variable to be overridden. Note how we have provided the value for complex data type with escaped characters.
Imagine a scenario where many variables are used in the configuration. Passing the values using CLI arguments can become a tedious task. This is where .tfvars files come into play.
Create a file with the <code>.tfvars</code> extension and add the below content to it. I have used the name <code>values.tfvars</code> as the file name. This way we can organize and manage variable values easily.

This time, we should ask <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/what-is-terraform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terraform</a> to use the <code>values.tfvars</code> file by providing its path to <code>-var-file</code> CLI argument. The final <code>plan</code> command should look as such:

The <code>-var-file</code> argument is great if you have multiple <code>.tfvars</code> files with variations in values. However, if you do not wish to provide the file path every time you run <code>plan</code> or <code>apply</code>, simply name the file as <code>&lt;filename&gt;.auto.tfvars</code>. This file is then automatically chosen to supply input variable values.

Additionally, input variable values can also be set using <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-environment-variables" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terraform environment variables</a>. To do so, simply set the environment variable in the format <code>TF_VAR_&lt;variable name&gt;</code>.
The variable name part of the format is the same as the variables declared in the <code>variables.tf</code> file. For example, to set the <code>ami</code> variable run the below command to set its corresponding value.

Apart from the above environment variable, it is important to note that Terraform also uses a few other environment variables like <code>TF_LOG</code>, <code>TF_CLI_ARGS</code>, <code>TF_DATA_DIR</code>, etc. These environment variables are used for various purposes like logging, setting default behavior with respect to workspaces, CLI arguments, etc.

As we have seen till now, there are three ways of providing input values to Terraform configuration using variables. Namely—default values, CLI arguments, and <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-tfvars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">.tfvars file</a>. The precedence is given to values passed via CLI arguments. This is followed by values passed using the <code>.tfvars</code> file and lastly, the default values are considered. 
In the current example, now that we have the <code>values.tfvars</code> file saved, try to run a <code>plan</code> command by passing values via CLI <code>-var</code> arguments. Make sure to provide different values as that of .tfvars and defaults. Terraform ignores the values provided via .tfvars and defaults.
If the values are not provided in the .tfvars file, or as defaults, or as CLI arguments, it falls back on <code>TF_VAR_</code> environment variables.
Additionally, if we don’t provide the values in any of the forms discussed above, Terraform would ask for the same in interactive mode when <code>plan</code> or <code>apply</code> commands are run.
As a best practice, it is not recommended to store secret and sensitive information in variable files. These values should always be provided via the <code>TF_VAR_</code> environment variable.
This is where <a href="https://spacelift.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spacelift</a> shines. It makes use of these Terraform native environment variables to manage secrets as well as other attributes that make the most sense. Managing the environment in the Spacelift console is easy, thanks to a dedicated tab where values can be edited on the go.

In any programming language, you try to catch the errors as soon as possible, and even if Terraform uses a declarative language, this is the same.
<a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-variable-validation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Variable validations</a> ensure that constraints are applied to your variables. Before this feature was even introduced, the only way you could do validations was by making use of a hacky method leveraging the file function. Let’s see that in action:

Basically, in the above example, I’m checking if the network mask is lower than 16 and greater than 30, and if it is, my “validation” will try to open a file that doesn’t exist and will actually print out the error message that I want. Otherwise, it won’t print anything:

Now, let’s change the cidr to receive an error:

It does the job, but as you can see, the error message can be misleading.
With variable validations, however, things are improved a lot. Variable validations are defined in the variable block, and they receive two parameters:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">condition – what you want to check inside your variable</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">error_message – what error message you would like your users to get if the condition is not fulfilled</li>
</ul>
Let’s recreate the above example with a variable validation:

This will result in an error because the cidr_block is not between /16 and /30:

We could take this example even up a notch and verify if the string we are passing is in a cidr format:

This validation checks if our cidr has a “/” and if it has 3 “dots”.

Terraform has also the ability to mark variables as sensitive and will not display their value when you are running <code>terraform plan</code> and <code>apply</code>, but they will be readable from within the Terraform state.
Let’s take a look at an example of a sensitive variable:

Now, if we want terraform not to error out and at least show the output, we should add the sensitive = true to that output:

If you want to see the sensitive value in the output too, Terraform has a mechanism in place for that if you are leveraging the nonsensitive function:

For situations where you <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/5-ways-to-manage-terraform-at-scale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deploy a large web application infrastructure using Terraform</a>, you often need certain endpoints, IP addresses, database user credentials, and so forth. This information is most useful for passing the values to modules along with other scenarios.
This information is also available in Terraform state files. But state files are large, and normally we would have to perform an intricate search for this kind of information.
Output variables in Terraform are used to display the required information in the console output after a successful application of configuration for the root module. To declare an output variable, write the following configuration block into the Terraform configuration files.

Continuing with the same example, we would like to display the instance ID of the EC2 instance that is created. So, declare an output variable named <code>instance_id</code> — this could be any name of our choosing.
Within this output block, we have used some attributes to associate this output variable’s value. We have used resource reference for <code>aws_instance.myvm</code> configuration and specified to use its <code>id</code> attribute.
Optionally, we can use the <code>description</code> and <code>sensitive</code> flags. We have discussed the purpose of these attributes in previous sections. When a <code>plan</code> command is run, the plan output acknowledges the output variable being declared as below.

Similarly, when we run the <code>apply</code> command, upon successful creation of EC2 instance, we would know the instance ID of the same. Once the deployment is successful, output variables can also be accessed using the <code>output</code> command:

Output:

Output variables are used by child modules to expose certain values to the root module. The root module does not have access to any other component being created by the child module. So, if some information needs to be made available to the root module, output variables should be declared for the corresponding attributes within the child module.

This section goes through an example where we want to create multiple subnets for a given <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-aws-vpc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VPC</a>. Without variables, we would write the configurations for the number of subnets specified. The other way is to use the <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-for-loop" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terraform </a><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-for-loop" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><code>for</code></a><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-for-loop" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> loop</a> and create separate subnets based on the index value of the iteration.
The for loop thus implemented is not very useful. Consider a case where subnets need to be in selected availability zones, and each of them has a different CIDR range specified. For situations like these, we can make use of complex variable type <code>map(object())</code> along with <code>for</code> loop to iterate over this variable.
Below is the input variable declaration we need to define attributes of multiple subnets. This block specifies the <code>type</code> of variable <code>my_subnets</code> to be <code>map(object())</code>. It means we want to define a variable that has a map of objects, with a couple of attributes in each object. We have used <code>cidr</code> and <code>az</code> attributes for each object with string type.

Let us move to the .tfvars file to initialize the value for this input variable. The <code>.tfvars</code> file should contain the following lines of code.

If you compare the input variable declaration and initialization, you will see we have aligned the attributes. Also, the initialized value consists of 6 objects mapped by a string key. Each object has a unique CIDR and Availability Zone (<code>az</code>) value.
Lastly, let’s define the configuration for the subnets themselves. Note: The following code assumes that we have defined <code>aws_vpc.my_vpc</code> elsewhere in the configuration.

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Azure Guides and Tutorials | Spacelift Blog

Azure

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The <a href="https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azuread/latest/docs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Azure AD provider for Terraform</a> can be used to manage your Azure Active Directory resources declaratively. This allows you to do things like:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Automatically provision users and make sure they belong to the correct groups.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Manage Azure compute permissions via Azure AD groups.</li>
</ul>
In this post, you will learn what the Azure AD Terraform provider is used for, how to authenticate and grant permissions, and see examples of what you can do with it. Let’s get started.

The Terraform Azure AD Provider is a Terraform provider that is used to interact with Azure Active Directory using the Microsoft Graph API. Azure Active Directory is Microsoft’s cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) service, which helps users sign in and access resources. By using the Terraform provider for Azure AD, you can easily manage your AD-related resources directly from Terraform without needing another tool for this purpose.

The following example shows how to use the Azure AD provider to create a <a href="https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azuread/latest/docs/resources/group" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">group</a> in Azure AD:

The <code>terraform</code> section at the beginning is used to specify the version of the provider that we want to use, while the <code>azuread_group</code>  resource defines our group.

The Azure AD provider allows for multiple authentication methods, which are outlined in the <a href="https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azuread/latest/docs#authenticating-to-azure-active-directory" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">provider&#8217;s documentation</a>. To allow you to get up and running quickly, the AD provider will attempt to get your credentials via the <a href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/install-azure-cli" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Azure CLI</a>.
While this is fine for experimentation and local testing, for non-interactive scenarios like CI you will need to use a Service Principal or a Managed Service Identity.

In order to manage your Azure AD objects, the account used by <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/what-is-terraform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Terraform</a> needs to have the correct permissions to perform its actions. You can manage these permissions via the Roles and administrators section of Azure AD:

Roles and administrators section of Azure AD

For example, to allow a Service Principal to manage groups, you would add it to the Groups administrator role:

Azure AD Groups administrator

The Terraform provider is well documented, and will typically contain a notice at the top of each resource explaining the permissions that are required for using it.

Another option that can be used with Service Principals instead of granting an administrator role is to assign specific API permissions to them. To do this, first find the AD Application linked to your Service Principal in the App Registrations section:

Service Principal in the App Registrations section

Go to the API permissions page for the application, and click on Add a permission:

Manage Active Directory Objects

In the window that appears, choose the Azure Active Directory Graph API, and then select the relevant permission you want to add:

Azure Active Directory Graph API

Before the Service Principal can actually use the permission you just added, you need to take a final step called granting Admin Consent. You can do this by clicking on the Grant admin consent for &lt;tenant&gt; button displayed above the permissions table:

5-5-2

Azure AD Admin Consent

NOTES:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">When adding permissions to your Service Principal, you need to add Application permissions rather than Delegated permissions. This means that the Service Principal is allowed to perform the specified actions as itself, rather than on behalf of another user.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The set of permissions that you can add via API permissions is quite limited. For example, to create AD groups you need to add the Directory.ReadWrite.All permission, but this will not allow your Service Principal to delete any of the groups it creates. In order to be able to delete groups, you need to grant it the Group Administrator role, so depending on your requirements there may not be any point in granting API permissions.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The Azure AD Terraform provider switches to the Microsoft Graph API as of version 2.0.0, so when version 2 is released you will need to grant permissions to the Microsoft Graph API instead of to the Azure Active Directory Graph API.</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-automation" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-sheets-value="{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;How to Automate Terraform Deployments and Infrastructure Provisioning&quot;}" data-sheets-userformat="{&quot;2&quot;:513,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;12&quot;:0}">How to Automate Terraform Deployments and Infrastructure Provisioning</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-in-ci-cd" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-sheets-value="{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Deploying Infrastructure in CI/CD with Terraform&quot;}" data-sheets-userformat="{&quot;2&quot;:513,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;12&quot;:0}">Deploying Infrastructure in CI/CD with Terraform</a></li>
<li><a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/drift-detection" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span data-sheets-value="{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;Infrastructure Drift Detection and How to Fix It With IaC Tools&quot;}" data-sheets-userformat="{&quot;2&quot;:513,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;12&quot;:0}">Infrastructure Drift Detection and How to Fix It With IaC Tools</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>Example 1 &#8211; Managing Users and Groups</h3>
The following example creates two users and two groups, and assigns each user to a group:

<h3>Example 2 &#8211; Creating a Service Principal and granting RBAC permissions</h3>
The following example combines the Azure AD provider with the <a href="https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azurerm/latest/docs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Azure RM provider</a>, allowing you to create a Service Principal and assign it permission to <a href="https://spacelift.io/blog/managing-azure-resources-using-spacelift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">manage certain Azure resources</a>:

In this post, we’ve covered what the Azure AD Terraform provider is used for, how to authenticate and grant the correct permissions, as well as showing a few examples of what can be done with it. Hopefully, you’ve found it useful!
If you’re interested in finding out about how you can use Spacelift to manage your Azure resources via the Terraform <a href="https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azurerm/latest/docs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Azure Provider</a>, check out our <a href="https://docs.spacelift.io/integrations/cloud-providers/azure" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Azure integration</a>. There you can also learn how to configure the following authentication methods in Spacelift: Spacelift Managed Integration, Static Credentials, and Managed Service Identities. And don’t forget that you can easily take Spacelift for a <a href="https://spacelift.io/free-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">free test drive</a>!
Note: New versions of Terraform are placed under the BUSL license, but everything created before version 1.5.x stays open-source. <a href="https://opentofu.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">OpenTofu</a> is an open-source version of Terraform that expands on Terraform’s existing concepts and offerings. It is a viable alternative to HashiCorp’s Terraform, being forked from Terraform version 1.5.6.

Spacelift helps manage Terraform state, build more complex workflows, supports policy as code, programmatic configuration, context sharing, drift detection, resource visualization and many more.

Initialize/ plan/ apply your IaC, manage modules, state, and more. 

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