Revamp Academy Docs

What is a Provider?

A provider is the plugin that lets Terraform talk to a platform:

Terraform
    ↓
Provider
    ↓
Cloud Platform

Examples: AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, GitHub.

provider "aws" {
  region = "ap-south-1"
}

Pin the provider in a terraform block so everyone on the team gets a compatible version:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

~> 5.0 allows patch/minor updates within the 5.x line while blocking a jump to 6.x.

One configuration can target several regions by giving additional providers an alias:

provider "aws" {
  region = "ap-south-1"
}
 
provider "aws" {
  alias  = "singapore"
  region = "ap-southeast-1"
}

resource "aws_instance" "mumbai" {
  ami           = "ami-xxxxxxxx"
  instance_type = "t3.micro"
}

resource "aws_instance" "singapore" {
  provider      = aws.singapore
  ami           = "ami-xxxxxxxx"
  instance_type = "t3.micro"
}

AMI IDs are region-specific. Use an AMI that exists in the target region.

Without provider = aws.singapore, the resource uses the default (unaliased) AWS provider.

Multiple providers (aliases)

One configuration can target several regions by giving additional providers an alias:

provider "aws" {
  region = "ap-south-1"
}
 
provider "aws" {
  alias  = "singapore"
  region = "ap-southeast-1"
}

Deploy to Mumbai (default provider)

resource "aws_instance" "mumbai" {
  ami           = "ami-xxxxxxxx"
  instance_type = "t3.micro"
}

Deploy to Singapore (aliased provider)

resource "aws_instance" "singapore" {
  provider      = aws.singapore
  ami           = "ami-xxxxxxxx"
  instance_type = "t3.micro"
}

AMI IDs are region-specific. Use an AMI that exists in the target region.

Without provider = aws.singapore, the resource uses the default (unaliased) AWS provider.