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AWS Shell vs Terraform: What are the differences?
Introduction:
In this article, we will be comparing AWS Shell and Terraform, two popular tools used in cloud infrastructure management. We will outline the key differences between these two tools in terms of their features and functionalities.
Syntax and Language: One of the major differences between AWS Shell and Terraform is the syntax and language used. AWS Shell uses a command line interface based on Python, where users can directly interact with AWS services using AWS CLI commands. On the other hand, Terraform uses a separate declarative language called HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) to define and manage infrastructure resources.
Infrastructure Provisioning: The approach to infrastructure provisioning also differs between AWS Shell and Terraform. AWS Shell primarily focuses on the command line interface for interacting with AWS services, allowing users to run AWS CLI commands to provision and manage resources. Terraform, on the other hand, follows an infrastructure-as-code approach, where users define their desired infrastructure state in a declarative language and Terraform handles the provisioning and management automatically.
Support and Community: In terms of support and community, Terraform has a significant advantage. Terraform has a large and active community of users and contributors, which means there is extensive documentation, tutorials, and community support available. AWS Shell, being a more specialized tool, has a smaller community and fewer external resources available for support and help.
Cloud Provider Compatibility: While both AWS Shell and Terraform can be used with multiple cloud providers, Terraform offers broader compatibility across different providers. Terraform supports multiple cloud platforms, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and more, allowing users to manage resources across different providers using a unified language and management tool. AWS Shell, on the other hand, is specific to AWS services and does not have the same level of multi-cloud compatibility.
Resource Management: Another key difference lies in the way resource management is handled. AWS Shell allows direct interaction and management of AWS resources using AWS CLI commands, providing more granular control. On the other hand, Terraform provides a higher-level abstraction for managing resources, allowing users to define their desired infrastructure state without getting into the specifics of resource management.
Scalability and Complexity: The scalability and complexity of the two tools also differ. AWS Shell is more suitable for managing smaller-scale infrastructures or individual resources, providing a straightforward and flexible command line interface. Terraform, on the other hand, is designed for managing larger-scale infrastructures and complex deployments, offering a robust and scalable approach to infrastructure management.
In summary, AWS Shell primarily focuses on providing a command line interface for managing AWS resources using AWS CLI commands, while Terraform takes an infrastructure-as-code approach using a separate declarative language called HCL to manage resources across multiple cloud platforms. Terraform offers broader cloud provider compatibility, has a larger support community, and provides a higher-level abstraction for resource management, making it more suitable for managing complex and scalable infrastructures.
Because Pulumi uses real programming languages, you can actually write abstractions for your infrastructure code, which is incredibly empowering. You still 'describe' your desired state, but by having a programming language at your fingers, you can factor out patterns, and package it up for easier consumption.
We use Terraform to manage AWS cloud environment for the project. It is pretty complex, largely static, security-focused, and constantly evolving.
Terraform provides descriptive (declarative) way of defining the target configuration, where it can work out the dependencies between configuration elements and apply differences without re-provisioning the entire cloud stack.
AdvantagesTerraform is vendor-neutral in a way that it is using a common configuration language (HCL) with plugins (providers) for multiple cloud and service providers.
Terraform keeps track of the previous state of the deployment and applies incremental changes, resulting in faster deployment times.
Terraform allows us to share reusable modules between projects. We have built an impressive library of modules internally, which makes it very easy to assemble a new project from pre-fabricated building blocks.
DisadvantagesSoftware is imperfect, and Terraform is no exception. Occasionally we hit annoying bugs that we have to work around. The interaction with any underlying APIs is encapsulated inside 3rd party Terraform providers, and any bug fixes or new features require a provider release. Some providers have very poor coverage of the underlying APIs.
Terraform is not great for managing highly dynamic parts of cloud environments. That part is better delegated to other tools or scripts.
Terraform state may go out of sync with the target environment or with the source configuration, which often results in painful reconciliation.
I personally am not a huge fan of vendor lock in for multiple reasons:
- I've seen cost saving moves to the cloud end up costing a fortune and trapping companies due to over utilization of cloud specific features.
- I've seen S3 failures nearly take down half the internet.
- I've seen companies get stuck in the cloud because they aren't built cloud agnostic.
I choose to use terraform for my cloud provisioning for these reasons:
- It's cloud agnostic so I can use it no matter where I am.
- It isn't difficult to use and uses a relatively easy to read language.
- It tests infrastructure before running it, and enables me to see and keep changes up to date.
- It runs from the same CLI I do most of my CM work from.
Context: I wanted to create an end to end IoT data pipeline simulation in Google Cloud IoT Core and other GCP services. I never touched Terraform meaningfully until working on this project, and it's one of the best explorations in my development career. The documentation and syntax is incredibly human-readable and friendly. I'm used to building infrastructure through the google apis via Python , but I'm so glad past Sung did not make that decision. I was tempted to use Google Cloud Deployment Manager, but the templates were a bit convoluted by first impression. I'm glad past Sung did not make this decision either.
Solution: Leveraging Google Cloud Build Google Cloud Run Google Cloud Bigtable Google BigQuery Google Cloud Storage Google Compute Engine along with some other fun tools, I can deploy over 40 GCP resources using Terraform!
Check Out My Architecture: CLICK ME
Check out the GitHub repo attached
Pros of AWS Shell
Pros of Terraform
- Infrastructure as code122
- Declarative syntax73
- Planning45
- Simple28
- Parallelism24
- Well-documented8
- Cloud agnostic8
- It's like coding your infrastructure in simple English6
- Immutable infrastructure6
- Platform agnostic5
- Extendable4
- Automation4
- Automates infrastructure deployments4
- Portability4
- Lightweight2
- Scales to hundreds of hosts2
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Cons of AWS Shell
Cons of Terraform
- Doesn't have full support to GKE1