Terraform state administration

Introduced in GitLab 12.10.

GitLab can be used as a backend for Terraform state files. The files are encrypted before being stored. This feature is enabled by default.

The storage location of these files defaults to:

/var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/terraform_state for Omnibus GitLab installations.
/home/git/gitlab/shared/terraform_state for source installations.

These locations can be configured using the options described below.

Use external object storage configuration for GitLab Helm chart installations.

Disabling Terraform state

To disable terraform state site-wide, follow the steps below. A GitLab administrator may want to disable Terraform state to reduce disk space or if Terraform is not used in your instance. To do so, follow the steps below according to your installation’s type.

In Omnibus installations:

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line:
```
gitlab_rails['terraform_state_enabled'] = false
```
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

In installations from source:

Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines:
```
terraform_state:
  enabled: false
```
Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using local storage

The default configuration uses local storage. To change the location where Terraform state files are stored locally, follow the steps below.

In Omnibus installations:

To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/terraform_state, edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following line:
```
gitlab_rails['terraform_state_storage_path'] = "/mnt/storage/terraform_state"
```
Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.

In installations from source:

To change the storage path for example to /mnt/storage/terraform_state, edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines:
```
terraform_state:
  enabled: true
  storage_path: /mnt/storage/terraform_state
```
Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Using object storage

Instead of storing Terraform state files on disk, we recommend the use of one of the supported object storage options. This configuration relies on valid credentials to be configured already.

Object storage settings

The following settings are:

Nested under terraform_state: and then object_store: on source installations.
Prefixed by terraform_state_object_store_ on Omnibus GitLab installations.

Setting	Description	Default
`enabled`	Enable/disable object storage	`false`
`remote_directory`	The bucket name where Terraform state files are stored
`connection`	Various connection options described below

Migrate to object storage

Introduced in GitLab 13.9.

To migrate Terraform state files to object storage, follow the instructions below.

For Omnibus package installations:

gitlab-rake gitlab:terraform_states:migrate

For source installations:

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:terraform_states:migrate RAILS_ENV=production

For GitLab 13.8 and earlier versions, you can use a workaround for the Rake task:

Open the GitLab Rails console.

Run the following commands:

Terraform::StateUploader.alias_method(:upload, :model)

Terraform::StateVersion.where(file_store: ::ObjectStorage::Store::LOCAL).   find_each(batch_size: 10) do |terraform_state_version|
  puts "Migrating: #{terraform_state_version.inspect}"

  terraform_state_version.file.migrate!(::ObjectStorage::Store::REMOTE)
end

S3-compatible connection settings

See the available connection settings for different providers.

In Omnibus installations:

Edit /etc/gitlab/gitlab.rb and add the following lines; replacing with the values you want:

gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_enabled'] = true
gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_remote_directory'] = "terraform"
gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'aws_access_key_id' => 'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID',
  'aws_secret_access_key' => 'AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'
}

If you are using AWS IAM profiles, be sure to omit the AWS access key and secret access key/value pairs.

gitlab_rails['terraform_state_object_store_connection'] = {
  'provider' => 'AWS',
  'region' => 'eu-central-1',
  'use_iam_profile' => true
}

Save the file and reconfigure GitLab for the changes to take effect.
Migrate any existing local states to the object storage (GitLab 13.9 and later):
```
gitlab-rake gitlab:terraform_states:migrate
```

In installations from source:

Edit /home/git/gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and add or amend the following lines:

terraform_state:
  enabled: true
  object_store:
    enabled: true
    remote_directory: "terraform" # The bucket name
    connection:
      provider: AWS # Only AWS supported at the moment
      aws_access_key_id: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
      aws_secret_access_key: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
      region: eu-central-1

Save the file and restart GitLab for the changes to take effect.

Migrate any existing local states to the object storage (GitLab 13.9 and later):

sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:terraform_states:migrate RAILS_ENV=production