OpenTofu: Introduction & Getting Started

OpenTofu is an open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) tool, forked from Terraform, designed to provision and manage cloud and on-premises resources declaratively.

Why Use OpenTofu?

• Open-source alternative to Terraform
• Manage infrastructure as code across multiple providers
• Declarative, version-controlled infrastructure

How OpenTofu Works

• Uses HCL (HashiCorp Configuration Language) for configuration files
• Providers enable support for different platforms (AWS, Azure, etc.)
• State files track resource status

Quick Start Example

1. Install OpenTofu:

   curl -sSfL https://get.opentofu.org/install.sh | sh
   tofu --version
   

2. Write a simple configuration (main.tf):

   terraform {
     required_providers {
       random = {
         source = "hashicorp/random"
       }
     }
   }
   
   provider "random" {}
   
   resource "random_pet" "name" {}
   
   output "pet_name" {
     value = random_pet.name.id
   }
   

3. Initialize and apply:

   tofu init
   tofu apply
   

Learn More

• OpenTofu Documentation
• Getting Started Guide