The Terraform Workflow - Validate, Format, Plan, Apply, and Destroy

Terraform provides a structured workflow of commands that take infrastructure from written configuration to running resources and back to nothing. Each command in the sequence serves a distinct purpose - fmt enforces consistent code style, validate catches syntax and logic errors before any API calls, plan previews exactly what will change, apply executes those changes, and destroy tears everything down. Understanding this workflow is foundational because every Terraform operation in production follows the same pattern, whether you are provisioning a single storage account or managing hundreds of resources across environments.

In this lab, you will intentionally introduce formatting inconsistencies and fix them with terraform fmt, create syntax errors and catch them with terraform validate, preview resource creation with terraform plan, provision Azure Storage Accounts with terraform apply, and remove resources using both targeted and full terraform destroy operations.

Objectives

Upon completing this beginner level lab, you will be able to:

• Use terraform fmt to automatically fix indentation and formatting inconsistencies in HCL files
• Run terraform validate to catch syntax errors, missing arguments, and invalid references before planning
• Execute terraform plan to preview resource additions, changes, and deletions before applying
• Provision Azure resources with terraform apply and confirm the deployment in the Azure portal
• Remove specific resources with terraform destroy -target and perform a full environment teardown

Who is this lab for?

This lab is designed for:

• Infrastructure engineers learning the core Terraform workflow who need hands-on practice with each command before working in production
• DevOps practitioners looking to establish safe habits around plan-before-apply and targeted destroy operations
• Terraform Associate (003) candidates preparing for exam objectives covering the Terraform workflow, CLI commands, and resource lifecycle