Setting up git backend

Setting up git backend requires a short setup.
The main advantage with it - is that the "bootstrap" layer for this setup is really minimal - and requires basically creating a new repository to store your state at.
This guide will walkthrough you to create a git backend in Github.
If you already have a repository - skip right to step 3.

Architechture

We are going to have total of 2 repositories.
One repository should be your usual IAC terraform repository - you should already have one - or create a new one.
The second repository will be to manage the terraform state - and it's recommended to be separately from the IAC repo.
Terraflex is going to manage this repository automatically - and it's going to be cloned by default at: ~/.local/share/terraflex/git_storage/<state-repo-name>.

Links

Checkout used repositories in this guide: - State repository - IAC

Step 1 - Create a new repository

Login into github open the menu in the top right - and click on New repository.

In the opened form select the owner as your current user or organization.
Enter a new name for your state repository.
It's recommended to set the repository visablilty to private - but you can set it to either public or private - doesn't really matter (as the state will be encrypted in our example).
I will create it as public to allow you to see the repository later on.

After creating the repository - you should see something similar to the following:

Step 2 - Initialize the state repository

Go to your terminal and initialize the state repository in your favorite way.
In my case I'm going to use the following snippet:

mkdir tf-state-example
cd tf-state-example
echo "# tf-state-example" > README.md
git init
git add README.md
git commit -m "first commit"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin git@github.com:IamShobe/tf-state-example.git
git push -u origin main

Failure

Make sure to adjust the commands to your repository path! - otherwise you will encounter some permissions issues or not found errors etc...

Once done - your repository should look something like that:

Keep the remote origin url:

In my case it's git@github.com:IamShobe/tf-state-example.git.

Step 3 - Create a terraflex.yaml file in your target terraform folder

You can complete this step by either creating this file yourself -
or automatically using terraflex init.
In this guide we will be using terraflex init.

Go to your IAC repository - and run:

$ terraflex init

A new wizard should be created - follow the instructions and fill all the required fields.

Once done, a snippet should be printed on your screen to allow you to setup the new terraform backend.
In my example:

backend "http" {
    address = "http://localhost:8600/main/state"
    lock_address = "http://localhost:8600/main/lock"
    lock_method = "PUT"
    unlock_address = "http://localhost:8600/main/lock"
    unlock_method = "DELETE"
}

Step 4 - Configuring your terraform backend to work against the new backend

Open your terraform config file and change the backend to the backend snippet from last step:

Save the file and that's it! We are ready to test up everything!

Step 5 - Initializing backend and migrating state

If you already used the terraform with a different backend - you can migrate the state using:

$ terraflex wrap -- terraform init -migrate-state

In my case I'm stating a new IAC repository so I can simply use:

$ terraflex wrap -- terraform init

For any terraform command use terraflex wrap to startup the backend while the terraform command is running!

Danger

Keeping secrets in disk is not ideal - you might lose your key if you lose your disk - which means you might lose your access to your state file.
Make sure to backup the secret somewhere safe - so it will be recoverable.
If you have password managers like 1Password, Bitwarden or any other - make sure to back it up there.
Terraflex actually supports integration with 1Password - so you wont need to hold a copy of it on your disk.