TA-002-P Free Practice Test

- (Exam Topic 4)
During a terraform plan, a resource is successfully created but eventually fails during provisioning. What happens to the resource?

1. A. Terraform attempts to provision the resource up to three times before exiting with an error
2. B. the terraform plan is rolled back and all provisioned resources are removed
3. C. it is automatically deleted
4. D. the resource is marked as tainted

Correct Answer: D
If a resource successfully creates but fails during provisioning, Terraform will error and mark the resource as "tainted". A resource that is tainted has been physically created, but can't be considered safe to use since provisioning failed. Terraform also does not automatically roll back and destroy the resource during the apply when the failure happens, because that would go against the execution plan: the execution plan would've said a resource will be created, but does not say it will ever be deleted.

- (Exam Topic 3)
You want terraform plan and terraform apply to be executed in Terraform Cloud's run environment but the output is to be streamed locally. Which one of the below you will choose?

1. A. Local Backends.
2. B. Terraform Backends.
3. C. This can be done using any of the local or remote backends.
4. D. Remote Backends.

Correct Answer: D
When using full remote operations, operations like terraform plan or terraform apply can be executed in Terraform Cloud's run environment, with log output streaming to the local terminal. Remote plans and applies use variable values from the associated Terraform Cloud workspace.
Terraform Cloud can also be used with local operations, in which case only state is stored in the Terraform Cloud backend.
https://www.terraform.io/docs/backends/types/remote.html

- (Exam Topic 1)
Terraform validate reports syntax check errors from which of the following scenarios?

1. A. Code contains tabs indentation instead of spaces
2. B. There is missing value for a variable
3. C. The state files does not match the current infrastructure
4. D. None of the above

Correct Answer: B
The terraform validate command is used to validate the syntax of the terraform files. Terraform performs a syntax check on all the terraform files in the directory, and will display an error if any of the files doesn't validate. This command does not check formatting (e.g. tabs vs spaces, newlines, comments etc.). The following can be reported: invalid HCL syntax (e.g. missing trailing quote or equal sign) invalid HCL references (e.g. variable name or attribute which doesn't exist) same provider declared multiple times same module declared multiple times same resource declared multiple times invalid module name interpolation used in places where it's unsupported (e.g. variable, depends_on, module.source, provider) missing value for a variable (none of -var foo=... flag, -var-file=foo.vars flag, TF_VAR_foo environment variable, terraform.tfvars, or default value in the configuration) https://www.typeerror.org/docs/terraform/commands/validate
https://learning-ocean.com/tutorials/terraform/terraform-validate

- (Exam Topic 2)
Environment variables can be used to set variables. The environment variables must be in the format " "_. Select the correct prefix string from the following list.

1. A. TF_CLI_ARGS
2. B. TF_VAR
3. C. TF_VAR_
4. D. TF_VAR_ENV

Correct Answer: C
Environment variables can be used to set variables. The environment variables must be in the format TF_VAR_name and this will be checked last for a value. For example:
export TF_VAR_region=us-west-1
export TF_VAR_ami=ami-049d8641 export TF_VAR_alist='[1,2,3]'
export TF_VAR_amap='{ foo = "bar", baz = "qux" }' https://www.terraform.io/docs/commands/environment-variables.html

- (Exam Topic 2)
What is the purpose of using the local-exec provisioner? (Select Two)

1. A. To invoke a local executable.
2. B. Executes a command on the resource to invoke an update to the Terraform state.
3. C. To execute one or more commands on the machine running Terraform.
4. D. Ensures that the resource is only executed in the local infrastructure where Terraform is deployed.

Correct Answer: AC
The local-exec provisioner invokes a local executable after a resource is created. This invokes a process on the machine running Terraform, not on the resource.
Note that even though the resource will be fully created when the provisioner is run, there is no guarantee that it will be in an operable state - for example system services such as sshd may not be started yet on compute resources.
Example usage
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
# ...
provisioner "local-exec" {
command = "echo ${aws_instance.web.private_ip} >> private_ips.txt"
}
}
Note: Provisioners should only be used as a last resort. For most common situations there are better alternatives.
https://www.terraform.io/docs/provisioners/local-exec.html