The simplest vm image deploy I can think of.

cd packer-builds/centos-base
export DIGITALOCEAN_API_TOKEN=<THIS IS A SECRET>
./build.sh

This will take a couple of minutes. When finished, you'll see something like

--> digitalocean: A snapshot was created: 'centos-base-1520030694' (ID: 32254966)

Make note of the ID. We'll need to provide this to terraform.

First make a copy of the example tfvars file.

cd terraform
cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

Next, edit terraform.tfvars, and provide the correct values for do_token and centos_base_image_id. The latter is that integer ID printed at the end of the packer build.

vim terraform.tfvars

Next, we must initialize terraform.

# from inside the terraform directory
terraform init

By default, terraform will store its state locally on disk. This means only one developer, the owner of this machine, can work on this terraform repo. Of course, there is a way to store shared state in databases, S3, and elsewhere, but that is beyond the scope of this tutorial. Luckily, it's fairly simple to migrate state from local disk to remote storage.

We're ready to launch some droplets. First let's look at our execution plan.

terraform plan

Since this is our first run, Terraform will show us creating two resources: a single droplet, and a single floating IP that points at that droplet. If something goes wrong here, make sure that your tfvars file is formatted correctly.

The plan looks good, so we apply it.

terraform apply

Terraform knows we're reckless, so it makes us type "yes" at the prompt before actually going through with creating the droplet and floating IP.

If we're successful, we'll see the following message.

Apply complete! Resources: 2 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

If we have Digital Ocean's doctl command line installed we can get some useful data at any time.

Review our image IDs at any time, in case we didn't grab it after the packer build

doctl compute image list

Look at our running droplets

doctl compute droplet list

Finally, look at our floating ips

doctl compute floating-ip list

You should be able to ssh into your VM through the floating IP.

Terraform makes it terrifyingly simple to destroy everything it has under management. Note that this will only apply to this specific terraform state. Other projects on disk can remain running. Terraform manages them separately.

terraform destroy   # see ya