Terragrunt is an enhancement for Terraform that provides two main benefits
- Avoid duplication of Terraform code
- Simplify command line usage
Introducing an additional DevOps tool can be a time-consuming effort, especially to an existing Terraform codebase. This article will help you make an informed cost-benefit decision whether Terragrunt is a correct choice for your business.
The Rocket Insights DevOps practice believes that the benefits of clean code, easier configuration, and ease of use outweighs the cost of introducing Terragrunt into the tool chain.
DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) is a fundamental computer programming principle of avoiding the duplication of code in multiple places. If code is copied into different sections, when it comes time to modify the that code, you will have to change it in multiple sections. Most likely you will miss updating a section and cause bugs. A better approach is to define the code in one place and reuse it. This way there is only one place to make the change. (NOTE: Too wordy stream of consciousness. Trim it down)
The GitHub example code for this article has numerous comments highlighting the benefits to Terragrunt.
Terragrunt benefits: Keep config DRY Easy to see scope of variables Auto create TF S3/DynamoDB Usability . only edit common.hcl and env.hcl
Not a big fan of workspaces Git symlinks are kludgy and don't work well on Windows no terragrunt init