Terraform 101: The Ultimate Hands-On Guide [Azure Edition]

A Practical, Step-by-Step Guide to Building and Automating Azure Infrastructure with Terraform

This course offers a beginner-friendly introduction to Terraform, covering the basics of the Terraform CLI and HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL) in a cloud-agnostic way. You’ll learn how to set up Azure using the “azurerm” provider, starting with configuring a storage account for remote state management. Next, you’ll build a local runner (or script) that makes it easier to manage multiple environments directly from your own workstation. Then, you’ll set up key DevOps infrastructure, including Azure KeyVault for secret management and Azure Monitor for observability, capturing logs and metrics to ensure your deployments run smoothly.

Leading you through these topics is Mark Tinderholt, currently a Principal Architect at Microsoft Azure. Mark brings a highly practical perspective drawn from over 25 years of real-world experience in software development, technology consulting, and leading teams. He has worked on everything from data center migrations to microservices architecture and multi-tenant SaaS solutions, all while driving DevOps culture at organizations both large and small. Because he’s not a typical “professional trainer,” but rather a veteran industry practitioner, his instruction is hands-on and focused on real-world scenarios. This approach makes learning both intuitive and immediately applicable to modern infrastructure challenges, ensuring that you gain the skills to succeed in today’s fast-paced Cloud and DevOps landscape.

As you progress, you’ll create an Azure Virtual Network and deploy a Linux Virtual Machine, exploring various connectivity options such as SSH and Azure Bastion. We'll also enable Entra ID Authentication and explore how to automate Entra ID using the "azuread" Terraform Provider. Finally, we'll look at the "other" Azure Terraform provider--the "azapi" Terraform Provider which unlocks Day Zero Support for new Azure services and features. 

Throughout the course, you’ll pick up best practices for structuring your Terraform code, handling multiple environments, and maintaining a reliable infrastructure as code workflow. By the end, you’ll have a strong grasp of Terraform fundamentals and Azure essentials—perfect if you’re just starting out with either technology or if you’re looking to solidify your cloud infrastructure skills. With Mark’s guidance, you’ll gain the confidence to design and deploy repeatable, scalable infrastructure on Azure using Terraform.