Pass the HashiCorp Terraform Associate Terraform-Associate-003 Questions and answers with CertsForce

The terraform state file is locked when a Terraform operation that could write state is in progress. This prevents concurrent state operations that could corrupt the state. The forbidden actions when the state file is locked are those that could write state, such as terraform apply, terraform destroy, terraform refresh, terraform taint, terraform untaint, terraform import, and terraform state *. The terraform validate command is also forbidden, because it requires an initialized working directory with the state file. The allowed actions when the state file is locked are those that only read state, such as terraform plan, terraform show, terraform output, and terraform console. References = [State Locking] and [Command: validate]

This is what you must do to successfully retrieve this value from your networking module, as it will expose the attribute as an output value that can be referenced by other modules or resources. The error message indicates that the networking module does not have an output value named vnet_id, which causes the reference to fail.

This is the scenario that poses a challenge for this team, if they adopt AWS CloudFormation as their standardized method for provisioning public cloud resources, as CloudFormation only supports AWS services and resources, and cannot be used to provision infrastructure on other cloud platforms such as Azure.

When upgrading a provider,you must run terraform init -upgrade to install the new version.

Thisdownloads the latest provider versionand updates the local dependency cache.

terraform refresh(A)only updates the state file but doesnotupgrade providers.

terraform apply -upgrade(C)isnot a valid command.

terraform version can be upgraded separately, but(D)does not install a new provider version.

Official Terraform Documentation Reference:

Upgrading Providers in Terraform

This is the backend that the Terraform CLI uses by default, unless you specify a different backend in your configuration. The local backend stores the state file in a local file named terraform.tfstate, which can be used to track and manage the state of your infrastructure.

Theversion argumentin a module ensures Terraform uses aspecific versionof a module, preventing unintended updates.

A (source)– Specifies the module source butdoes not control versioning.

B (count)– Controls how many instances of a resource/module exist,not updates.

D (lifecycle)– Controls how resources behavebut does not control module versioning.

Official Terraform Documentation Reference:

Module Version Constraints

A module cannot always refer to all variables declared in its parent module, as it needs to explicitly declare input variables and assign values to them from the parent module’s arguments. A module cannot access the parent module’s variables directly, unless they are passed as input arguments.

Terraform’s Indentation Standards: Terraform’s style convention usestwo spaces per nesting levelfor readability, helping to maintain uniform code across teams.

Configuration Files: Consistent indentation is crucial for Terraform’s HCL syntax, as it improves readability and avoids parsing issues.

More details are available in theTerraform configuration style guide.

From the official Terraform Type Constraints Documentation:

The object({ name = string, age = number }) type expects:

name to be aquoted string, e.g. "John"

age to be anumber, e.g. 52

Option Bsatisfies both:

{

name = "John" #✅Valid string

age = 52 #✅Valid number

}

Let's analyze the incorrect ones:

❌Option A: "fifty two" is not a valid number.

❌Option C: John is unquoted (invalid string), and "fifty two" is not a number.

❌Option D: name = John is not quoted, making it an invalid string in HCL.

Terraform is strict about type and formatting. Stringsmust be quoted, and numbersmust be numeric literals.

Not all modules published on the official Terraform Module Registry have been verified by HashiCorp. While HashiCorp verifies some modules, there are many community-contributed modules that are not verified. Verified modules have a "Verified" badge indicating that HashiCorp has reviewed them for security and best practices, but the registry also includes unverified modules.