Best practices for managing Terraform State files in AWS

Customers want to reduce manual operations for deploying and maintaining their infrastructure. The recommended method to deploy and manage infrastructure on AWS is to follow Infrastructure-As-Code (IaC) model using tools like AWS CloudFormation, AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) or Terraform. One of the critical components in terraform is managing the state file which keeps track of your configuration and resources. When you run terraform in an AWS CI/CD pipeline the state file has to be stored in a secured, common path to which the pipeline has access to. You need a mechanism to lock it when multiple developers in the team want to access it at the same time. By default, the state file is stored locally where terraform runs, which is not a problem if you are a single developer working on the deployment. However if not, it is not ideal to store state files locally as you may run into following problems: When working in teams or collaborative environments, multiple people need access to the state file Data in the state file is stored in plain text which may contain secrets or sensitive information Local files can get lost, corrupted, or deleted. The recommended practice for managing state files is to use terraform’s built-in support for remote backends. These are: Remote backend on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3): You can configure terraform to store state files in an Amazon S3 bucket which provides a durable and scalable storage solution. Storing on Amazon S3 also enables collaboration that allows you to share state file with others. Remote backend on Amazon S3 with Amazon DynamoDB: In addition to using an Amazon S3 bucket for managing the files, you can use an Amazon DynamoDB table to lock the state file. This will allow only one person to modify a particular state file at any given time. It will help to avoid conflicts and enable safe concurrent access to the state file. There are other options available as well such as remote backend on terraform cloud and third party backends. Ultimately, the best method for managing terraform state files on AWS will depend on your specific requirements. When deploying terraform on AWS, the preferred choice of managing state is using Amazon S3 with Amazon DynamoDB. For more details on AWS configurations for managing state files, Design Architecture and an example of how efficiently you can manage them in a Continuous Integration pipeline in AWS, check out my blog post on official AWS channel.

Apr 1, 2025 - 08:20

Best practices for managing Terraform State files in AWS

Customers want to reduce manual operations for deploying and maintaining their infrastructure. The recommended method to deploy and manage infrastructure on AWS is to follow Infrastructure-As-Code (IaC) model using tools like AWS CloudFormation, AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) or Terraform.

One of the critical components in terraform is managing the state file which keeps track of your configuration and resources. When you run terraform in an AWS CI/CD pipeline the state file has to be stored in a secured, common path to which the pipeline has access to. You need a mechanism to lock it when multiple developers in the team want to access it at the same time.

By default, the state file is stored locally where terraform runs, which is not a problem if you are a single developer working on the deployment. However if not, it is not ideal to store state files locally as you may run into following problems:

When working in teams or collaborative environments, multiple people need access to the state file
Data in the state file is stored in plain text which may contain secrets or sensitive information
Local files can get lost, corrupted, or deleted.

The recommended practice for managing state files is to use terraform’s built-in support for remote backends. These are:

Remote backend on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3): You can configure terraform to store state files in an Amazon S3 bucket which provides a durable and scalable storage solution. Storing on Amazon S3 also enables collaboration that allows you to share state file with others.

Remote backend on Amazon S3 with Amazon DynamoDB: In addition to using an Amazon S3 bucket for managing the files, you can use an Amazon DynamoDB table to lock the state file. This will allow only one person to modify a particular state file at any given time. It will help to avoid conflicts and enable safe concurrent access to the state file.

There are other options available as well such as remote backend on terraform cloud and third party backends. Ultimately, the best method for managing terraform state files on AWS will depend on your specific requirements.

When deploying terraform on AWS, the preferred choice of managing state is using Amazon S3 with Amazon DynamoDB.

For more details on AWS configurations for managing state files, Design Architecture and an example of how efficiently you can manage them in a Continuous Integration pipeline in AWS, check out my blog post on official AWS channel.