Terraform for Docker: A Quick Start Guide

What You Need:

Terraform installed
Docker installed and running locally
Terraform Docker provider initialized

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Create a project directory

mkdir terraform-docker-demo && cd terraform-docker-demo

2. Create Terraform Configuration Files

`main.tf`

terraform {
  required_providers {
    docker = {
      source  = "kreuzwerker/docker"
      version = "~> 3.0.2"
    }
  }
}

provider "docker" {}

resource "docker_image" "nginx" {
  name = "nginx:latest"
}

resource "docker_container" "nginx_container" {
  name  = "demo-nginx"
  image = docker_image.nginx.latest
  ports {
    internal = 80
    external = 8080
  }
}

`versions.tf`

terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.0.0"
}

3. Initialize Terraform

terraform init

4. Plan the Execution

terraform plan

5. Apply the Plan

terraform apply -auto-approve

This will:

Pull the nginx image
Create a Docker container running Nginx and expose it on port 8080

🌐 Test It

Open your browser or run:

curl http://localhost:8080

You should see the Nginx welcome page.

Clean Up

To stop and remove the container and image:

terraform destroy -auto-approve

Use Cases for Docker + Terraform

Local development setups with multiple services
Quickly provisioning test environments
Managing Docker infrastructure declaratively