Install and configure Terraform

This page describes the steps to install and configure Terraform for Google Cloud in Cloud Shell and in a local shell. Cloud Shell is an interactive shell environment for Google Cloud that lets you learn and experiment with Google Cloud and manage your projects and resources from your web browser.

Cloud Shell

To use an online terminal with the gcloud CLI and Terraform already set up, activate Cloud Shell:

At the bottom of this page, a Cloud Shell session starts and displays a command-line prompt. It can take a few seconds for the session to initialize.
Create or select a Google Cloud project.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.
- Create a Google Cloud project:
```
gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID
```
  Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.
- Select the Google Cloud project that you created:
```
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
```
  Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.
To provision Google Cloud resources using Terraform, you must enable the corresponding APIs:
```
gcloud services enable "API"
```
Replace API with the API you want to enable.
To provision Google Cloud resources using Terraform, you require Identity and Access Management roles that are specific to these resources.
1. From the IAM roles reference page, determine the required role(s).
2. Grant roles to your Google Account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles:
```
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="user:EMAIL_ADDRESS" --role=ROLE
```
  - Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.
  - Replace EMAIL_ADDRESS with your email address.
  - Replace ROLE with each individual role.

Run the following command to verify that Terraform is available:

terraform

The output should be similar to the following:


Usage: terraform [global options] <subcommand> [args]

The available commands for execution are listed below.
The primary workflow commands are given first, followed by
less common or more advanced commands.

Main commands:
  init          Prepare your working directory for other commands
  validate      Check whether the configuration is valid
  plan          Show changes required by the current configuration
  apply         Create or update infrastructure
  destroy       Destroy previously-created infrastructure

Local shell

Create or select a Google Cloud project.

Note: If you don't plan to keep the resources that you create in this procedure, create a project instead of selecting an existing project. After you finish these steps, you can delete the project, removing all resources associated with the project.
- Create a Google Cloud project:
```
gcloud projects create PROJECT_ID
```
  Replace PROJECT_ID with a name for the Google Cloud project you are creating.
- Select the Google Cloud project that you created:
```
gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
```
  Replace PROJECT_ID with your Google Cloud project name.
Make sure that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.
Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command:
```
gcloud init
```
Enable the required APIs:
```
gcloud services enable "API"
```
Where API is the API you want to enable.
To provision Google Cloud resource using Terraform, you require Identity and Access Management roles that are specific to these resources.
1. From the IAM roles reference page, determine the required role(s).
2. Grant roles to your Google Account. Run the following command once for each of the following IAM roles:
```
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID --member="user:EMAIL_ADDRESS" --role=ROLE
```
  - Replace PROJECT_ID with your project ID.
  - Replace EMAIL_ADDRESS with your email address.
  - Replace ROLE with each individual role.
Install Terraform.

Run the following command to verify that Terraform is available:

terraform

The output should be similar to the following:


 Usage: terraform [global options] <subcommand> [args]

The available commands for execution are listed below.
The primary workflow commands are given first, followed by
less common or more advanced commands.

Main commands:
  init          Prepare your working directory for other commands
  validate      Check whether the configuration is valid
  plan          Show changes required by the current configuration
  apply         Create or update infrastructure
  destroy       Destroy previously-created infrastructure

What's next

Work through the Terraform for Google Cloud quickstart
Learn about the basic Terraform commands.