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Quickstart: Create an Azure SQL Database server and database using Terraform

  • Article

Applies to: Azure SQL Database

Creating a single database is the quickest and simplest option to create a database in Azure SQL Database. This quickstart shows you how to create a single database using Terraform.

Terraform enables the definition, preview, and deployment of cloud infrastructure. Using Terraform, you create configuration files using HCL syntax. The HCL syntax allows you to specify the cloud provider - such as Azure - and the elements that make up your cloud infrastructure. After you create your configuration files, you create an execution plan that allows you to preview your infrastructure changes before they're deployed. Once you verify the changes, you apply the execution plan to deploy the infrastructure.

In this article, you learn how to:

Prerequisites

Permissions

To create databases via Transact-SQL: CREATE DATABASE permissions are necessary. To create a database a login must be either the server admin login (created when the Azure SQL Database logical server was provisioned), the Microsoft Entra admin of the server, a member of the dbmanager database role in master. For more information, see CREATE DATABASE.

To create databases via the Azure portal, PowerShell, Azure CLI, or REST API: Azure RBAC permissions are needed, specifically the Contributor, SQL DB Contributor, or SQL Server Contributor Azure RBAC role. For more information, see Azure RBAC built-in roles.

Implement the Terraform code

Note

The sample code for this article is located in the Azure Terraform GitHub repo. You can view the log file containing the test results from current and previous versions of Terraform.

See more articles and sample code showing how to use Terraform to manage Azure resources

  1. Create a directory in which to test and run the sample Terraform code and make it the current directory.

  2. Create a file named providers.tf and insert the following code:

    terraform {
  required_version = ">=1.0"
  required_providers {
    azurerm = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
    random = {
      source  = "hashicorp/random"
      version = "~>3.0"
    }
  }
}
provider "azurerm" {
  features {}
}

  3. Create a file named main.tf and insert the following code:

    resource "random_pet" "rg_name" {
  prefix = var.resource_group_name_prefix
}

resource "azurerm_resource_group" "rg" {
  name     = random_pet.rg_name.id
  location = var.resource_group_location
}

resource "random_pet" "azurerm_mssql_server_name" {
  prefix = "sql"
}

resource "random_password" "admin_password" {
  count       = var.admin_password == null ? 1 : 0
  length      = 20
  special     = true
  min_numeric = 1
  min_upper   = 1
  min_lower   = 1
  min_special = 1
}

locals {
  admin_password = try(random_password.admin_password[0].result, var.admin_password)
}

resource "azurerm_mssql_server" "server" {
  name                         = random_pet.azurerm_mssql_server_name.id
  resource_group_name          = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
  location                     = azurerm_resource_group.rg.location
  administrator_login          = var.admin_username
  administrator_login_password = local.admin_password
  version                      = "12.0"
}

resource "azurerm_mssql_database" "db" {
  name      = var.sql_db_name
  server_id = azurerm_mssql_server.server.id
}

  4. Create a file named variables.tf and insert the following code:

    variable "resource_group_location" {
  type        = string
  description = "Location for all resources."
  default     = "eastus"
}

variable "resource_group_name_prefix" {
  type        = string
  description = "Prefix of the resource group name that's combined with a random ID so name is unique in your Azure subscription."
  default     = "rg"
}

variable "sql_db_name" {
  type        = string
  description = "The name of the SQL Database."
  default     = "SampleDB"
}

variable "admin_username" {
  type        = string
  description = "The administrator username of the SQL logical server."
  default     = "azureadmin"
}

variable "admin_password" {
  type        = string
  description = "The administrator password of the SQL logical server."
  sensitive   = true
  default     = null
}

  5. Create a file named outputs.tf and insert the following code:

    output "resource_group_name" {
  value = azurerm_resource_group.rg.name
}

output "sql_server_name" {
  value = azurerm_mssql_server.server.name
}


output "admin_password" {
  sensitive = true
  value     = local.admin_password
}

Initialize Terraform

Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform deployment. This command downloads the Azure provider required to manage your Azure resources.

terraform init -upgrade

Key points:

  • The -upgrade parameter upgrades the necessary provider plugins to the newest version that complies with the configuration's version constraints.

Create a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform plan to create an execution plan.

terraform plan -out main.tfplan

Key points:

  • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
  • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan to your cloud infrastructure.

terraform apply main.tfplan

Key points:

  • The example terraform apply command assumes you previously ran terraform plan -out main.tfplan.
  • If you specified a different filename for the -out parameter, use that same filename in the call to terraform apply.
  • If you didn't use the -out parameter, call terraform apply without any parameters.

Verify the results

  1. Get the Azure resource group name.

    resource_group_name=$(terraform output -raw resource_group_name)

  2. Get the new logical server name.

    sql_server_name=$(terraform output -raw sql_server_name)

  3. Run az sql db list to display the names of all the databases in your server.

    az sql db list \
--resource-group $resource_group_name \
--server $sql_server_name \
--output table

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created via Terraform, do the following steps:

  1. Run terraform plan and specify the destroy flag.

    terraform plan -destroy -out main.destroy.tfplan

    Key points:

    • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
    • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

  2. Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan.

    terraform apply main.destroy.tfplan

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Troubleshoot common problems when using Terraform on Azure

Next step

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