Demo Multiple Providers

In this lesson, we explore configuring and managing multiple providers within a single OpenTofu project directory. By the end, you’ll be able to initialize, apply, and troubleshoot provider plugins across various configurations.

Overview
Inspecting an Existing Configuration
Initializing Providers
Creating a Multi-Provider Configuration
Exploring Additional Provider Resources
Practice Task: local_file Resource
Adding a New Provider-Based Resource
Summary & References

1. Overview

OpenTofu allows you to use multiple providers in the same configuration directory. This means you can manage local, random, AWS, Kubernetes, and other resources from a single project.

Make sure you have OpenTofu installed and your CLI configured before starting.
Read the OpenTofu Installation Guide for more details.

2. Inspecting an Existing Configuration

Navigate to the example directory:

cd /root/opentofu-projects/multi-provider
ls -1

You should see two resource files and no .terraform folder—initialized provider count: 0. Main configuration (main.tf):

resource "local_file" "pet_name" {
  content  = "We love pets!"
  filename = "/root/pets.txt"
}

resource "random_pet" "my-pet" {
  prefix    = "Mrs"
  separator = "."
  length    = 1
}

3. Initializing Providers

Initialize the configuration to download provider plugins:

tofu init

Inspect the plugins directory:

ls .terraform/providers

Provider	Plugin Count
local	1
random	1

Total providers initialized: 2.

4. Creating a New Multi-Provider Configuration

Create and navigate to a new project:

mkdir -p /root/opentofu-projects/mpl
cd /root/opentofu-projects/mpl

Create pet-name.tf:

resource "local_file" "my-pet" {
  filename = "/root/pet-name"
  content  = "My pet is called Pennegan."
}

resource "random_pet" "other-pet" {
  length    = 1
  prefix    = "Mr"
  separator = "."
}

Initialize and apply:

tofu init
tofu apply

Confirm with yes. Expected output:

random_pet.other-pet: Creation complete after 0s [id=Mr.camel]
local_file.my-pet: Creation complete after 0s [id=/root/pet-name]
Apply complete! Resources: 2 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

5. Exploring Additional Provider Resources

Switch to another example directory:

cd /root/opentofu-projects/provider

In cloud-provider.tf (AWS EC2 instance):

resource "aws_instance" "ec2_instance" {
  ami           = "ami-0eda277a0b884c5ab"
  instance_type = "t2.large"
}

Instance Type: t2.large

In kube.tf (Kubernetes namespace):

resource "kubernetes_namespace" "dev" {
  metadata {
    name = "development"
  }
}

Namespace Resource Name: dev

6. Practice Task: Creating a `local_file` Resource

Create code.tf:

resource "local_file" "iac_code" {
  filename = "/opt/practice"
  content  = "Setting up infrastructure as code"
}

Run validation:

tofu init
tofu validate

Everything should pass successfully.

7. Adding a New Provider-Based Resource

Update code.tf by appending a random_string resource:

resource "local_file" "iac_code" {
  filename = "/opt/practice"
  content  = "Setting up infrastructure as code"
}

resource "random_string" "iac_random" {
  length    = 10
  min_upper = 5
}

Attempt to apply:

tofu apply

You may encounter an inconsistent dependency lock file error.

Run tofu init -upgrade to update the provider lock file and install the latest plugin version.

Upgrade and re-apply:

tofu init -upgrade
tofu apply

Confirm with yes. Expected output:

local_file.iac_code: Creating...
random_string.iac_random: Creating...
Apply complete! Resources: 2 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Course Introduction

Introduction to Infrastructure as Code

OpenTofu Basics

OpenTofu State

Working with OpenTofu

Remote State

OpenTofu Provisioners

OpenTofu Import, Tainting Resources and Deubugging

OpenTofu Modules

OpenTofu Functions and Conditional Expressions

OpenTofu: Beyond Basics

Course Conclusion

Getting Started with OpenTofu

Demo Multiple Providers

Table of Contents

1. Overview

2. Inspecting an Existing Configuration

3. Initializing Providers

4. Creating a New Multi-Provider Configuration

5. Exploring Additional Provider Resources

6. Practice Task: Creating a `local_file` Resource

7. Adding a New Provider-Based Resource

8. Summary & References

Watch Video

Practice Lab

​Table of Contents

​1. Overview

​2. Inspecting an Existing Configuration

​3. Initializing Providers

​4. Creating a New Multi-Provider Configuration

​5. Exploring Additional Provider Resources

​6. Practice Task: Creating a local_file Resource

​7. Adding a New Provider-Based Resource

​8. Summary & References

Watch Video

Practice Lab

Table of Contents

1. Overview

2. Inspecting an Existing Configuration

3. Initializing Providers

4. Creating a New Multi-Provider Configuration

5. Exploring Additional Provider Resources

6. Practice Task: Creating a `local_file` Resource

7. Adding a New Provider-Based Resource

8. Summary & References