OpenTofu Workspaces

Every OpenTofu configuration uses a state file to track and manage resources. By default, there’s a single workspace named default. To create multiple environments (for example, development and production) from the same configuration directory, you can use workspaces to isolate state files.

Listing the Default Workspace

Run:

$ tofu workspace list
* default

The asterisk (*) indicates the currently active workspace.

Creating and Switching Workspaces

Create and switch to new workspaces:

$ tofu workspace new production
Created and switched to workspace "production"!

$ tofu workspace new development
Created and switched to workspace "development"!

Listing again shows the active workspace:

$ tofu workspace list
default
production
* development

Workspace Commands Reference

Using Workspaces in Configuration

Suppose your project directory at /root/opentofu/projects/webserver defines an AWS EC2 instance. You need:

• Development: t2.micro
• Production: m5.large
• Region: ca-central-1
• AMI: same for both environments

Update variables.tf to define instance_type as a map:

variable "ami" {
  default = "ami-24e140119877avm"
}

variable "region" {
  default = "ca-central-1"
}

variable "instance_type" {
  type = map(string)
  default = {
    development = "t2.micro"
    production  = "m5.large"
  }
}

In main.tf, use lookup with terraform.workspace and add dynamic tags:

resource "aws_instance" "webserver" {
  ami           = var.ami
  instance_type = lookup(var.instance_type, terraform.workspace)
  tags = {
    Environment = terraform.workspace
  }
}

Verifying Workspace Values

Open the OpenTofu console to inspect workspace-specific values:

$ tofu console
> terraform.workspace
development
> lookup(var.instance_type, terraform.workspace)
t2.micro

$ tofu workspace select production
> terraform.workspace
production
> lookup(var.instance_type, terraform.workspace)
m5.large

Applying Changes per Workspace

In the development workspace:

$ tofu workspace select development
$ tofu apply

OpenTofu will plan:

  # aws_instance.webserver will be created
  + resource "aws_instance" "webserver" {
      + ami           = "ami-24e140119877avm"
      + instance_type = "t2.micro"
      + tags = {
          + "Environment" = "development"
        }
    }

Switch to production and apply:

$ tofu workspace select production
$ tofu apply

OpenTofu will plan:

  # aws_instance.webserver will be created
  + resource "aws_instance" "webserver" {
      + ami           = "ami-24e140119877avm"
      + instance_type = "m5.large"
      + tags = {
          + "Environment" = "production"
        }
    }

Local State File Organization

When using local state, OpenTofu organizes workspace-specific state under terraform.tfstate.d:

$ ls
main.tf    provider.tf    terraform.tfstate.d    variables.tf

$ tree terraform.tfstate.d/
terraform.tfstate.d/
├── development
│   └── terraform.tfstate
└── production
    └── terraform.tfstate

2 directories, 2 files

Each subdirectory holds the terraform.tfstate file for its workspace.

That's it for this lesson. See you in the next one!