Even the most sophisticated infrastructure architecture cannot prevent every error. That is why it is essential to monitor Terraform operations proactively - especially those with potentially destructive impact. The goal is to detect critical changes early and trigger automated alerts before an uncontrolled blast radius occurs.
Sure - your system engineer will undoubtedly point out that Terraform displays the full plan before executing an apply, and that execution must be confirmed by entering "yes".
What your engineer does not mention: they do not actually read the plan before allowing it to proceed.
“It'll be fine.”
Read more: Terraform @ Scale - Part 3c: Monitoring and Alerting for Blast Radius Events
The Key/Value Secrets Engine is an integral part of almost every Vault implementation. It forms the foundation for securely storing static secrets and is used far more frequently in practice than many dynamic engines.
Following the theoretical introduction in part 2a, this article turns to the practical work with the KV Engine. We demonstrate how to write, read, update and delete secrets, and provide a practical analysis of the differences between KV Version 1 and Version 2. The focus is on production-relevant commands, realistic pitfalls and concrete recommendations for day-to-day operations, which is why I present this knowledge as a mixture of tutorial and cheat sheet.
Read more: HashiCorp Vault Deep Dive – Part 2b: Practical Work with the Key/Value Secrets Engine
Despite careful blast radius minimisation, segmented states and lifecycle guardrails, it can happen sooner or later: a terraform apply accidentally deletes production resources, or a terraform destroy affects more than intended.
What to do once the damage is already done?
In the previous article of this series, I explained how to minimise the blast radius. In this follow-up, I will show proven techniques for restoring damaged Terraform states and limiting the impact after an incident.
Read more: Terraform @Scale - Part 3b: Blast Radius Recovery Strategies
After having gained a solid overview of the entire ecosystem of secrets engines in the first part, we now delve into the daily life of every Vault cluster. The Key / Value (KV) Secrets Engine is the workhorse for all scenarios where secrets need to be securely stored, versioned, and later retrieved in a targeted way.
Read more: HashiCorp Vault Deep Dive - Part 2a: Activating the Key/Value Secrets Engine
🔥 A single terraform destroy - and suddenly, 15 customer systems go offline 🔥
The "Friday afternoon destroyer" has struck again.
In this two-part article, we examine one of the most significant structural infrastructure problems, as well as one of the most underestimated risks of Infrastructure-as-Code, from a management perspective. We help companies systematically minimize blast radius risks.
Because the best explosion is the one that never happens.
Read more: Terraform @ Scale - Part 3a: Blast-Radius Management
