Terraform Lifecycle

Terraform follows a well-defined lifecycle for managing infrastructure as code. The lifecycle consists of several stages that ensure resources are created, updated, or destroyed in a controlled manner.

1. Initialization (`terraform init`)

Prepares the working directory for Terraform operations.
Downloads required provider plugins and modules.
Configures the backend for storing state files.

2. Planning (`terraform plan`)

Analyzes the existing state and the desired configuration.
Shows a preview of what actions Terraform will take.
Helps in reviewing changes before applying them.

3. Application (`terraform apply`)

Executes the planned changes to create, update, or destroy resources.
Stores the updated state in the backend.