Lack of support for provider aliases in f5os provider - how to configure two systems in one Terraform workspace run?

[anordby]

Hello!

I have two rSeries systems I try to configure with this provider. To set up VLANs and everything on both systems (without any config sync or so between them) I need the provider to be able to talk to both systems with the same provider. I tried using aliases which is a common approach with other providers:
provider "f5os" {

Dummy base provider not to be used, use the aliased ones

Needs to be here to avoid error in plan

username = "admin"
password = data.sops_file.credentials.data.f5os_password
host = local.rseries_systems.f5r1.host
disable_tls_verify = true
}

provider "f5os" {
alias = "f5r1"
username = "admin"
password = data.sops_file.credentials.data.f5os_password
host = local.rseries_systems.f5r1.host
disable_tls_verify = true
}

provider "f5os" {
alias = "f5r2"
username = "admin"
password = data.sops_file.credentials.data.f5os_password
host = local.rseries_systems.f5r2.host
disable_tls_verify = true
}

This does not work. With the above setup, all VLANs and up in the provider without alias, no matter if I use provider = f5os.f5r1 or fos.f5r2. Can this be fixed?

If I skip the "base" provider without alias the configuration fails in plan with errors:

Error: Missing 'host' in provider configuration
with provider["registry.terraform.io/f5networks/f5os"]
on line 0: While configuring the provider, 'host' was not found in the F5OS_HOST environment variable or provider configuration block host attribute.
Error: Missing 'username' in provider configuration
with provider["registry.terraform.io/f5networks/f5os"]
on line 0: While configuring the provider, username was not found in the F5OS_USERNAME environment variable or provider configuration block 'username' attribute.
Error: Missing 'password' in provider configuration
with provider["registry.terraform.io/f5networks/f5os"]
on line 0: While configuring the provider, 'password' was not found in the F5OS_PASSWORD environment variable or provider configuration block 'password' attribute.
Error: Get "https://:8888/restconf/data/openconfig-system:system/aaa": http: server gave HTTP response to HTTPS client
with provider["registry.terraform.io/f5networks/f5os"]
on line 0:
Error: Invalid provider configuration
Provider "registry.terraform.io/f5networks/f5os" requires explicit configuration. Add a provider block to the root module and configure the provider's required arguments as described in the provider documentation.

[anordby]

Update: I had an error in my config preventing updates to both rseries boxes.

However I still need to have a dummy provider config in order to have the Terraform plan work at all, without it I get the errors above. Can you look into it?

[ddouglas-bah]

I'm new to F5, but very experienced with terrraformi n general. This looks like you have a required_providers block defined some where but you didn't add the aliases to the required_providers block, so you're requiring the f5os provider in that block, but since you aliased each provider terraform is seeing each of them as f5os.f5r1 and f5os.f5r2.

[anordby]

Good advice. But, I tried to add configuration aliases in required_providers and removing the dummy provider. It did not help. First, the change:

The plan I get after it (running terraform init does not help):

@ddouglas-bah

[ddouglas-bah]

Hmmm, there is something else at play here. iirc, alias support isn't something the provider provides. That comes from terraform core. It might have of changed, but I doubt it. Are you referencing those aliases now when you make calls to modules, resources, etc

[anordby]

Hmm I thought so, but I had one non aliased use of f5os provider. Removed that fixed it. Thanks! @ddouglas-bah
Will close this ticket.