remotestate.md

copyright	lastupdated	keywords	subcollection
years 2017, 2025	2025-04-07	about schematics, schematics overview, infrastructure as code, iac, differences schematics and terraform, schematics vs terraform, how does schematics work, schematics benefits, why use schematics, terraform template, schematics workspace	schematics

{{site.data.keyword.attribute-definition-list}}

Remote state and cross-workspace access

{: #remote-state}

{{site.data.keyword.cloud}} provides built in remote-state{: external} management for Terraform. Terraform state files are automatically preserved between runs and are accessible by {{site.data.keyword.cloud}} commands and operations. {{site.data.keyword.cloud}} remote-state management enables team work and workspace shared operations, with built in state locking preventing concurrent operations against the same state file.

The built in workspace remote-state management supports a number of {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}} use cases:

• The sharing of resource information between workspaces. This allows your infrastructure to be broken down into smaller components, with read-only resource information passed between environments using {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}} remote-state data sources. Discrete environments linked by data sources allows responsibility for different elements of infrastructure to be delegated to different teams with information shared between workspaces as read-only resources.
• Integration of workspace and action operations with Actions. Workspace resource information can be directly passed as an Ansible dynamic inventory without the need for manual host inventory creation or use of inventory scripts. {: shortdesc}

Accessing workspace state and outputs

{: #data-sources}

You can access information about the resources that you manage in a workspace from other workspaces in your account by using the ibm_schematics_output{: external} and ibm_schematics_state{: external} data sources.

{{site.data.keyword.cloud}} uses the local built-in Terraform state support and does not use Terraform backend{: external} support. No additional configuration is required within your Terraform configs to enable {{site.data.keyword.cloud}} remote state management. {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}} does not use the Terraform remote_state data source, instead you use the ibm_schematics_output data source to access the information.

How is the ibm_schematics_state data source different from the remote_state data source?
When you use the a remote_state data source, you must configure a backend to connect to your workspaces. With the ibm_schematics_state data source, you automatically have access to the built-in {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}} backend and can access workspace information directly.

What do I need to do to access resource information in other workspaces?
Similar to the remote_state data source, you can only access information that you configured as output values in your Terraform template. For example, let's say you have a workspace that you used to provision a VPC. To access the VPC ID, you must define the ID as an output variable in your Terraform configuration file.

To use the ibm_schematics_output data source:

1. Follow the example in the getting started tutorial to create a {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}} workspaces and provision a virtual server in a VPC. As you follow the instructions, review the output variables that are defined at the end of the vpc.tf Terraform configuration file.

   If you already used a different Terraform configuration file in one of your workspaces, you can use this workspace for the exercise. Make sure to add output values as outlined in this example to your configuration file so that you can access your workspace information later. {: tip}

   output sshcommand {
       value = "ssh root@ibm_is_floating_ip.fip1.address"
   }
   
   output vpc_id {
   value = ibm_is_vpc.vpc.id
   }

   {: screen}

   In this example, two output values are defined, the sshcommand to access the virtual server instance in your VPC and the vpc_id.

2. Retrieve the ID of the VPC workspace that you created.

   Through console:

   • From the workspace dashboard , select the VPC workspace.
   • Select the Settings tab.
   • Find the workspace ID in the Summary section.

   Through CLI:

   • List available workspaces in your account.

     ibmcloud schematics workspace list

     {: pre}

   • Find the workspace ID in the ID column of your command-line output.

   The {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}} ibmcloud terraform command usage displays warning and deprecation message as Alias 'terraform' are deprecated. Use 'schematics' or 'sch' in your commands. {: note}

3. Create another Terraform configuration file that is named remotestate.tf to access the output parameters of the vpc.tf file by using the ibm_schematics_output data source. To allow version control of this file, make sure to store this configuration file in a GitHub or GitLab repository.

   data "ibm_schematics_workspace" "vpc" {
       workspace_id = "<schematics_workspace_ID>"
   }
   
   data "ibm_schematics_output" "vpc" {
       workspace_id = "<schematics_workspace_ID>"
       template_id = data.ibm_schematics_workspace.vpc.runtime_data.0.id
   }
   
   output "output_vars" {
       value = data.ibm_schematics_output.vpc.output_values
   }
   
   output "ssh_command" {
       value = data.ibm_schematics_output.vpc.output_values.sshcommand
   }
   
   output "vpc_id" {
       value = data.ibm_schematics_output.vpc.output_values.vpc_id
   }

   {: codeblock}

   	Understanding the configuration file components
   data.ibm_schematics_workspace.workspace_id	Enter the ID of the VPC workspace where you defined the output values that you want to access. You need this data source to retrieve the template ID of the workspace in the ibm_schematics_output data source.
   data.ibm_schematics_output.workspace_id	Enter the ID of the VPC workspace where you defined the output values that you want to access.
   data.ibm_schematics_output.template_id	Enter data.ibm_schematics_workspace.vpc.runtime_data.0.id to reference the Terraform template of your workspace.
   output.output_vars.value	Use Terraform interpolation syntax to access all output values that you defined in the vpc.tf file by using the output_values output parameter of the ibm_schematics_output data source. The output_values output parameter returns all output values as a list.
   output.sshcomand.value and output.vpc_id.value	You can access a specific value in the output_values list by adding the ID of the output value to your ibm_schematics_output data source. For example, to access the vpc_id, simply use data.ibm_schematics_output.vpc.output_values.vpc_id.
   {: caption="Configuration file components" caption-side="bottom"}

4. Create a workspace that points to the remotestate.tf file in your GitHub or GitLab repository. If you want to upload a tape archive file (.tar) from your local machine instead, use the ibmcloud schematics workspace upload command.

5. Run your Terraform code in {{site.data.keyword.bpshort}}. When you review your logs, you can see the output values from your VPC workspace in the Output section.

   Example output

   ...
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show | Outputs:
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show | 
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show | Output_vars = {
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show |   sshcommand = ssh root@169.61.225.111
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show |   vpc_id = a1a11aa1-a111-a11a-a111-aa1aa11a1a1a
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show | }
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show | sshcommand = ssh root@169.61.225.111
   2020/02/21 19:49:30 Terraform show | vpc_id = a1a11aa1-a111-a11a-a111-aa1aa11a1a1a
   

   {: screen}