Conflict between the Terraform state file and the virtual machine state

Terraform
1

I am currently working on a project about automatic deployment of VMs and services directly in VMware. The configuration and deployment of VMs I understood it’s clear. Where I have a doubt is when we deploy a VM via Terraform I saw that the Terraform status file saves the current configuration of the VM. But if we modify the VM directly via the VMware web interface, will this create a conflict with Terraform and more specifically with the Terraform file.

In order to avoid this, changes to the VM must be made via Terraform?

2

If you make a change outside of Terraform the next time terraform apply is run those changes will be reverted.

Anything managed by Terraform really needs not to be touched by anything else.

3

Thanks Stuart, you answer my question exactly.

But it would be quite possible to use Terraform only for deployment, even if it’s not in the spirit of Terraform.

4

I wouldn’t recommend it. If you are just wanting to create some resources you are better off using other tools, such as CLI apps.