Using nested .tfvars.json input in TF code

Terraform
1

Hello everyone,

I’m an absolute beginner when it comes to Terraform and I’m trying to understand why I’m running into the following issue. Here’s the thing: I want to create one or more Azure File Shares within an existing Storage Account.

I have created a fileshares.tfvars.json file in the following format:

{
  "storage_accounts": {
    "sa_A": {
      "fileshare_A": {
        "sys_id": "SI1",
        "quota": 100
      },
      "fileshare_B": {
        "sys_id": "SI2",
        "quota": 250
      }
    },
    "sa_B": {
      "fileshare_C": {
        "sys_id": "SI3",
        "quota": 100
      }
    }
  }
}

I’ve declared my variable in variables.tf

variable "storage_accounts" {
  description = "Storage Accounts"
  type        = any
}

The Storage Account itself has already been created so I’ve flattened the file share properties as follows:

locals {
  fileshares = flatten([
    for storage_account, shares in var.storage_accounts : [
      for share_name, share_props in shares : {
        storage_account_name = storage_account
        share_name           = share_name
        sys_id               = share_props.sys_id
        quota                = share_props.quota
      }
    ]
  ])
}

And the resource code in storage.tf looks like this:

resource "azurerm_storage_share" "afstransac" {
  for_each = {
    for share in local.fileshares : "${share.storage_account_name}.${share.share_name}.${share.sys_id}.${share.quota}" => share
  }
 
  name                 = each.value.share_name
  storage_account_name = each.value.storage_account_name
  enabled_protocol     = "NFS"
  quota                = each.value.quota
}

However when I run the plan, it comes back with the following error and I have no idea what’s going wrong:

54│ Error: No value for required variable
55│
56│ on variables.tf line 31:
57│ 31: variable "storage_accounts" {
58│
59│ The root module input variable "storage_accounts" is not set, and has no
60│ default value. Use a -var or -var-file command line argument to provide a
61│ value for this variable.
62╵
63Operation failed: failed running terraform plan (exit 1)
64
65─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
66Note: You didn't use the -out option to save this plan, so Terraform can't
67guarantee to take exactly these actions if you run "terraform apply" now.
68Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

My question is if anyone can help me with this to see what I’m doing wrong and I’m sure my code can be optimized as well…

Thanks in advance!

2

Hi @phoenix-rosiest-4m

What is the command you used? Did you add the flag suggested in the error output, namely -var-file fileshares.tfvars.json?

3

@jbardin thanks for pointing me into the right direction. I should’ve just named the file fileshares.auto.tfvars.json and then the variables are added directly (using TFE).