Question

A team uses a remote-exec provisioner inside an aws_instance resource to run a bootstrap script after creation. During apply, the script exits with a non-zero status code. The team has not set any additional provisioner arguments. What does Terraform do by default when the provisioner fails?

Accepted Answer

Terraform marks the resource as tainted and reports the apply as failed, so the instance will be replaced on the next apply.

Answer

Terraform ignores the failure, marks the resource as successfully created, and continues with the rest of the plan.

Answer

Terraform automatically retries the provisioner up to three times before giving up.

Answer

Terraform immediately destroys the instance and rolls back all other resources created in the same apply.