Question

A platform team currently uses Ansible to install and configure software packages on already-running virtual machines. They are evaluating whether Terraform could replace Ansible for this task. Which statement best describes how Terraform differs from a configuration management tool like Ansible in this context?

Accepted Answer

Terraform is primarily designed to provision and manage the lifecycle of infrastructure resources, while configuration management tools specialize in installing and configuring software on existing systems.

Answer

Terraform and Ansible are functionally identical, so replacing one with the other requires no change in approach.

Answer

Terraform is a configuration management tool that excels at applying incremental in-place software patches to running servers.

Answer

Terraform cannot create infrastructure and is only capable of reading the current state of existing servers.