Create a firmware analysis workspace using Terraform

This quickstart describes how to use Terraform to create a firmware analysis workspace. A workspace is the Azure resource that stores your firmware uploads and analysis results for the firmware analysis service.

Terraform enables the definition, preview, and deployment of cloud infrastructure. Using Terraform, you create configuration files using HCL syntax. The HCL syntax allows you to specify the cloud provider - such as Azure - and the elements that make up your cloud infrastructure. After you create your configuration files, you create an execution plan that allows you to preview your infrastructure changes before they're deployed. Once you verify the changes, you apply the execution plan to deploy the infrastructure.

In this article, you learn how to:

• Create an Azure resource group with a random name
• Create a firmware analysis workspace
• Output the randomly generated values
• Use Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell to view the new workspace

Prerequisites

• An Azure account with an active subscription. You can create an account for free.

• Terraform

Implement the Terraform code

The sample code for this article is located in the Azure Terraform GitHub repo. You can view the log file containing the test results from current and previous versions of Terraform. See more articles and sample code showing how to use Terraform to manage Azure resources

1. Create a directory in which to test and run the sample Terraform code, and make it the current directory.

2. Create a file named main.tf and insert the following code.

   # Create a random name for the resource group using random_pet
   resource "random_pet" "rg_name" {
     prefix = var.resource_group_name_prefix
   }
   
   # Create a resource group using the generated random name
   resource "azurerm_resource_group" "example" {
     location = var.resource_group_location
     name     = random_pet.rg_name.id
   }
   
   # Create a random string to append to the workspace name to ensure uniqueness
   resource "random_string" "workspace_name" {
     length  = 13
     lower   = true
     numeric = false
     special = false
     upper   = false
   }
   
   # Create the firmware analysis workspace
   resource "azapi_resource" "workspace" {
     type      = "Microsoft.IoTFirmwareDefense/workspaces@2025-04-01-preview"
     name      = coalesce(var.workspace_name, random_string.workspace_name.result)
     location  = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
     parent_id = azurerm_resource_group.example.id
   
     body = ({
       properties = {}
     })
   }
   

3. Create a file named outputs.tf and insert the following code.

   output "resource_group_name" {
     value       = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
     description = "The name of the resource group."
   }
   
   output "workspace_name" {
     value       = azapi_resource.workspace.name
     description = "Name of the firmware analysis workspace."
   }
   

4. Create a file named providers.tf and insert the following code.

   terraform {
     required_version = ">= 1.0.0"
     required_providers {
       azurerm = {
         source  = "hashicorp/azurerm"
         version = "~>4.0"
       }
       azapi = {
         source  = "azure/azapi"
         version = ">= 1.5"
       }
       random = {
         source  = "hashicorp/random"
         version = ">= 3.0.0"
       }
     }
   }
   
   provider "azurerm" {
     features {}
   }
   
   provider "azapi" {}
   

5. Create a file named variables.tf and insert the following code.

   variable "resource_group_location" {
     type        = string
     default     = "eastus"
     description = "Location of the resource group."
   }
   
   variable "resource_group_name_prefix" {
     type        = string
     default     = "rg"
     description = "Prefix of the resource group name that's combined with a random ID so name is unique in your Azure subscription."
   }
   
   variable "workspace_name" {
     type        = string
     default     = "firmware-analysis-ws-demo"
     description = "Name of the firmware analysis workspace to create."
   }
   

Important

If you're using the 4.x azurerm provider, you must explicitly specify the Azure subscription ID to authenticate to Azure before running the Terraform commands.

One way to specify the Azure subscription ID without putting it in the providers block is to specify the subscription ID in an environment variable named ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID.

For more information, see the Azure provider reference documentation.

Initialize Terraform

Run terraform init to initialize the Terraform deployment. This command downloads the Azure provider required to manage your Azure resources.

terraform init -upgrade

Key points:

• The -upgrade parameter upgrades the necessary provider plugins to the newest version that complies with the configuration's version constraints.

Create a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform plan to create an execution plan.

terraform plan -out main.tfplan

Key points:

• The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
• The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

Apply a Terraform execution plan

Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan to your cloud infrastructure.

terraform apply main.tfplan

Key points:

• The example terraform apply command assumes you previously ran terraform plan -out main.tfplan.
• If you specified a different filename for the -out parameter, use that same filename in the call to terraform apply.
• If you didn't use the -out parameter, call terraform apply without any parameters.

Verify the results

Azure CLI

1. Get the resource group and workspace names.

   resource_group=$(terraform output -raw resource_group_name)
   workspace_name=$(terraform output -raw workspace_name)
   

2. Run az firmwareanalysis workspace show to view the newly created firmware analysis workspace.

   az firmwareanalysis workspace show --resource-group $resource_group --name $workspace_name
   

Azure PowerShell

1. Get the resource group and workspace names.

   $resource_group_name = $(terraform output -raw resource_group_name)
   $workspace_name = $(terraform output -raw workspace_name)
   

2. Run Get-AzFirmwareAnalysisWorkspace to view the firmware analysis workspace.

   $params = @{
       ResourceGroupName = $resource_group_name
       ResourceType      = "Microsoft.IoTFirmwareDefense/workspaces"
       ResourceName      = $workspace_name
   }
   
   Get-AzResource @params
   

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created via Terraform, do the following steps:

1. Run terraform plan and specify the destroy flag.

   terraform plan -destroy -out main.destroy.tfplan
   

   Key points:

   • The terraform plan command creates an execution plan, but doesn't execute it. Instead, it determines what actions are necessary to create the configuration specified in your configuration files. This pattern allows you to verify whether the execution plan matches your expectations before making any changes to actual resources.
   • The optional -out parameter allows you to specify an output file for the plan. Using the -out parameter ensures that the plan you reviewed is exactly what is applied.

2. Run terraform apply to apply the execution plan.

   terraform apply main.destroy.tfplan
   

Troubleshoot Terraform on Azure

Troubleshoot common problems when using Terraform on Azure.

Next step

Analyze firmware images in the Azure portal