You have created a new Terraform configuration for two virtual machines and would like to create the infrastructure for the first time. Which command should you run first?

You have created a new Terraform configuration for two virtual machines and would like to create the infrastructure for the first time. Which command should you run first?

• A. terraform apply
• B. terraform plan
• C. terraform init
• D. terraform show

Answer: (C)

Initializing a new Terraform configuration is the first step. Running terraform init prepares the working directory by downloading the required provider plugins and modules and setting up the backend for state storage. Without this setup, Terraform doesn’t know how to interact with the chosen cloud provider or where to store the state, so you can’t reliably plan or apply changes for a new configuration. After initialization, you’d typically run terraform plan to see what Terraform will create or change, and then terraform apply to actually provision the resources. The command terraform show is used to inspect existing state, not to provision new resources.

Initializing a new Terraform configuration is the first step. Running terraform init prepares the working directory by downloading the required provider plugins and modules and setting up the backend for state storage. Without this setup, Terraform doesn’t know how to interact with the chosen cloud provider or where to store the state, so you can’t reliably plan or apply changes for a new configuration.

After initialization, you’d typically run terraform plan to see what Terraform will create or change, and then terraform apply to actually provision the resources. The command terraform show is used to inspect existing state, not to provision new resources.