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Terraform Repositories in JFrog Artifactory

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JFrog Artifactory supports Terraform as a native package type. You can host custom Terraform providers and modules internally, proxy the public Terraform Registry, and expose all of it through a single virtual endpoint — giving your infrastructure teams a controlled, cached, and auditable source for all Terraform content.

All steps use JFrog SaaS at https://<company>.jfrog.io.

What You'll Build

terraform-local        [LOCAL]  → your custom modules and providers
terraform-registry-remote [REMOTE] → proxy of registry.terraform.io
terraform-virtual      [VIRTUAL]→ single endpoint for all Terraform projects

Step 1: Create a Local Repository

  1. Go to Administration → Repositories → + New Repository
  2. Select Local
  3. Choose Terraform
  4. Set Repository Key: terraform-local
  5. Click Create Local Repository

Use this repository to host: - Custom Terraform modules developed internally (e.g., terraform-aws-vpc) - Private Terraform providers your team has built

Step 2: Create a Remote Repository — Terraform Registry Proxy

  1. Go to Administration → Repositories → + New Repository
  2. Select Remote
  3. Choose Terraform
  4. Set Repository Key: terraform-registry-remote
  5. Set URL: https://registry.terraform.io
  6. Click Create Remote Repository

This proxies the public HashiCorp Terraform Registry — caching providers like hashicorp/aws, hashicorp/google, hashicorp/kubernetes so your terraform init never hits the internet directly.

Step 3: Create a Virtual Repository

  1. Go to Administration → Repositories → + New Repository
  2. Select Virtual
  3. Choose Terraform
  4. Set Repository Key: terraform-virtual
  5. Add repositories:
  6. terraform-local
  7. terraform-registry-remote
  8. Click Create Virtual Repository

Step 4: Configure Terraform to Use JFrog SaaS

Option A: ~/.terraformrc (Global — all users)

Create or edit ~/.terraformrc:

credentials "<company>.jfrog.io" {
  token = "your-access-token"
}

provider_installation {
  network_mirror {
    url     = "https://<company>.jfrog.io/artifactory/api/terraform/terraform-virtual/providers/"
    include = ["*/*/*"]
  }
  direct {
    exclude = ["*/*/*"]
  }
}

Option B: terraform.rc (Windows)

Save the same content at %APPDATA%\terraform.rc.

Step 5: Use JFrog as Provider Source

In your Terraform configuration, providers resolve from JFrog automatically once ~/.terraformrc is configured:

# main.tf
terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = {
      source  = "hashicorp/aws"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
    google = {
      source  = "hashicorp/google"
      version = "~> 5.0"
    }
  }
}

Run:

terraform init

Terraform fetches providers from JFrog's terraform-registry-remote (cached from registry.terraform.io).

Step 6: Publish a Custom Module to JFrog

Modules follow the naming convention: <namespace>/<module>/<provider>.

Package and upload a module:

# Zip your module
zip -r terraform-aws-vpc-1.0.0.zip ./terraform-aws-vpc/

# Upload to JFrog using JFrog CLI
jf rt upload \
  terraform-aws-vpc-1.0.0.zip \
  "terraform-local/myorg/vpc/aws/1.0.0/terraform-aws-vpc.zip"

Reference the module in Terraform:

module "vpc" {
  source  = "<company>.jfrog.io/terraform-virtual__myorg/vpc/aws"
  version = "1.0.0"
}

Repository Comparison Summary

Feature Local Remote Virtual
Host custom modules/providers ✅ ❌ ❌
Proxy registry.terraform.io ❌ ✅ ❌
Single endpoint for all Terraform ❌ ❌ ✅
Cache providers ❌ ✅ ✅ via remote
Private modules ✅ ❌ ✅ (resolved from local)
terraform init without internet ❌ ✅ (cached) ✅

Use Cases

Scenario Solution
Team shares internal VPC/EKS modules Publish to terraform-local, source via terraform-virtual
terraform init downloads hashicorp/aws Served from terraform-registry-remote cache
Terraform registry is unavailable terraform init still works — providers cached in JFrog
Enforce provider version policies Xray scan against known CVEs in provider packages
Air-gapped environment All providers pre-cached in JFrog; no internet needed at init time

Next Steps

👉 Generic Repositories 👉 JFrog CLI Basics

🧠 Quick Quiz

#

What file do you configure on a developer machine to tell Terraform to use JFrog Artifactory as the provider source?

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