getting-started.md

Local Development Environment Setup

Follow the instructions below to set up your local development environment for the Meraki Terraform Provider.

Requirements

• Go >= 1.18
• Terraform >= 1.0

Go Environment

If you wish to work on the provider, you'll first need Go installed on your machine.

1. Install Go by running the following command:

   brew install go

2. Set the GOBIN environment variable by executing the following commands:

   echo $GOBIN
   export GOBIN=$GOPATH/bin

   Note: If you are using an Apple M1/ARM-based processor, add the following environment variable as well:

   export GODEBUG=asyncpreemptoff=1

Terraform Development Environment

1. Install Terraform by running the following command:

   brew install terraform

   Note: If you are using an Apple M1/ARM-based processor, upgrade Terraform using the following command:

   arch -arm64 brew upgrade terraform

2. Clone the repository: https://github.com/core-infra-svcs/terraform-provider-meraki

3. Set up the Terraform development overrides by creating and editing the .terraformrc file:

   touch $HOME/.terraformrc
   vim $HOME/.terraformrc

   Add the following configuration to the file:

   provider_installation {
       dev_overrides {
           "$REPOSITORY/$PROVIDER" = "/Users/$USER/go/bin"
       }
   }
   

4. Download the required binaries by executing the following commands:

   go mod download

Compiling the Provider

To compile the provider, run go install. This will build the provider and put the provider binary in the $GOPATH/bin directory.

To generate or update documentation, run go generate.

In order to run the full suite of Acceptance tests, run make testacc.

Note: Acceptance tests create real resources, and often cost money to run.

make testacc

Adding Dependencies

This provider uses Go modules. Please see the Go documentation for the most up to date information about using Go modules.

To add a new dependency github.com/author/dependency to your Terraform provider:

go get github.com/author/dependency
go mod tidy

Then commit the changes to go.mod and go.sum.

Meraki Development Environment

To set up your Meraki development environment for Terraform, follow these steps:

1. Create the following files to simplify running Terraform:

   meraki_vars.auto.tf

   variable "MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY" {
       type      = string
       sensitive = true
   }
   
   variable "host" {
       type     = string
       default  = "api.meraki.com"
   }

   terraform.tfvars

   MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY = var.MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY

   In the meraki_vars.auto.tf file, we define the necessary variables for working with the Meraki provider. The MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY variable is marked as sensitive to protect the sensitive password.

   In the terraform.tfvars file, we reference the MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY variable using the var.MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY syntax. This allows us to pull the value from the environment variable.

2. Set the environment variable:

   Before running Terraform commands, make sure to set the MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY environment variable with your sensitive password. You can do this in your shell or by using a script. For example, in Unix-based systems, you can run the following command:

   export MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY="01234567890123456789"

   Replace "01234567890123456789" with your actual Meraki dashboard API key.

   This command sets the MERAKI_DASHBOARD_API_KEY environment variable to the desired sensitive password.

3. Run Terraform commands:

   With the environment variable set and the necessary files in place, you can now run Terraform commands as usual. Terraform will automatically retrieve the sensitive password from the environment variable and use it during execution.

   For example, you can run terraform init to initialize the working directory and then proceed with other Terraform commands like terraform plan and terraform apply.

   Remember to keep the environment variable containing the sensitive password secure and avoid printing or exposing it inadvertently.

That's it! You have successfully set up your local development environment for the Meraki Terraform Provider. Now you can start contributing to the project. Happy coding!