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Versioned Migrations with Atlas Terraform Provider

Versioned migrations provide a controlled, sequential approach to evolving your database schema. When using the Atlas Terraform Provider with versioned migrations, your schema changes are tracked using timestamped migration files. Each file contains the SQL statements needed to shift your database schema from one version to the next.

Getting Started​

Before you begin, ensure you have:

  1. Installed Terraform
  2. Installed the Atlas CLI
  3. Configured Terraform with the Atlas Terraform Provider
  4. Docker installed and running
  5. Access to your target database

Configuring Terraform for Versioned Migrations​

To use versioned migrations with Terraform, you'll need to configure both a data source and a resource:

main.tf
terraform {
  required_providers {
    atlas = {
      source  = "ariga/atlas"
      version = "~> 0.9.7"
    }
  }
}

provider "atlas" {
  dev_url = "docker://mysql/8/myapp"
}

// Inspect the target database and load its state.
// This is used to determine which migrations to run.
data "atlas_migration" "shop" {
  dir = "migrations"
  url = "mysql://root:pass@localhost:3306/shop"
}

// Sync the state of the target database with the migrations directory.
resource "atlas_migration" "shop" {
  dir     = data.atlas_migration.shop.dir
  version = data.atlas_migration.shop.latest # Use latest to run all migrations
  url     = data.atlas_migration.shop.url
}

Configuration Parameters Explained​

  • dir: The path to your migration directory with optional format parameter
  • url: The connection URL to your target database
  • version: The target migration version to apply (use latest to apply all pending migrations). If not set, the latest migration will be applied
  • dev_url: The URL to a dev database used for validation and planning
info

The target database must already exist before running migrations. The Atlas Terraform Provider will apply migrations to an existing database but will not create the database itself. For example, in the configuration above, you must ensure the shop database exists in your MySQL instance.

Applying Migrations​

Adding and applying migrations using the Atlas Terraform Provider is a two-step process:

  1. Generate a new migration file using the Atlas CLI
  2. Apply the migration using Terraform

Generating New Migrations​

You can create new migrations using Atlas CLI commands like migrate diff for automatic generation or migrate new for manual creation.

Automatic creation​

Using the migrate diff command, Atlas can automatically generate a migration by comparing your desired schema state to the current database state:

atlas migrate diff add_users_name \
  --dir "file://migrations" \
  --to "mysql://root:pass@localhost:3306/your_database" \
  --dev-url "docker://mysql/8/dev"

This generates a migration file with the SQL statements needed to transition your schema to the desired state.

Manual creation​

You can also create a migration file manually:

atlas migrate new add_users_name

Then edit the new file created in your migrations directory to add your SQL statements:

20220811074314_add_users_name.sql
-- modify "users" table
ALTER TABLE `users` ADD COLUMN `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL;

After manually editing the contents of a newly created migration file, the checksums for the directory must be recalculated. This can be done by running:

atlas migrate hash

Migration Directory Overview​

Here's an example of what your migration directory might look like after creating a few migrations:

.
├── main.tf
├── migrations
│   ├── 20220811074144_create_users.sql
│   ├── 20220811074314_add_users_name.sql
│   └── atlas.sum
└── schema.sql
-- modify "users" table
ALTER TABLE `users` ADD COLUMN `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL;

Applying Migrations​

Now you can initialize the Terraform configuration:

terraform init

Then, apply the migrations:

terraform apply

This will show a plan of what changes will be made to the database:

data.atlas_migration.shop: Reading...
data.atlas_migration.shop: Read complete after 0s [id=file://migrations]

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # atlas_migration.shop will be created
  + resource "atlas_migration" "shop" {
      + dir     = "migrations"
      + id      = (known after apply)
      + status  = (known after apply)
      + url     = (sensitive value)
      + version = "20220811074314"
    }

Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.
╷
│ Warning: data dependent changes detected
│ 
│   with atlas_migration.shop,
│   on main.tf line 22, in resource "atlas_migration" "shop":
│   22: resource "atlas_migration" "shop" {
│ 
│ File: 20220811074314_add_users_name.sql
│ 
│ - MY101: Adding a non-nullable "varchar" column "name" on table "users" without a default value implicitly sets existing rows with ""
╵

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value:
note

Notice that in the plan output, Terraform displays the target migration version (20220811074314) that will be applied. This version corresponds to the migration filename 20220811074314_add_users_name.sql in your migrations directory.

After confirming with yes, Terraform will apply the migration and show the results:

atlas_migration.shop: Creating...
atlas_migration.shop: Creation complete after 1s [id=file://migrations]
╷
│ Warning: data dependent changes detected
│ 
│   with atlas_migration.shop,
│   on main.tf line 22, in resource "atlas_migration" "shop":
│   22: resource "atlas_migration" "shop" {
│ 
│ File: 20220811074314_add_users_name.sql
│ 
│ - MY101: Adding a non-nullable "varchar" column "name" on table "users" without a default value implicitly sets existing rows with ""
╵

Apply complete! Resources: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

You can verify the changes by connecting to your database and describing the users table:

mysql -h localhost -P 3306 -u root -ppass shop -e "DESCRIBE users;"

Which should show the updated table structure:

+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| id    | int          | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| name  | varchar(255) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+

Down Migrations and Rollbacks​

The Atlas Terraform Provider supports down migrations for when migrations need to be undone.

When using Terraform, you can roll back to a specific version by setting the version parameter:

main.tf
resource "atlas_migration" "shop" {
  dir     = data.atlas_migration.shop.dir
  # Roll back to a specific version
  version = "20220811074144" 
  url     = data.atlas_migration.shop.url
  # Policy to control down migrations
  protected_flows {
    migrate_down {
      allow = true
      auto_approve = true
    }
  }
}
info

The protected_flows block controls whether down migrations are allowed. By default, down migrations are disabled as a safety measure. Setting allow = true enables down migrations, and auto_approve = true allows them to proceed without additional confirmation.

Applying the Rollback​

After modifying the Terraform configuration to specify the previous version, run:

terraform apply

This will show you what changes will be made:

data.atlas_migration.shop: Reading...
data.atlas_migration.shop: Read complete after 1s [id=file://migrations]
atlas_migration.shop: Refreshing state... [id=file://migrations]

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  ~ update in-place

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # atlas_migration.shop will be updated in-place
  ~ resource "atlas_migration" "shop" {
        id      = "file://migrations"
      ~ status  = {
          - current = "20220811074314"
          - latest  = "20220811074314"
          - status  = "OK"
        } -> (known after apply)
      ~ version = "20220811074314" -> "20220811074144"
        # (2 unchanged attributes hidden)

      + protected_flows {
          + migrate_down {
              + allow        = true
              + auto_approve = true
            }
        }
    }

Plan: 0 to add, 1 to change, 0 to destroy.

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value:
note

Notice that the plan shows a rollback from version 20220811074314 to version 20220811074144, which means Atlas will revert the changes made in the newer migration.

After confirming with yes, Terraform will apply the rollback:

atlas_migration.shop: Modifying... [id=file://migrations]
atlas_migration.shop: Modifications complete after 5s [id=file://migrations]

Apply complete! Resources: 0 added, 1 changed, 0 destroyed.

Verifying the Rollback​

You can verify that the rollback was successful by inspecting the database:

mysql -h localhost -P 3306 -u root -ppass shop -e "DESCRIBE users;"

Which should show the table structure reverted to its previous state:

+-------+------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| id    | int  | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+-------+------+------+-----+---------+-------+

The name column that was added in the later migrations has been removed, as we've rolled back to the state defined in 20220811074144_create_users.sql.

Conclusion​

The Atlas Terraform Provider's versioned workflow offers a robust approach to managing database schema migrations within your infrastructure as code process. By defining and maintaining a series of sequential migration files, you gain:

  1. Complete control over each schema change
  2. A clear, historical record of your database evolution
  3. The ability to safely roll forward or backward between schema versions
  4. Seamless integration with your existing Terraform workflows

For more information, visit the provider registry page.

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