Understand the available Terraform providers

Flexera maintains two Terraform provider options, both fully supported:

• Official provider from HashiCorp – downloaded automatically by Terraform from the public registry.

• Flexera provider build (terraform-provider-spotinst) – published on the Flexera releases and installation pages so you can access new features before they appear in the HashiCorp registry.

The Flexera build lets you adopt new provider capabilities sooner, while the HashiCorp version provides the standard registry workflow.

Install Terraform

1. Download and install the Terraform binary that matches your environment.

2. Confirm installation by running the command terraform version.

Configure the Flexera provider in Terraform

1. Create or open a Terraform configuration file (for example, main.tf or template.tf).

2. Add the Flexera provider configuration block. For example:

    

   provider "spotinst" {
     token   = var.spotinst_token
     account = var.spotinst_account
   }
   ``

    

    

3. Save the file.

Install the official provider from HashiCorp

1. In your working directory, run terraform init.

2. Terraform downloads the official Flexera provider and places it under a path similar to:

   • .terraform/plugins/<platform>/terraform-provider-spotinst_v1.x.x

If terraform init fails or you want to use the latest Flexera build before it appears in the HashiCorp registry, follow the manual installation steps below.

Download the latest Flexera provider build (optional)

1. Download the latest terraform-provider-spotinst binary for your platform.

2. Note the download path; you’ll reference it in the plugin configuration.

Manually install the provider plugin

Use these steps if you want to point Terraform to a specific Flexera provider binary.

On Windows

1. Create a file named terraform.rc in the terraform.d/plugins folder under your %APPDATA% directory:

   • Path: %APPDATA%\terraform.d\plugins\terraform.rc

2. Edit terraform.rc and add content similar to:

    

   providers {
     spotinst = "C:/path/to/terraform-provider-spotinst"
   }

    

On macOS or Linux

1. Create a file named .terraformrc in your home directory:

   • Path: ~/.terraformrc

2. Edit .terraformrc and add content similar to the following, replacing /path/to/terraform-provider-spotinst with the actual path to the provider binary.

    

   providers {
     spotinst = "/path/to/terraform-provider-spotinst"
   }

When you run terraform init, Terraform reads these files and loads the provider from the specified path.

Update the provider from Terraform

To update the provider to the latest compatible version in your configuration:

1. In your Terraform working directory, run:

    

   terraform init -upgrade

    

2. Terraform downloads newer provider versions that match your version constraints and replaces the existing provider plugins.

3. Review the output to confirm the Flexera provider was upgraded.

After you complete these steps and run terraform init -upgrade, your environment uses the latest Flexera Terraform provider build available for your configuration. This gives you access to the most recent resources, arguments, and features for managing Ocean, Elastigroup, and related integrations.