How Do I Automate DNS Record Creation for My DigitalOcean Droplets Using Terraform?

Posted on August 29, 2024

I’m working with Terraform to deploy my infrastructure on DigitalOcean, and I want to automate the creation of DNS records for each Droplet I set up.

Is there a way to have Terraform automatically add an A record for each Droplet’s IP address in my DigitalOcean domain zone? Ideally, I’d like the DNS records to be created or updated whenever I apply changes.

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Bobby Iliev

November 7, 2024

Accepted Answer

Hey there! 👋

Setting up DNS records with Terraform on DigitalOcean is super straightforward and can save you a lot of time.

If you just want a basic setup, you can manage your domain and add an A record to point to your Droplet’s IP without needing any extra configurations.

Here’s an example:

# Create the domain in DigitalOcean
resource "digitalocean_domain" "example" {
  name = "example.com"  # Replace with your domain name
}

# Add an A record for www.example.com
resource "digitalocean_record" "www" {
  domain = digitalocean_domain.example.id
  type   = "A"
  name   = "www"                            # This makes www.example.com
  value  = "192.168.0.11"                   # Replace with your Droplet's IP
}

This will create a domain (example.com) and set up an A record for www.example.com to point to your Droplet’s IP address. Once it’s applied, your DNS will be good to go!

If you want the A record to automatically use your Droplet’s IP address, you can reference the Droplet’s IP in the value field.

Just replace the IP with your Droplet’s ipv4_address like this:

resource "digitalocean_droplet" "my_droplet" {
  name   = "example-droplet"
  region = "nyc3"
  size   = "s-1vcpu-1gb"
  image  = "ubuntu-22-04-x64"
}

resource "digitalocean_record" "www" {
  domain = digitalocean_domain.example.id
  type   = "A"
  name   = "www"
  value  = digitalocean_droplet.my_droplet.ipv4_address  # Auto-updates with Droplet IP
}