provider block using google-beta

[anubbhavm]

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Expected Behavior

As per documentation,
https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/google/guides/provider_versions.html#using-both-provider-versions-together
To use the google-beta provider, explicitly define a google-beta provider block, and state on the resource which provider you wish to use.

provider "google-beta" {
  credentials = "${file("account.json")}"
  project     = "my-project-id"
  region      = "us-central1"
}

resource "google_compute_instance" "beta-instance" {
  provider = "google-beta"

  # ...
}

Actual Behavior

Not explicitly defining the google-beta provider block and only defining the provider on the resource also seems to work.

resource "google_compute_instance" "beta-instance" {
  provider = "google-beta"
  # ...
}

[edwardmedia]

@anubbhavm Not sure what exact cases you are referring, but if you are taking about below two configs, they are different. Let me know if I addressed your issue.

resource "google_compute_instance" "beta-instance" {
  provider = "google-beta"
  # ...
}

resource "google_compute_instance" "beta-instance" {
  # provider = "google-beta"
  # ...
}

[anubbhavm]

Okay let me clarify:
In order to use the google-beta provider, is it required to explicitly define a google-beta provider block?

provider "google-beta" {
  credentials = "${file("account.json")}"
  project     = "my-project-id"
  region      = "us-central1"
}

Or, just stating the provider on the resource should suffice?

resource "google_compute_instance" "beta-instance" {
  provider = "google-beta"
  # ...
}

The TF documentation says both are necessary (a provider block and provider on the resource), but I was able to use the beta feature without explicitly defining a provider block.

[edwardmedia]

@anubbhavm the block is not required. You need to provide the attribute provider inside the resource if it is google-beta.

[anubbhavm]

Thanks. Could we then have the TF documentation updated please?
https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/google/guides/provider_versions.html#using-the-google-beta-provider

[danawillow]

Thanks @anubbhavm, that's a good suggestion and I didn't even know that not providing the provider block for google-beta even worked, so I learned something new today :)

Changing the labels since this is a docs improvement rather than a bug in the provider. We'll triage this alongside FRs.

[rileykarson]

This changed in Terraform 0.12. We were aware at the time of 2.5.1's release, but kept the docs indicating it was required because the majority of users would have been using 0.11 still. It could be worth including a note about 0.11 still needing it, since our docs are unversioned and we expect some users to be using 2.X + 0.11 still.

[ghost]

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