How The Convox CLI Works

Your Terraform config directory contains the following files:

• vars.json - Your Rack parameters. The JSON contains values like this:

  "name": "docspring-enterprise",
  "release": "3.19.6"

• main.tf - Generated by the Convox CLI using values from vars.json

When you run convox rack params set ... , the Convox CLI will:

• Update your vars.json with the new params
• Regenerate the main.tf file to use these new params
• Upgrade all Terraform modules (which updates .terraform.lock.hcl)
• Run terraform apply to update your infrastructure with the new configuration.
• Update terraform.tfstate with the current state of all managed resources in your AWS account.

<aside> ⚠️

Please make sure you back up terraform.tfstate! If you lose this file, you won’t be able to access your Convox rack. It is possible to recreate it manually, but it will take hours of work.

</aside>

When you run convox rack update , the CLI does something very similar:

• Bumps the convox version in vars.json
• Regenerates main.tf
• Installs new Terraform modules
• Runs terraform apply and updates terraform.tfstate