Undeploying modules using Gruntwork Pipelines

To destroy a module with no downstream dependencies, such as route53-private in the dev environment:

1. Update the force_destroy variable in dev/us-west-2/dev/networking/route53-private/terragrunt.hcl. (See the force_destroy section.)

   force_destroy = true

2. Open a pull request for that change and verify the plan in CI. You should see a trivial change to update the module.

3. Go through the typical git workflow to get the change merged into the main branch.

4. As CI runs on the main branch, watch for the job to be held for approval. Approve the job, and wait for the deployment step to complete so that the module is fully updated with the new variable.

5. Remove the module folder from the repo. For example:

   rm -rf dev/us-west-2/dev/networking/route53-private

6. Open a pull request for that change and verify the plan in CI.

   • Make sure the plan -destroy output looks accurate.
   • If you are deleting multiple modules (e.g., in dev, stage, and prod) you should see multiple plan outputs -- one per folder deleted. You'll need to scroll through the plan output to see all of them, as it runs plan -destroy for each folder individually.

7. Go through the typical git workflow to get the change merged into the main branch.

8. As CI runs on the main branch, watch for the job to be held for approval. Approve the job, and wait for the deployment step to complete so that the module is fully deleted.

9. Remove the terraform state.

note

Repeat this process for upstream dependencies you may now want to destroy, always starting from the modules that have no existing downstream dependencies.