Join us for the final episode of 2025 as Mark Tinderholt (Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft Azure, HashiCorp Ambassador, and author of "Mastering Terraform") teaches us Infrastructure as Code through Minecraft! If you've ever wanted to learn Terraform in a fun, visual way, this is the episode for you.

Mark demonstrates how to use the Minecraft Terraform provider to build infrastructure in-game, making complex IaC concepts tangible and engaging. You'll see live demos of provisioning Minecraft resources, managing dependencies, handling state, and even importing existing structures into Terraform. This unique approach transforms abstract infrastructure concepts into something you can literally see and interact with—perfect for visual learners, educators, or anyone looking to make IaC training more engaging. Whether you're teaching your team Terraform or just want a creative way to understand infrastructure patterns, this episode shows you how gaming and cloud engineering can come together. Subscribe to vBrownBag for weekly tech education!

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Timestamps

0:00 Welcome & Technical Difficulties

1:27 Last Episode of 2025!

4:41 Planning for 2026

5:37 Mark Tinderholt Joins

6:14 Introduction to Minecraft + Terraform

8:52 Why Use Minecraft for Teaching IaC?

12:35 Getting Started: Requirements & Setup
16:47 The Minecraft Terraform Provider
20:18 First Demo: Provisioning Basic Blocks
28:32 Managing State in Minecraft
35:41 Working with Dependencies
42:16 Advanced Patterns: For_each & Count
48:55 Importing Existing Structures
55:23 Real-World Applications & Teaching
1:00:17 Q&A: Provider Limitations & Features
1:05:24 Minecraft Level Building Tools Discussion
1:09:05 Final Giveaway & Wrap-Up

How to find Mark:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marktinderholt/

Links from the show:

Marks repos: https://github.com/markti?tab=repositories

Marks book: https://amzn.to/3N1rnuJ

Mark's Ignite talk: https://ignite.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/7fa5095f-9f65-46e3-9f82-9af6603ea903

Learn Infrastructure-as-Code [the FUN way] through Minecraft