#state-locking

DevOps & CI/CD

Moving Terraform state locking from DynamoDB to S3 native locking with use_lockfile

Isabel Ferreira · Sep 22, 2025 · 7 min read

Terraform's S3 backend can lock state with a lock file in the bucket itself, and DynamoDB-based locking is deprecated. How S3 native locking works, the IAM it needs, a safe migration with both mechanisms on during the transition, and the failure modes we tested.

DevOps & CI/CD Bug Report

Terraform "Error acquiring the state lock" after a cancelled CI pipeline

Daniel Tran · Mar 18, 2025 · 9 min read

A cancelled GitLab pipeline killed terraform apply mid-run and left the S3 backend locked. Every plan after that failed with Error acquiring the state lock. How we proved no run was active, unlocked safely, checked for drift, and stopped CI from cancelling applies.