An apply planned to destroy and recreate the production database. Which lifecycle arguments belonged on that resource?

Three lifecycle arguments influence replacement and drift handling: create_before_destroy, prevent_destroy, and ignore_changes. Each earns its place through an incident story, and each has a failure mode that is worth naming before you reach for it.

Grounded in researched DevOps, SRE and platform engineering interview loops, written to a senior-engineer editorial bar, and never padded to hit a word count.