How to bootstrap droplets using Terraform

Question

When creating droplets on Digital Ocean using Terraform, the created machines' passwords are sent via mail. If I get the documentation on the Digital Ocean provider right, you can also specify the SSH IDs of keys to use.

If I am bootstrapping a data centre using Terraform, which option should I choose?

Answer 1

Using passwords on instances is an absolute pain once you have an appreciable number of them. It's also less secure than SSH keys that are properly managed (kept secret). Obviously, you are going to have some trouble linking the rest of your automation to some credentials that are delivered out of band to your automation tooling so if you need to actually configure these servers to do something then the password by email option is pretty much out.