Conflict when adding `coder_metadata` with duplicate `resource_id`s

[matifali]

Problem Description

1. While adding coder_metadata blocks inside a module we need to pass the resource_id to link the metadata to. The issue arises when the resource_id of the instance is linked to an existing coder_metadata block in the main template, which causes a conflict and the template fails to build.

2. Attempting to use an alternative identifier, such as agent_id, doesn't show metadata on the workspace page.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Add a coder_metadata block to a module and link it to the resource_id of an instance.
2. Add another coder_metadata block in the main template referencing the same resource_id.
3. Observe the conflict in the failed build.
4. Attempt to use agent_id instead in the module and note the absence of display metadata.

Impact

• Limits the flexibility of the coder modules because of possible conflicts.

Next Steps

• Update the handling of coder_metadata to avoid conflicts between module-level and main template declarations when sharing the same resource_id. One possible solution is to merge and append the new item entries when we detect a conflict in resource_id.
• Investigate why the agent_id does not work with coder_metadata.

Note

We did allow adding multiple coder_metadata with the same resource_id. See coder/coder#6517.

[matifali]

Related: #306

[ethanndickson]

The provisioner doesn't currently handle associating coder_metadata with coder_* resources, such as the agent. (1).

All other Terraform resources are returned by the provisioner as containing a list of Resource_Metadata, which is populated using attached coder_metadata resources. Once that list is populated, those coder_metadata resources are discarded.
The agent is not returned by the provisioner as it's own resource, similarly to the metadata, it's just a field on the attached resource.

You can see this if you GET a workspace and view the raw json, this is the docker_container resource on my dogfood workspace, for example:

So to resolve this issue, I'd propose just two changes:

• If a coder_metadata resource would be attached to a coder_agent resource (via the output of terraform graph), then we should instead attempt to convert that metadata to static values that would be returned by https://dev.coder.com/api/v2/workspaceagents/{id}/watch-metadata. This would require minimal changes to the provisioner, and (presumably) no changes to the frontend. The static coder_metadata items would show up alongside the dynamic metadata on the agent (which is defined within metadata blocks within coder_agent).

• As you said, If multiple coder_metadata resources would be attached to a single non-coder_* resource, then I agree that we should merge/append the items, instead of simply returning an error. Again, this would only require provisioner changes, and should be a pretty trivial implementation.

[matifali]

The static coder_metadata items would show up alongside the dynamic metadata on the agent (which is defined within metadata blocks within coder_agent).

I don't think we should merge the dynamic metadata of the coder_agent and the staticcoder_metadata linked to the same coder_agent as It would cause confusion for the user. If we want to do this, we should either,

1. display them on a separate row/section (requires changes in the frontend and also would be different from general coder_metadata behavior attached to other non coder_* resources).
2. Display them on top of the agent similar to how current coder_metadata gets displayed.
   

[ethanndickson]

1: Sounds like a good solution, just a fair bit more work.
2: This would effectively be merging the agent's static metadata with the first resource of the workspace, which would be equally confusing as merging it with the dynamic agent metadata.

EDIT: I don't think 1 is the right move, it would mean we have agent metadata in the UI in two different places, depending on whether it's set in the template, or retrieved dynamically via a command.

[matifali]

2. This would effectively be merging the agent's static metadata with the first resource of the workspace, which would be equally confusing as merging it with the dynamic agent metadata.

I don't mean we merge the coder_metadata assigned to different resources but merge if multiple coder_metadata are linked to a single resource. Consider the example below,

resource "coder_metadata" "module" {
  count       = data.coder_workspace.me.start_count
  resource_id = resource.aws_instnace.id

  item {
    key   = "username"
    value = "var.admin_username"
  }
  item {
    key       = "password"
    value     = var.admin_password
    sensitive = true
  }
}

resource "coder_metadata" "template" {
  count       = data.coder_workspace.me.start_count
  resource_id = resource.aws_instnace.id # note that both use the same reosurce_id

  item {
    key   = "region"
    value = data.coder_parameter.region.value
  }
  item {
    key   = "instance type"
    value = aws_instance.dev.instance_type
  }
}

We should display a single coder_metadata section and merge the item from both coder_metadata resources as they are both linked with the same resource.aws_instance.dev resource. We may still get conflicts if the item keys are not unique.

What do you think about it @bpmct?

[ethanndickson]

Oh I see what you mean, yeah. That's what you suggested originally, I definitely agree that's a good solution. but that doesn't address where coder_metadata attached to a coder_agent should go.

[matifali]

Oh I see what you mean, yeah. That's what you suggested originally, I definitely agree that's a good solution. but that doesn't address where coder_metadata attached to a coder_agent should go.

Yes, maybe we can narrow the scope so as not to support the coder_agent for now, just update our modules to pass another resource_id as input, and attach all metadata to that resource from within the modules. This would only need the ability to link multiple coder_metadata to a single resource and merge the items.