Exploring the Import Block in Terraform 1.5

Terraform 1.5 includes the new import block, and it's a game changer! This new feature makes importing existing infrastructure far easier than the older import command. Let's dig into how it works, why it's better, and what gaps still exist.

When you first start using Terraform, there's a non-zero chance you already have infrastructure deployed and you may want to bring that existing infrastructure under management with Terraform. While that was possible with the older import command, it was quite painful.

The import command didn't show an execution plan before making changes to state, it was limited to a single resource at a time, and it wouldn't create the configuration block for you. The new import block solves all these problems and more!

In the video we'll cover the following:

🌮 The old import command process and limitations
🌮 Syntax and workflow for the import block
🌮 Importing a single resource to an existing configuration
🌮 Creating a new configuration with the generate-config-out flag

Thank you so much for watching! Subscribe if you think I’ve earned it. Hit the bell as well if you’re feeling swell.❤️&🌮

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🌮 Other videos to check out:

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🌮 Timestamps:

⌚ 0:00 Intro
⌚ 0:56 Import Command Workflow
⌚ 2:03 Import Command Problems
⌚ 4:29 Import Block Workflow and Syntax
⌚ 6:17 Generate Config Out Flag
⌚ 7:20 Basic Import Example
⌚ 12:47 Using the Generate Config Out Flag
⌚ 20:51 Existing Problems and Challenges with Import
⌚ 22:51 Final Thoughts

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#terraform #hashicorp #devops #cloudengineer #techlearning
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⭐ CONNECT WITH ME 🏃🦖

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🌮 About Me 🌮

Ned is a curious human with a knack for creating entertaining and informative content. With over 20 years in the industry, Ned brings real-world experience to all his creative endeavours, whether that's pontificating on a podcast, delivering live instruction, writing certification guides, or producing technical training videos. He has been a helpdesk operator, systems administrator, cloud architect, and product manager. In his newest incarnation, Ned is the Founder of Ned in the Cloud LLC. As a one-man-tech juggernaut, he develops courses for Pluralsight, runs two podcasts (Day Two Cloud and Chaos Lever, and creates original content for technology vendors.

Ned has been a Microsoft MVP since 2017 and a HashiCorp Ambassador since 2020, and he holds a bunch of industry certifications that have no bearing on anything beyond his exceptional ability to take exams and pass them. When not in front of the camera, keyboard, and microphone, you can find Ned running the scenic trails of Pennsylvania or rocking out to live music in his hometown of Philadelphia. Ned has three guiding principles: Embrace discomfort, Fail often, and Be kind.

[cokegen]

Your TF videos are great man ! getting a ton of insight from them ...

[liamray]

It's not fair this guide has too few likes. It's definitely deserves much more likes!

[awstherapy]

Nice, clear, direct and with a demo :D
Thanks man !

[JoseLemus]

Great video very informative and straight to the point. Always enjoy all your videos!

[George-mklp]

great job as always, love your channel

[zehph]

Such a gem! Great content, thank you. 🙏

[mcalnd]

Love your videos Ned, they have helped me immensely over the years. I don't know if you can fix the audio/video mismatch though, appears that the video lags behind the audio by about a second?

[ronaldonazo]

Nice, can you do a video of a timeline of updates on each terraform version? Because most of us are still stuck on v1.2 😂

[sanjam]

Thank you, Ned. Great presentation on "Testing Vault ACL policies with Python" in HashiConf 2023. Could you please github repo link for the code used in this example? Thank you.

[maliktdr]

Do you prefer aztfexport or Import Blocks ? :D

[hassanmahmood]

Hi I'm trying to use the new terraform import block but i get an error saying that import blocks are not expected. I'm running v1.7.2 on WSL

[jebc]

have you tested this feature to fix issues related to state file being out of sync? Like, for instance, deploying a new DB via terraform and later on pushing manual changes via the console (causing the sync problem). Will import blocks fetch all these new changes so you can grab these and update your original main terraform file?

[lakerfanlife]

Getting the following error: The parsed Resource ID was missing a value for the segment at position 2 (which should be the literal value "resourceGroups") on a kubernetes_cluster import block.

Is there a fix for this? I get it after running a TF plan. Using the new "import block" method.

[lakerfanlife]

Can the import block be used on an existing infrastructure that doesn’t have main and state files generated? I know using the TF export command it generates everything and expects the working directory to be empty.

[leoestrada]

Hi Ned,

I am using the public registry EC2 module -> to test out the import functionality of Terraform 1.5.x. I created an EC2 instance using the module for the testing.

When I tried importing the EC2 instance using the same EC2 module (I deleted the terraform.tfstate to simulate), Terraform plan was showing 2 update in-place changes. I can't figure out where the change is coming from.

I am expecting no changes as I have used the same EC2 module and main.tf config - no changes in parameters. I only deleted the terraform.tfstate to simulate the import.

Did you encounter this previously? thanks.


Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution
plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
~ update in-place

Terraform will perform the following actions:

# will be updated in-place
# (imported from "i-0d9fc1c2d85639717")
~ resource "aws_instance" "this" {
ami = "ami-0ee3dd41c47751fe6"
arn =
associate_public_ip_address = false
availability_zone = "us-east-1a"
cpu_core_count = 1
cpu_threads_per_core = 1
disable_api_stop = false
disable_api_termination = false
ebs_optimized = false
get_password_data = false
hibernation = false
id = "i-0d9fc1c2d85639717"
= "stop"
instance_state = "running"
instance_type = "t2.micro"
ipv6_address_count = 0
ipv6_addresses = []
key_name =
monitoring = false
placement_partition_number = 0
primary_network_interface_id = "eni-0a025e9b1e5b4b948"
private_dns = "ip-10-0-1-102.ec2.internal"
private_ip = "10.0.1.102"
secondary_private_ips = []
security_groups = []
source_dest_check = true
subnet_id = "subnet-0ee9f8fc6fc759978"
tags = {
"Department" = "it"
"Name" = "sandbox-vm-0"
"Team" = "it-devops"
"Terraform" = "true"
"environment" = "sandbox"
"owners" = "it"
}
tags_all = {
"Department" = "it"
"Name" = "sandbox-vm-0"
"Team" = "it-devops"
"Terraform" = "true"
"environment" = "sandbox"
"owners" = "it"
}
tenancy = "default"
+ user_data_replace_on_change = false
+ volume_tags = {
+ "Name" = "sandbox-vm-0"
}
vpc_security_group_ids = [
"sg-0b0776d70bd8c80c9",
]

{
= "open"
}

cpu_options {
core_count = 1
threads_per_core = 1
}

credit_specification {
cpu_credits = "standard"
}

enclave_options {
enabled = false
}

maintenance_options {
auto_recovery = "default"
}

metadata_options {
http_endpoint = "enabled"
http_put_response_hop_limit = 1
http_tokens = "optional"
instance_metadata_tags = "disabled"
}

private_dns_name_options {
= false
= false
hostname_type = "ip-name"
}

root_block_device {
delete_on_termination = true
device_name = "/dev/xvda"
encrypted = false
iops = 100
tags = {
"Name" = "sandbox-vm-0"
}
throughput = 0
volume_id = "vol-0771f67580c18a268"
volume_size = 8
volume_type = "gp2"
}

+ timeouts {}
}

# will be updated in-place
# (imported from "sg-0b0776d70bd8c80c9")
~ resource "aws_security_group" "this_name_prefix" {
arn =
description = "Security group with HTTP & SSH port open for everybody (IPv4 CIDR), egress ports are all world open"
egress = [
{
cidr_blocks = [
"0.0.0.0/0",
]
description = "All protocols"
from_port = 0
ipv6_cidr_blocks = []
prefix_list_ids = []
protocol = "-1"
security_groups = []
self = false
to_port = 0
},
]
id = "sg-0b0776d70bd8c80c9"
ingress = [
{
cidr_blocks = [
"10.0.0.0/16",
]
description = "HTTP"
from_port = 80
ipv6_cidr_blocks = []
prefix_list_ids = []
protocol = "tcp"
security_groups = []
self = false
to_port = 80
},
{
cidr_blocks = [
"10.0.0.0/16",
]
description = "SSH"
from_port = 22
ipv6_cidr_blocks = []
prefix_list_ids = []
protocol = "tcp"
security_groups = []
self = false
to_port = 22
},
]
name =
name_prefix = "private-sg-"
owner_id = "163240833505"
+ revoke_rules_on_delete = false
tags = {
"Department" = "it"
"Name" = "private-sg"
"Team" = "it-devops"
"Terraform" = "true"
"environment" = "sandbox"
"owners" = "it"
}
tags_all = {
"Department" = "it"
"Name" = "private-sg"
"Team" = "it-devops"
"Terraform" = "true"
"environment" = "sandbox"
"owners" = "it"
}
vpc_id = "vpc-0c2e6db281af6595b"

+ timeouts {
+ create = "10m"
+ delete = "15m"
}
}

Plan: 5 to import, 0 to add, 2 to change, 0 to destroy.

Changes to Outputs:
+ ec2_private_instance_ids = [
+
]
+ ec2_private_ip = [
+ "x.x.x.x",
]
+ private_sg_group_id =
+ private_sg_group_name =
+ private_sg_group_vpc_id =