How to Import an AWS CloudTrail into Terraform

Import AWS CloudTrail with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the AWS CloudTrail resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS CloudTrail to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all aws --region us-east-1

terraback aws import --method bulk

The Terraform import block

Terraback emits a Terraform 1.5+ import block like the one below. Because the block lives in your configuration, the import is reviewable in a pull request and repeatable across environments.

import {
  to = aws_cloudtrail.main
  id = "org-management-trail"
}

Example aws_cloudtrail configuration

Here is a realistic AWS CloudTrail block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "aws_cloudtrail" "main" {
  name                          = "org-management-trail"
  s3_bucket_name                = "my-cloudtrail-logs"
  include_global_service_events = true
  is_multi_region_trail         = true
  enable_log_file_validation    = true
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS CloudTrail

• Import by the trail name, not the trail ARN.
• The destination S3 bucket and its bucket policy, plus any CloudWatch Logs group and IAM role, are separate resources you must manage alongside the trail.
• event_selector and advanced_event_selector blocks are mutually exclusive; copy whichever the trail actually uses to avoid a replacement.
• Importing the trail does not start logging; enable_logging defaults must match the live state or Terraform will toggle it.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the aws_cloudtrail block by hand, then run terraform import aws_cloudtrail.example <import-id> for every resource, one at a time. That works for a handful of resources, but it does not scale: you author all the HCL yourself and repeat the command for each item. Terraback generates the HCL and the import blocks for your whole account in one pass.

Import other AWS resources