How to Import an AWS EFS Backup Policy into Terraform

Import AWS EFS Backup Policy with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon EFS resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS EFS Backup Policy 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_efs_backup_policy.example
  id = "fs-6fa144c6"
}

Example aws_efs_backup_policy configuration

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

resource "aws_efs_backup_policy" "example" {
  file_system_id = "fs-6fa144c6"

  backup_policy {
    status = "ENABLED"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS EFS Backup Policy

• The backup policy is a one-to-one child of an aws_efs_file_system; it is imported by the file system ID (fs-...), not by a policy ID, and the file system must exist first.
• There is exactly one backup policy per file system, so never declare two aws_efs_backup_policy resources for the same fs-... or they will overwrite each other.
• status only accepts ENABLED or DISABLED; importing a file system that already has AWS Backup enabled and then omitting the block can disable backups on the next apply.
• Enabling the backup policy creates an AWS Backup default plan behind the scenes; importing the policy does not import that AWS Backup vault or its recovery points.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the aws_efs_backup_policy block by hand, then run terraform import aws_efs_backup_policy.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