How to Import an AWS EKS Cluster into Terraform

Import AWS EKS Cluster with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon EKS resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS EKS Cluster 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_eks_cluster.prod
  id = "prod-eks"
}

Example aws_eks_cluster configuration

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

resource "aws_eks_cluster" "prod" {
  name     = "prod-eks"
  role_arn = "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/eksClusterRole"
  version  = "1.30"

  vpc_config {
    subnet_ids              = ["subnet-0bb1c79de3a1b2c3d", "subnet-0cc2d8aef4b2c3d4e"]
    endpoint_private_access = true
    endpoint_public_access  = true
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS EKS Cluster

• Import by the cluster name, not by ARN.
• Node groups (aws_eks_node_group), Fargate profiles, add-ons (aws_eks_addon), and the OIDC identity provider config are all separate resources not imported with the cluster.
• The cluster IAM role and its policy attachments must exist and be referenced; they are not pulled in by the import.
• version upgrades are one minor version at a time; setting a far-future version in config will be rejected by AWS.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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