How to Import an AWS Launch Configuration into Terraform

Import AWS Launch Configuration with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS Launch Configuration 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_launch_configuration.example
  id = "terraform-lg-123456"
}

Example aws_launch_configuration configuration

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

resource "aws_launch_configuration" "example" {
  name          = "terraform-lg-123456"
  image_id      = "ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0"
  instance_type = "t3.micro"

  lifecycle {
    create_before_destroy = true
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS Launch Configuration

• aws_launch_configuration is deprecated by AWS, which no longer supports it for new accounts; migrate to aws_launch_template, which Terraback also imports, and update your Auto Scaling groups to reference the template.
• Launch configurations are immutable: any change forces a new resource, so the create_before_destroy lifecycle block is essential to avoid breaking the Auto Scaling group mid-update.
• Import is by the configuration name, not an ID; the name is unique per region and account, and there is no ARN-based lookup.
• user_data is stored as a hash and security_groups may come back as IDs versus names, so expect a diff after import until the HCL matches exactly.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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