How to Import an AWS LB Listener Certificate into Terraform

Import AWS LB Listener Certificate with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Elastic Load Balancing resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS LB Listener Certificate 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_lb_listener_certificate.example
  id = "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:123456789012:listener/app/test/8e4497da625e2d8a/9ab28ade35828f96/67b3d2d36dd7c26b_arn:aws:iam::123456789012:server-certificate/example"
}

Example aws_lb_listener_certificate configuration

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

resource "aws_lb_listener_certificate" "example" {
  listener_arn    = "arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:us-west-2:123456789012:listener/app/test/8e4497da625e2d8a/9ab28ade35828f96/67b3d2d36dd7c26b"
  certificate_arn = "arn:aws:acm:us-west-2:123456789012:certificate/0123abcd-4567-89ef-0123-456789abcdef"
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS LB Listener Certificate

• This resource manages an additional (SNI) certificate on an existing aws_lb_listener; the import ID concatenates the listener ARN and certificate ARN with an underscore, and both ARNs themselves contain slashes.
• Do not use it for the listener's default certificate; that one belongs in the aws_lb_listener default_certificate_arn, and managing it here causes a perpetual diff.
• The underscore between the two ARNs is the only separator, so build the ID by joining listener_arn, an underscore, then certificate_arn verbatim.
• Both listener_arn and certificate_arn are force-new; changing the certificate replaces the attachment rather than updating it in place.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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