How to Import an AWS SQS Queue into Terraform

Import AWS SQS Queue with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon SQS resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS SQS Queue 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_sqs_queue.jobs
  id = "https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/123456789012/jobs"
}

Example aws_sqs_queue configuration

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

resource "aws_sqs_queue" "jobs" {
  name                       = "jobs"
  visibility_timeout_seconds = 30
  message_retention_seconds  = 345600
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS SQS Queue

• The import ID is the full queue URL, not the name or the ARN.
• A redrive policy points at a dead-letter queue ARN; import that DLQ as its own aws_sqs_queue too.
• FIFO queues end in .fifo and need fifo_queue = true.
• The queue policy imports as JSON and must match exactly.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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