How to Import an AWS VPC into Terraform

Import AWS VPC with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Amazon VPC resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS VPC 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_vpc.main
  id = "vpc-0a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8"
}

Example aws_vpc configuration

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

resource "aws_vpc" "main" {
  cidr_block           = "10.0.0.0/16"
  enable_dns_support   = true
  enable_dns_hostnames = true

  tags = {
    Name = "main-vpc"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS VPC

• Importing the VPC does not import its subnets, route tables, gateways, or NACLs; each is a separate resource.
• The default VPC must be managed with aws_default_vpc, not aws_vpc, or Terraform will try to destroy and recreate it.
• enable_dns_hostnames and enable_dns_support are not always returned consistently; verify them against the console after import.
• The main route table and default security group are created implicitly and import as aws_default_route_table and aws_default_security_group.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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