How to Import an AWS X-Ray Sampling Rule into Terraform

Import AWS X-Ray Sampling Rule with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the AWS X-Ray resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live AWS X-Ray Sampling Rule 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_xray_sampling_rule.example
  id = "example"
}

Example aws_xray_sampling_rule configuration

Here is a realistic AWS X-Ray Sampling Rule block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "aws_xray_sampling_rule" "example" {
  rule_name      = "example"
  priority       = 1000
  version        = 1
  reservoir_size = 1
  fixed_rate     = 0.05
  url_path       = "*"
  host           = "*"
  http_method    = "*"
  service_name   = "*"
  service_type   = "*"
  resource_arn   = "*"
}

Gotchas when importing a AWS X-Ray Sampling Rule

• Import is by the rule name, not an ARN; the name is unique per region and account.
• version must be 1 (the only supported sampling rule version), and reservoir_size, fixed_rate, priority, url_path, host, http_method, service_name, service_type, and resource_arn are all required, so omitting any of the matcher fields causes a diff or apply error.
• fixed_rate is a fraction between 0 and 1 (0.05 means 5 percent), not a percentage; resource_arn is almost always \"*\" because per-resource ARNs are rarely supported.
• Sampling rules are global to the X-Ray service in a region and are separate from groups and encryption config; importing a rule imports none of those.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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