How to Import an Azure Application Insights into Terraform

Import Azure Application Insights with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Azure Monitor resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Azure Application Insights to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all azure --subscription-id YOUR_ID

terraback azure 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 = azurerm_application_insights.main
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Insights/components/prod-appinsights"
}

Example azurerm_application_insights configuration

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

resource "azurerm_application_insights" "main" {
  name                = "prod-appinsights"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
  location            = "eastus"
  application_type    = "web"
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Application Insights

• The ARM type is Microsoft.Insights/components, not 'applicationInsights'.
• Classic (non-workspace) Application Insights is deprecated; set workspace_id to link a Log Analytics workspace for the workspace-based model.
• instrumentation_key and connection_string are sensitive computed outputs used by your application code.
• application_type is immutable; changing it (for example web to java) forces a new resource.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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