How to Import an Azure DNS Zone into Terraform

Import Azure DNS Zone with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Azure DNS resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Azure DNS Zone 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_dns_zone.main
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Network/dnsZones/example.com"
}

Example azurerm_dns_zone configuration

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

resource "azurerm_dns_zone" "main" {
  name                = "example.com"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure DNS Zone

• A public DNS zone is global and has no location argument, unlike most azurerm resources.
• Record sets are separate resources (azurerm_dns_a_record, azurerm_dns_cname_record, and so on) and are not imported with the zone.
• The automatically created NS and SOA records are managed implicitly; do not redeclare them.
• azurerm_dns_zone (public) and azurerm_private_dns_zone are different resources with different ARM types.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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