How to Import an Azure Key Vault Secret into Terraform

Import Azure Key Vault Secret with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Azure Security resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Azure Key Vault Secret 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_key_vault_secret.db_password
  id = "https://prod-kv.vault.azure.net/secrets/db-password/fdf067c93bbb4b22bff4d8b7a9a56217"
}

Example azurerm_key_vault_secret configuration

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

resource "azurerm_key_vault_secret" "db_password" {
  name         = "db-password"
  key_vault_id = azurerm_key_vault.app.id
  value        = var.db_password
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Key Vault Secret

• Unlike most azurerm resources, the import ID is the data-plane URL (https://<vault>.vault.azure.net/secrets/<name>/<version>), NOT an ARM /subscriptions/ resource ID.
• The version GUID in the URL is required for import and pins a specific secret version.
• The secret value is sensitive and is supplied from a variable; Terraform stores it in state, so secure your state backend.
• You need data-plane permissions (an access policy or RBAC role on the vault), not just ARM control-plane rights, to read the secret.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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