How to Import an Azure Load Balancer into Terraform

Import Azure Load Balancer with Terraback (recommended)

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

Example azurerm_lb configuration

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

resource "azurerm_lb" "main" {
  name                = "prod-lb"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
  location            = "eastus"
  sku                 = "Standard"

  frontend_ip_configuration {
    name                 = "public"
    public_ip_address_id = azurerm_public_ip.lb.id
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Load Balancer

• Backend pools, health probes, and load-balancing rules are separate resources (azurerm_lb_backend_address_pool, azurerm_lb_probe, azurerm_lb_rule), not nested blocks.
• Only the frontend_ip_configuration block is inline; importing the LB does not import its rules or pools.
• The Standard SKU is immutable from Basic; you cannot convert in place.
• A Standard LB requires a Standard SKU public IP; mismatched SKUs fail at apply.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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