How to Import an Azure Monitor Action Group into Terraform

Import Azure Monitor Action Group 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 Monitor Action Group 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_monitor_action_group.main
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Insights/actionGroups/oncall"
}

Example azurerm_monitor_action_group configuration

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

resource "azurerm_monitor_action_group" "main" {
  name                = "oncall"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
  short_name          = "oncall"

  email_receiver {
    name          = "ops"
    email_address = "ops@contoso.com"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Monitor Action Group

• The ARM type is Microsoft.Insights/actionGroups; action groups are global resources but still live in a resource group.
• short_name is limited to 12 characters and is used in SMS/push notifications.
• Each receiver type (email, sms, webhook, azure_function, logic_app, and so on) is its own nested block; all are managed inline.
• location for action groups is typically 'global' regardless of the resource group's region.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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