How to Import an Azure SQL Firewall Rule into Terraform

Import Azure SQL Firewall Rule with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Azure SQL Database resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Azure SQL Firewall Rule 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_mssql_firewall_rule.office
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Sql/servers/prod-sql/firewallRules/office"
}

Example azurerm_mssql_firewall_rule configuration

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

resource "azurerm_mssql_firewall_rule" "office" {
  name             = "office"
  server_id        = azurerm_mssql_server.prod.id
  start_ip_address = "203.0.113.0"
  end_ip_address   = "203.0.113.255"
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure SQL Firewall Rule

• The rule is a child of the logical SQL server (.../servers/<server>/firewallRules/<name>) and imports separately from azurerm_mssql_server.
• This resource takes server_id (the full server ID), not a server_name; the older azurerm_sql_firewall_rule used server_name instead.
• To allow Azure services, a rule named AllowAllWindowsAzureIps with start and end 0.0.0.0 already exists if that toggle was enabled.
• Firewall rules live on the server, not on individual databases.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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