How to Import an Azure Network Interface into Terraform

Import Azure Network Interface 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 Network Interface 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_network_interface.app
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Network/networkInterfaces/app-nic"
}

Example azurerm_network_interface configuration

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

resource "azurerm_network_interface" "app" {
  name                = "app-nic"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
  location            = "eastus"

  ip_configuration {
    name                          = "internal"
    subnet_id                     = azurerm_subnet.app.id
    private_ip_address_allocation = "Dynamic"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Network Interface

• At least one ip_configuration block is required and is managed inline.
• NSG association is a separate azurerm_network_interface_security_group_association resource, not an attribute on the NIC.
• Backend pool and application security group associations are also separate association resources.
• Provider 4.x renamed enable_ip_forwarding to ip_forwarding_enabled and enable_accelerated_networking to accelerated_networking_enabled.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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