How to Import an Azure SSH Public Key into Terraform

Import Azure SSH Public Key with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Azure Compute resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Azure SSH Public Key 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_ssh_public_key.main
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/sshPublicKeys/prod-admin-key"
}

Example azurerm_ssh_public_key configuration

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

resource "azurerm_ssh_public_key" "main" {
  name                = "prod-admin-key"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
  location            = "eastus"
  public_key          = file("~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub")
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure SSH Public Key

• The ARM type is Microsoft.Compute/sshPublicKeys; this is a stored, reusable public key resource, not the inline key on a VM's os_profile.
• public_key must be a valid OpenSSH-format RSA public key; Terraback emits prevent_destroy in a lifecycle block to guard against accidental deletion of a key that VMs depend on.
• Only the public half is stored in Azure; if the key was generated by Azure, the private key was shown only once at creation and is not recoverable via import.
• Importing the key resource does not retroactively attach it to existing VMs; VMs reference the key material copied in at their own creation time.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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