How to Import an Azure Virtual Machine into Terraform

Import Azure Virtual Machine 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 Virtual Machine 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_linux_virtual_machine.app
  id = "/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/prod-rg/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/app-vm"
}

Example azurerm_linux_virtual_machine configuration

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

resource "azurerm_linux_virtual_machine" "app" {
  name                = "app-vm"
  resource_group_name = "prod-rg"
  location            = "eastus"
  size                = "Standard_B2s"
  admin_username      = "azureuser"

  network_interface_ids = [
    azurerm_network_interface.app.id,
  ]

  os_disk {
    caching              = "ReadWrite"
    storage_account_type = "Standard_LRS"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Azure Virtual Machine

• Azure splits VMs by OS: use azurerm_linux_virtual_machine or azurerm_windows_virtual_machine, not the deprecated azurerm_virtual_machine. Terraback picks the right one automatically.
• The network interface is a separate azurerm_network_interface resource and must be imported too.
• The OS and data disks are separate azurerm_managed_disk resources; the os_disk block references an existing disk.
• Admin passwords and SSH keys are not returned by Azure, so supply them in code.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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