How to Import an Google Cloud Bigtable Instance into Terraform

Import Google Cloud Bigtable Instance with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Cloud Bigtable resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Google Cloud Bigtable Instance to managed Terraform.

terraback scan all gcp --project my-gcp-project

terraback gcp 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 = google_bigtable_instance.prod
  id = "projects/my-project/instances/prod-bigtable"
}

Example google_bigtable_instance configuration

Here is a realistic Google Cloud Bigtable Instance block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "google_bigtable_instance" "prod" {
  name                = "prod-bigtable"
  deletion_protection = true

  cluster {
    cluster_id   = "prod-bigtable-c1"
    zone         = "us-central1-b"
    num_nodes    = 3
    storage_type = "SSD"
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Cloud Bigtable Instance

• Clusters import inline as cluster blocks; copy every cluster_id and zone exactly or Terraform will try to add or remove clusters.
• deletion_protection defaults to true and must be set false before Terraform can destroy the instance.
• Bigtable tables and app profiles are separate google_bigtable_table and google_bigtable_app_profile resources.
• Switching a cluster between fixed num_nodes and autoscaling_config changes the plan; match whichever the live cluster uses.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the google_bigtable_instance block by hand, then run terraform import google_bigtable_instance.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 Google Cloud resources