How to Import an Google Bigtable Table IAM Binding into Terraform

Import Google Bigtable Table IAM Binding with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Google Cloud Bigtable resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Google Bigtable Table IAM Binding 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_table_iam_binding.reader
  id = "projects/my-project/instances/my-instance/tables/my-table roles/bigtable.reader"
}

Example google_bigtable_table_iam_binding configuration

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

resource "google_bigtable_table_iam_binding" "reader" {
  instance = google_bigtable_instance.main.name
  table    = google_bigtable_table.main.name
  role     = "roles/bigtable.reader"
  members  = [
    "user:jane@example.com",
    "serviceAccount:app@my-project.iam.gserviceaccount.com",
  ]
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Bigtable Table IAM Binding

• An iam_binding is authoritative for that role on the table: it overwrites every other member of that role, so omitting an existing member revokes their access.
• Use google_bigtable_table_iam_member instead if you only want to add members additively without taking ownership of the whole role.
• The import ID is the table path and the role joined by a single space; the members themselves are not part of the ID.
• Do not mix authoritative bindings and additive members for the same role on the same table, or they will fight on every apply.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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