How to Import an Google Compute Backend Bucket into Terraform

Import Google Compute Backend Bucket with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Google Cloud Load Balancing resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Google Compute Backend Bucket 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_compute_backend_bucket.static
  id = "projects/my-project/global/backendBuckets/static-assets"
}

Example google_compute_backend_bucket configuration

Here is a realistic Google Compute Backend Bucket block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "google_compute_backend_bucket" "static" {
  name        = "static-assets"
  bucket_name = "my-static-bucket"
  enable_cdn  = true
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Compute Backend Bucket

• A backend bucket is a global resource; the import path always contains /global/, never a region.
• bucket_name points at an existing google_storage_bucket that is a separate resource and is not imported with the backend bucket.
• Enabling CDN here does not make the bucket public; the underlying GCS bucket still needs its own IAM to serve objects.
• The backend bucket is only reachable once a url_map and target proxy route to it; those load-balancer pieces are separate resources.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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