How to Import an Google Compute Regional Backend Service into Terraform

Import Google Compute Regional Backend Service 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 Regional Backend Service 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_region_backend_service.app
  id = "projects/my-project/regions/us-central1/backendServices/app-be"
}

Example google_compute_region_backend_service configuration

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

resource "google_compute_region_backend_service" "app" {
  name                  = "app-be"
  region                = "us-central1"
  protocol              = "HTTP"
  load_balancing_scheme = "INTERNAL_MANAGED"
  health_checks         = [google_compute_region_health_check.app.id]
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Compute Regional Backend Service

• This is the regional resource; the import path must include the region segment, unlike the global google_compute_backend_service.
• load_balancing_scheme is immutable and constrains everything else; INTERNAL, INTERNAL_MANAGED, and EXTERNAL_MANAGED accept different protocols and backend types.
• health_checks must reference regional google_compute_region_health_check resources for most schemes; a global health check will be rejected.
• backend blocks reference instance groups or NEGs by URL; those groups are separate resources that are not imported here.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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