How to Import an Google Cloud Filestore Instance into Terraform

Import Google Cloud Filestore Instance with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Filestore resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Google Cloud Filestore 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_filestore_instance.shared
  id = "projects/my-project/locations/us-central1-a/instances/shared-nfs"
}

Example google_filestore_instance configuration

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

resource "google_filestore_instance" "shared" {
  name     = "shared-nfs"
  location = "us-central1-a"
  tier     = "BASIC_HDD"

  file_shares {
    name        = "share1"
    capacity_gb = 1024
  }

  networks {
    network = "default"
    modes   = ["MODE_IPV4"]
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Cloud Filestore Instance

• location is a zone for zonal tiers (BASIC_HDD, BASIC_SSD) and a region for ENTERPRISE; use the exact value from the resource name.
• tier and capacity have minimums per tier, and capacity_gb can only grow, never shrink.
• The networks block reserves an IP range in the VPC; changing the network forces recreation and a new mount IP.
• Backups are separate google_filestore_backup resources and are not imported with the instance.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the google_filestore_instance block by hand, then run terraform import google_filestore_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