How to Import an Google Memorystore for Redis into Terraform

Import Google Memorystore for Redis with Terraback (recommended)

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

Example google_redis_instance configuration

Here is a realistic Google Memorystore for Redis block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "google_redis_instance" "cache" {
  name           = "cache"
  tier           = "STANDARD_HA"
  memory_size_gb = 5
  region         = "us-central1"
  redis_version  = "REDIS_7_0"
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Memorystore for Redis

• In the import path the region is a locations/<region> segment, while the HCL attribute is named region.
• tier (BASIC vs STANDARD_HA) is immutable; switching tiers forces a destroy and recreate.
• auth_string and the server CA certificate are not returned on import; manage AUTH and TLS settings explicitly.
• reserved_ip_range and authorized_network determine VPC placement and changing them recreates the instance.

Doing it manually with terraform import

The native approach is to write the google_redis_instance block by hand, then run terraform import google_redis_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