How to Import an Google Secret Manager Secret Version into Terraform

Import Google Secret Manager Secret Version with Terraback (recommended)

Terraback reverse-engineers your live infrastructure: it reads the Google Secret Manager resource with read-only credentials, generates the HCL, and produces the exact import block. Two commands take you from a live Google Secret Manager Secret Version 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_secret_manager_secret_version.db_password_v1
  id = "projects/my-project/secrets/db-password/versions/1"
}

Example google_secret_manager_secret_version configuration

Here is a realistic Google Secret Manager Secret Version block. Terraback generates a fuller version from your actual resource attributes; this is a minimal, valid starting point.

resource "google_secret_manager_secret_version" "db_password_v1" {
  secret      = google_secret_manager_secret.db_password.id
  secret_data = "REPLACE_WITH_REAL_VALUE"
  enabled     = true

  lifecycle {
    ignore_changes = [secret_data]
  }
}

Gotchas when importing a Google Secret Manager Secret Version

• The actual secret payload is never returned by the API on import, so secret_data stays a placeholder; keep ignore_changes = [secret_data] or Terraform will try to overwrite the live value.
• The parent google_secret_manager_secret is a separate resource and must exist (or be imported) first.
• Versions are immutable and numbered (1, 2, 3, ...); you cannot edit a version's data, only disable, enable, or destroy it.
• Importing by the literal alias latest resolves to whatever the current newest version is, which can be surprising; pin to an explicit version number for stability.

Doing it manually with terraform import

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