The current implementation of Terraform import can only import resources into the state. It does not generate configuration. A future version of Terraform will also generate configuration.
Because of this, prior to running terraform import it is necessary to write manually a resource configuration block for the resource, to which the imported object will be mapped.
The terraform import command is used to import existing infrastructure.
To import a resource, first write a resource block for it in our configuration, establishing the name by which it will be known to Terraform.
Example:
resource "aws_instance" "import_example" {
# ...instance configuration...
}
Now terraform import can be run to attach an existing instance to this resource configuration.
$ terraform import aws_instance.import_example i-03efafa258104165f
aws_instance.import_example: Importing from ID "i-03efafa258104165f"...
aws_instance.import_example: Import complete!
Imported aws_instance (ID: i-03efafa258104165f)
aws_instance.import_example: Refreshing state... (ID: i-03efafa258104165f) Import successful!
The resources that were imported are shown above. These resources are now in your Terraform state and will henceforth be managed by Terraform.
This command locates the AWS instance with ID i-03efafa258104165f (which has been created outside Terraform) and attaches its existing settings, as described by the EC2 API, to the name aws_instance.import_example in the Terraform state.