terraform/website/source/docs/import/usage.html.md

layout	page_title	sidebar_current	description
docs	Import: Usage	docs-import-usage	The `terraform import` command is used to import existing infrastructure.

Import Usage

The terraform import command is used to import existing infrastructure.

The command currently can only import one resource at a time. This means you can't yet point Terraform import to an entire collection of resources such as an AWS VPC and import all of it. A future version of Terraform will be able to do this.

Using terraform import is simple. An example is shown below:

$ terraform import aws_instance.bar i-abcd1234
...

The above command imports an AWS instance with the given ID to the address aws_instance.bar. You can also import resources into modules. See the resource addressing page for more details on the full range of addresses supported.

The ID given is dependent on the resource type being imported. For example, AWS instances use their direct IDs. However, AWS Route53 zones use the domain name itself. Reference the resource documentation for details on what the ID it expects is.

As a result of the above command, the resource is put into the state file. If you run terraform plan, you should see Terraform plan your resource for destruction. You now have to create a matching configuration so that Terraform doesn't plan a destroy.

Complex Imports

The above import is considered a "simple import": one resource is imported into the state file. An import may also result in a "complex import" where multiple resources are imported. For example, an AWS security group imports an aws_security_group but also one aws_security_group_rule for each rule.

In this case, the name of the resource is shown as part of the import output. You'll have to create a configuration for each resource imported. If you want to rename the other imported resources, the state management commands should be used to rename resources.