Microsoft Azure Export for Terraform

A tool to bring your existing Azure resources under the management of Terraform.

Goal

aztfexport imports the resources that are supported by the Terraform AzureRM provider into the Terraform state, and generates the corresponding Terraform configuration. Both the Terraform state and configuration are expected to be consistent with the resources' remote state, i.e., terraform plan shows no diff. The user then is able to use Terraform to manage these resources.

Non Goal

The Terraform configurations generated by aztfexport are not meant to be comprehensive and do not ensure that the infrastructure can be fully reproduced from the generated configurations. For details, please refer to the limitation.

Install

From Release

Precompiled binaries and Window MSI are available at Releases.

From Go toolchain

go install github.com/Azure/aztfexport@latest

From Package Manager

Windows

winget install aztfexport

Homebrew (Linux/macOS)

brew install aztfexport

dnf (Linux)

Supported versions:

• RHEL 8 (amd64, arm64)
• RHEL 9 (amd64, arm64)

1. Import the Microsoft repository key:

   rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
   

2. Add packages-microsoft-com-prod repository:

   ver=8 # or 9
   dnf install -y https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/${ver}/packages-microsoft-prod.rpm
   

3. Install:

   dnf install aztfexport
   

apt (Linux)

Supported versions:

• Ubuntu 20.04 (amd64, arm64)
• Ubuntu 22.04 (amd64, arm64)

1. Import the Microsoft repository key:

   curl -sSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc > /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.asc
   

2. Add packages-microsoft-com-prod repository:

   ver=20.04 # or 22.04
   apt-add-repository https://packages.microsoft.com/ubuntu/${ver}/prod
   

3. Install:

   apt-get install aztfexport
   

Precondition

aztfexport requires a terraform executable installed in the $PATH, whose version >= v0.12.

Usage

Follow the authentication guide from the Terraform AzureRM provider to authenticate to Azure.

Then you can go ahead and run aztfexport resource <resource id>, aztfexport resource-group <resource group name> or aztfexport query <arg where predicate> to import a single resource, a resource group including child resources, or a customized set of resources by an Azure Resource Graph query.

Export a Single Resource

aztfexport resource [option] <resource id> exports a single resource by its Azure control plane ID.

E.g.

aztfexport resource /subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/rg1/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/vm1

The command will automatically identify the Terraform resource type (e.g. correctly identifies above resource as azurerm_linux_virtual_machine), and import it into state file and generate the Terraform configuration.

❗ For data plane only or property-like resources, the Azure resource ID is using a pesudo format, as is defined here.

Export a Resource Group

aztfexport resource-group [option] <resource group name> exports a resource group and its including resources by its name.

Export a Customized Set of Resources

aztfexport query [option] <arg where predicate> exports a set of resources (and its including resources with --recursive) by an Azure Resource Graph where predicate. Note that you can combine multiple conditions in one where predicate, e.g. resourceGroup =~ "my-rg" and type =~ "microsoft.network/virtualnetworks".

💡 Resource group mode is the same as running aztfexport query --recursive "resourceGroup =~ 'my-rg'", except it also add on the resource group itself.

aztfexport depends on azlist, which uses ARG behind the scenes. azlist will first make an ARG call with the given where predicate, then if --recursive is specified, it will recursively call the "LIST" on the known child resource types. Since ARG only returns ARM tracked resources at this moment, but not for the RP proxy resources (e.g. subnet, network security rules, storage containers, etc). If you uses predicate like type =~ "microsoft.network/virtualnetworks/subnets", it returns you nothing since subnet is not an ARM tracked resource.

To workaround above, you can query with a bigger scope (e.g. type =~ "microsoft.network/virtualnetworks") in interactive mode, then manually remove the resources other than subnets.

Export a Predefined Set of Resources

aztfexport mapping-file [option] <resource mapping file> exports a set of resources that is defined in the resource mapping file.

The format of the mapping file is defined below:

{
    "<Azure resource id1>": {
        "resource_type" : "<terraform resource type>",
        "resource_name" : "<terraform resource name>",
        "resource_id"   : "<terraform resource id>"
    },
    "<Azure resource id2>": {
        "resource_type" : "<terraform resource type>",
        "resource_name" : "<terraform resource name>",
        "resource_id"   : "<terraform resource id>"
    },
    ...
}

Example:

{
	"/subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/aztfexport-vmdisk": {
		"resource_id": "/subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/aztfexport-vmdisk",
		"resource_type": "azurerm_resource_group",
		"resource_name": "res-1"
	},
	"/subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/aztfexport-vmdisk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/aztfexport-test-test": {
		"resource_id": "/subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/aztfexport-vmdisk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/disks/aztfexport-test-test",
		"resource_type": "azurerm_managed_disk",
		"resource_name": "res-2"
	},
	"/subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/aztfexport-vmdisk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/aztfexport-test-test": {
		"resource_id": "/subscriptions/0000/resourceGroups/aztfexport-vmdisk/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/aztfexport-test-test",
		"resource_type": "azurerm_linux_virtual_machine",
		"resource_name": "res-3"
	},
    ...
}

You can generate the mapping file in all other modes (i.e. resource, resource-group, query) by specifying the --generate-mapping-file option when running non-interactively, or press s when running interactively in the resource list stage. Also, each run of aztfexport will generate the resource mapping file for you, to record what resources have been imported.

Of course, you are welcome to manually construct or edit the mapping file. Note that only the object value in the mapping file matters, while the key just plays as an identifier in this mode.

Interactive vs Non-Interactive

By default aztfexport runs in interactive mode, whilst you can also run in non-interactive mode by adding the --non-interactive/-n option.

Interactive mode

In interactive mode, aztfexport list all the resources resides in the specified resource group or customized set. For each resource, aztfexport will try to recognize the corresponding Terraform resource type. If it finds one, the line will be prefixed by a 💡 as an indicator. Otherwise, user is expected to input the Terraform resource address in form of <resource type>.<resource name> (e.g. azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.test). Users can press r to see the possible resource type(s) for the selected resource.

In some cases, there are Azure resources that have no corresponding Terraform resources (e.g. due to lacks of Terraform support), or some resources might be created as a side effect of provisioning another resource (e.g. the OS Disk resource is created automatically when provisioning a VM). In these cases, you can skip these resources without typing anything.

After going through all the resources to be imported, users press w to instruct aztfexport to proceed importing resources into Terraform state and generating the Terraform configuration.

Non-Interactive mode

In non-interactive mode, aztfexport only imports the recognized resources, and skip the others. Users can further specify the --continue/-k option to make the tool continue even on hitting any import error.

Backend: local vs remote

By default, aztfexport checks the output directory whether it is empty. If it is not empty, the user can specify either --overwrite to clean up the directory, or --append to additively generate the config to the directory.

💡 In append mode, the file generated by aztfexport be named differently than normal, where each file will has .aztfexport suffix before the extension (e.g. main.aztfexport.tf), to avoid potential file name conflicts. If you run aztfexport [subcommand] --append multiple times, the generated config in main.aztfexport.tf will be appended in each run.

On top of this, aztfexport supports importing these resources to state either in local backend or remote backend:

• In case the output directory is empty, or the user has specified --overwrite, the backend type is determined by --backend-type, which defaults to local when absent.
• Otherwise, the user append (via --append) to a non-empty output directory. Then aztfexport will honor any existing backend setting (i.e. in the terraform setting), and ensure it is consistent with the specified backend type (via --backend-type) and backend config (via --backend-config), if any.

This means there are two ways to export into remote state:

• Using the --backend-type and --backend-config, e.g.:

  aztfexport [subcommand] --backend-type=azurerm --backend-config=resource_group_name=<resource group name> --backend-config=storage_account_name=<account name> --backend-config=container_name=<container name> --backend-config=key=terraform.tfstate 
  

• Prepare the terraform setting in the output directory, and run aztfexport [subcommand] --append

Config

aztfexport will create a configuration file at $HOME/.aztfexport/config.json. This file is aim to be managed by command aztfexport config [subcommand], which includes following subcommands:

• get: Get a config item
• set: Set a config item
• show: Show the full configuration

Currently, following config items are supported:

• installation_id: A UUID created on first run. If there is Azure CLI or Azure Powershell installed on the current machine, the UUID will be the same value among these tools. Otherwise, a new one will be created. This is used as an identifier in the telemetry trace.
• telemetry_enabled: Whether to enable telemetry? We use telemetry to identify issues and areas for improvement, in order to optimize this tool for better performance, reliability, and user experience.

How it Works

aztfexport leverage aztft to identify the Terraform resource type on its Azure resource ID. Then it runs terraform import under the hood to import each resource. Afterwards, it runs tfadd to generate the Terraform template for each imported resource.

Demo

Limitation

There are several limitations causing aztfexport can hardly generate reproducible Terraform configurations.

AzureRM Provider Validation

When generating the Terraform configuration, not all properties of the resource are exported for different reasons.

One reason is because there are flexible cross-property constraints defined in the AzureRM Terraform provider. E.g. property_a conflits with property_b. This might due to the nature of the API, or might be due to some deprecation process of the provider (e.g. property_a is deprecated in favor of property_b, but kept for backwards compatibility). These constraints require some properties must be absent in the Terraform configuration, otherwise, the configuration is not a valid and will fail during terraform validate.

Another reason is that an Azure resource can be a property of its parent resource (e.g. azurerm_subnet can be its own resource, or be a property of azurerm_virtual_network). Per Terraform's best practice, users should only use one of the forms, not both. aztfexport chooses to always generate all the resources, but omit the property in the parent resource that represents the child resource.

Additional Resources

• The aztfexport Github Page: Everything about aztfexport, including comparisons with other existing import solutions.
• aztft: A Go program and library for identifying the correct Terraform AzureRM provider resource type on the Azure resource id.
• tfadd: A Go program and library for generating Terraform configuration from Terraform state.