Quickstart: Export Azure resources into HCL code using Azure Export for Terraform

Article
05/10/2023

In the article, Export your first resources using Azure Export for Terraform, you learn how to export Azure resources into local state files using Azure Export for Terraform. In this article, you learn how to generate the Terraform configuration files from your Azure resources.

Create a test Azure resource group using Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell.
Create a test Linux virtual machine using Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell.
Export the resource group and virtual machine from Azure to HCL files.
Test that the local state matches the state of the resources in Azure.

Prerequisites

Create the test Azure resources

Create a Linux VM.

Azure CLI
Azure PowerShell

Run az group create to create an Azure resource group.

az group create --name myResourceGroup --location eastus

Run az vm create to create the virtual machine.

az vm create \
  --resource-group myResourceGroup \
  --name myVM \
  --image Debian11 \
  --admin-username azureadmin \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --public-ip-sku Standard

Run New-AzResourceGroup to create an Azure resource group.

New-AzResourceGroup -Name 'myResourceGroup' -Location 'EastUS'

Run New-AzVM to create the virtual machine.

New-AzVm `
    -ResourceGroupName 'myResourceGroup' `
    -Name 'myVM' `
    -Location 'East US' `
    -Image Debian11 `
    -size Standard_B2s `
    -PublicIpAddressName myPubIP `
    -OpenPorts 80 `
    -GenerateSshKey `
    -SshKeyName mySSHKey

Understand the hcl-only flag

Azure Export for Terraform supports a flag - --hcl-only - that causes the generation of the following files from the exported resource(s):

Generated .tf HCL files.
Mapping file aztfexportResourceMapping.json.
Skipped resources are listed in aztfexportSkippedResources.txt.

The --hcl-only flag is supported for all primary export commands used for exporting:

resource
resource-group
query
mapping-file

To view the available Azure Export for Terraform commands, run the following command:

aztfexport --help

The --hcl-only flag is useful in scenarios where you don't need the state or aren't sure if you need to generate the state. To export all the generated configuration to state, run aztfexport mapping-file.

Tip

When using the --hcl-only flag, target an empty directory to avoid making unwanted changes to any current state during the export stage.

Export an Azure resource

You can run the aztfexport tool in one of two modes: interactive and non-interactive. For this demo, you use the non-interactive mode.

Create a directory in which to test.
Open a command prompt and navigate to the new directory.
Run aztfexport resource-group to export the resource group named myResourceGroup.
```
aztfexport resource-group --non-interactive --hcl-only myResourceGroup
```

Note

Running Azure Export for Terraform can take several minutes to complete.

Verify the results

After the tool has finished exporting your Azure resources, verify the following files in the directory where you ran Azure Export for Terraform:

main.tf contains the HCL code that defines the exported resources.
aztfexportResourceMapping.json contains the Azure/Terraform mappings. The mapping file includes the following information for each exported Azure resource: Azure resource ID, Terraform resource type, and Terraform resource name. The contents of the mapping file mirror what Azure Export for Terraform displays during the export process.
aztfexportSkippedResources.txt contains the list of skipped resources. You shouldn't see this file for this example.

Clean up resources

When you no longer need the resources created in this article, do the following steps:

Navigate to the directory containing your Terraform files for this article.
Run terraform destroy.
```
terraform destroy
```

Next steps

How Azure Export for Terraform works