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Update Terraform-managed Azure resources outside of Terraform

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Although it's not recommended that you modify Terraform-managed resources outside of Terraform due to the risk of data loss, certain features require that you do. Because of the risks, it's essential that you correctly update the resources using the steps outlined.

Terraform-managed resources store their state in the terraform.tfstate located in either Terraform Cloud of the local Terraform module. The state contains all properties of the remote resource relevant to Terraform. When a Terraform-managed resource is modified outside of Terraform, the Terraform state does not match the remote resource's properties. In its attempt to resolve the mismatch, Terraform might destroy and recreate the remote resource, resulting in data loss.

Protect Terraform-managed resources with lifecycle

To prevent data loss on any Azure resource that includes volatile resources, you should use the prevent_destroy lifecycle argument in the Terraform configuration file. For example:

resource "azure_netapp_volume" "example {
    lifecycle{
        prevent_destroy = true
    }

}

Modify a Terraform-managed resource outside of Terraform

The following instructions are a high-level overview of the steps required to update a Terraform-managed resource outside of Terraform.

  1. Navigate to the Terraform module's configuration file. The extension for the configuration file is either .tf or .tf.json.
  2. In the Terraform-managed volume's configuration file (main.tf), locate the lifecycle configuration block. Modify the block with ignore_changes = <property>, assigning the appropriate property value for the feature you're using. If no lifecycle configuration block exists, add it: 
    lifecycle {
    ignore_changes = <property>
}
  3. Make the desired modification to the Azure NetApp Files volume.
  4. Run terraform plan to confirm that no changes will be made to your volume. The CLI output should display: No changes. Your infrastructure matches the configuration.

    Note

    The terraform plan command creates a plan file with the changes to the remote resource, allowing you to ensure the safety of your resource before applying any changes.

  5. Run terraform apply to apply the changes. You should see the same CLI output as in the previous step.

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