Azure Export (aztfexport) Tool for Reverse Terraform(IAC)

In this blog, We will see an interesting tool that helps DevOps/SRE professionals working in the Azure Cloud.

Are you worried that your Infrastructure as Code (IAC) is not in a good state, and there have been lots of manual changes? Here is a solution provided by Azure - a tool named "Azure Export for Terraform (aztfexport)".

This tool assists in exporting the current Azure resources into Terraform code. Below, we will see the installation of this tool and how to use it.

Requirements:

1.A linux/Window machine

2.Terraform (>= v0.12)

3.az-cli

4.Azure subscription account

Step 1 : aztfexport installation,

This tool can be installed on all operating systems. Refer to the link below for installation instructions for other OS:

https://github.com/Azure/aztfexport

If you are installing it on macOS, open the terminal and execute the following command:

brew install aztfexport

Step 2 : Configure azure subscription

Execute below commands to configure the azure subscription in terminal,

az login    or  

az login --use-device-code

next set the subscription id,

az account set --subscription "subscription id"

Now that the Azure subscription is configured, let's proceed with trying out the tool.

In this subscription, I have a resource group named "devopsart-dev-rg" which contains a virtual machine (VM). We will generate the Terraform code for this VM.

Step 3 : Experiment "aztfexport" tool

Execute the below commands to generate the tf code,

Create a new directory in any name,

mkdir aztfexport && cd aztfexport

Below command will help to check the available option for this tool.

aztfexport --help

Execute the below command to generate the terraform code from "devopsart-dev-rg" rg

Syntax : aztfexport resource-group resource-grp-name

aztfexport resource-group devopsart-dev-rg

It will take few seconds to list the available resources in the given resource group(RG).

and it will list all the resources under the RG like below,

next enter "w" to import the resources and it will take some more time to generate it.

Once its completed, we can validate the tf files.

Step 4 : Validate the tf files

We will validate the generated files, and the following files are present in the directory,

main.tf, 

provider.tf

terraform.tf

aztfexportResourceMapping.json

terraform.state (We can save this state file remotely by using below parameters)

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

Run, terraform plan

Nice!, it says there is no change is required in the Azure cloud infra.

Step 5 : Delete the azure resource and recreate with generated tf files,

The resources are deleted from Azure Portal under the dev rg,

Now run the terraform commands to create the resource,

cd aztfexport

terraform plan

Next execute,

terraform apply

Now all the resources are recreated with the generated tf files.

Thats all, We have installed aztfexport tool, generated tf files, Destroyed the azure resources and recreated with generated files.

check below link for the current limitations,

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/terraform/azure-export-for-terraform/export-terraform-concepts#limitations

References,

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/terraform/azure-export-for-terraform/export-terraform-overview

https://github.com/Azure/aztfexport

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWk9SU7AmDA

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/terraform/azure-export-for-terraform/export-advanced-scenarios