terraform import on module resource fails to read values in terraform.tfvars, even though plan/apply work

[pcockwell]

When using a module to define resources that get used multiple times over, and wanting to import existing use cases for for this module (for example github user membership), the import fails to recognize variables defined at the top level outside of the module. This is despite a working plan or apply.

Terraform Version

Terraform v0.9.11

Terraform Configuration Files

# test_user.tf
variable "github_org_owner_token" {
  description = "The account corresponding to this token will need 'owner' privileges for the GitHub organization"
}

module "test_user" {
  source = "./modules/github_membership/"

  github_org_owner_token = "${var.github_org_owner_token}"
  github_username = "pcockwell"
}

# terraform.tfvars
github_org_owner_token = "REDACTED"

# modules/github_membership/variables.tf
variable "github_org_owner_token" {
  description = "The account corresponding to this token will need 'owner' privileges for the GitHub organization"
}
variable "github_username" {}
variable "github_role" {
  default = "member"
}

# modules/github_membership/github.tf
provider "github" {
  token        = "${var.github_org_owner_token}"
  organization = "REDACTED"
}

resource "github_membership" "membership" {
  username = "${var.github_username}"
  role     = "${var.github_role}"
}

Debug Output

$ terraform plan -target=module.test_user
+ module.test_user.github_membership.membership
    role:     "member"
    username: "pcockwell"


Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

$ terraform import module.test_user.github_membership.membership REDACTED:pcockwell
Error importing: 1 error(s) occurred:

* module.test_user.provider.github: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.github_org_owner_token in:

${var.github_org_owner_token}

Expected Behavior

Terraform successfully imports resource

Actual Behavior

Terraform fails complaining about an unknown variable being accessed

Steps to Reproduce

Please list the full steps required to reproduce the issue, for example:

1. terraform init
2. terraform plan -target=module.test_user.github_membership.membership
3. terraform import module.test_user.github_membership.membership REDACTED:pcockwell

[pcockwell]

My mistake on closing - apologies

[alexhexabeam]

I've hit this too. init and plan work, but I can't import. This might be more complicated because I'm using modules in modules, and because I'm managing two AWS accounts. It throws unknown variable accessed errors for anything that uses variables in the provider.

terraform import module.legacy_engineering_oregon.module.vpn_connection.aws_vpn_connection.vpn_connection vpn-redacted
Error: module.china_qa.provider.aws: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.exabeam_aws_session_token in:
${var.exabeam_aws_session_token}

Error: module.artifactory2.provider.aws: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.aws_access_key in:
${var.aws_access_key}

Error: module.lambda_cleanup_cct.provider.aws: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.exabeamit_aws_access_key in:
${var.exabeamit_aws_access_key}

Error: module.jenkins.provider.aws: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.exabeamit_aws_session_token in:
${var.exabeamit_aws_session_token}

Error: module.cct_bucket.provider.aws: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.exabeamit_aws_access_key in:
${var.exabeamit_aws_access_key}
...

Provider declaration:

provider "aws" {
    region = "us-west-2"
    access_key = "${var.exabeam_aws_access_key}"
    secret_key = "${var.exabeam_aws_secret_key}"
    token = "${var.exabeam_aws_session_token}"
}

[dijitali]

I've encountered the same issue in Terraform v0.11.7 but it seems slightly more widespread than just not pulling variables from the top-level tfvars. In my testing it seemed to occur even when explicitly declaring static string values to my module.

It seems notable that interpolation of an output from another module worked fine though (see the mysite module reference in the example below) .

module "cloudflare" {
  source = "./modules/cloudflare"
  domain = "example.com"
  email  = "me@example.com"
  org_id = "xxx"
  token  = "yyy"

  proxy_cname = {
    www = "${replace(module.mysite.app_service_default_hostname, "/^https?:///", "")}"
  }
}

terraform import module.cloudflare.cloudflare_record.proxy_cname example.com/zzz

Error: module.cloudflare.provider.cloudflare: 1:3: unknown variable accessed: var.email in:

${var.email}

Workaround

My workaround was:

1. Temporarily assign the required values as defaults to all the variables in the module (./modules/cloudflare/variables.tf)
2. Run the import command
3. Remove the default values for the module variables

This is not ideal as it wouldn't work for any complex interpolations on the module. In my case it also involved temporarily putting sensitive secrets as default variables.

[mildwonkey]

Please do not post "+1" comments here, since it creates noise for others watching the issue and ultimately doesn't influence our prioritization because we can't actually report on these. Instead, react to the original issue comment with 👍, which we can and do report on during prioritization.

[danieldreier]

Has anyone been able to reproduce this issue on a recent terraform 0.12.x version?