Epic: Make sure all AWS resources are accounted for in Terraform
- Lingua principale
- PowerShell
- Stelle
- 8
- Fork
- 10
- Merge medio
- 7h 30m
- PR unite (30g)
- 22
Descrizione
### Overview
We need every AWS resource in the incubator account to be either managed by Terraform, deliberately documented as unmanaged, or deleted, because devops#199 found 282 resources that no code accounts for and there is currently no way to tell an abandoned resource from a load-bearing one.
### Action Items
Tracked as sub-issues. This issue closes when they do.
The sub-issues divide the 282 unmanaged resources by disposition rather than by AWS service, because the governing question is per-project ("is this still wanted?") rather than per-type. Three dispositions are available and every resource must reach one of them:
- **import** into `incubator/terraform` or `devops-security/terraform`;
- **delete**, where nothing depends on the resource;
- **document as intentionally unmanaged**, where AWS or the design makes management impossible or pointless.
### Resources/Instructions
- devops#199 — the script and the enumerated list of 282 unmanaged resources. Regenerate at any time with `./scripts/aws-terraform-coverage.ps1 -ListArns`.
- AWS account `035866691871` (incubator), regions `us-west-2` and `us-east-1`.
- **This epic resumes hackforla/incubator#20, "The Terraform Migration Epic."** That epic was closed with the HomeUniteUs migration item still unchecked while ballotnav, civictechindex, VRMS and people-depot were ticked. Live AWS confirms exactly that: home-unite-us is the one project whose production stack never moved, which is sub-issue 6 here.
- hackforla/devops#81 — "Migrate from Terragrunt to Terraform," the V2 rewrite that produced most of the leftovers. Also closed with an unchecked action item.
- **Only two Terraform states are real**: `incubator` and `devops-security`. `s3://hlfa-incubator-terragrunt` holds 26 abandoned state files from the Terragrunt era; the `.hcl` configuration that produced them was deleted by the V2 rewrite, so they cannot be planned or destroyed and are cleanup, not a management layer. They remain useful as a record of what each resource was originally for — read them before deleting anything, which is why the state-backend cleanup is sequenced last.
- All counts, resource names and API behaviours in the sub-issues were observed on 2026-08-28 and will drift. Re-check rather than trusting them.
#### Importing existing resources into Terraform
Several sub-issues here import a resource that already exists rather than creating one. That is a different and sharper operation than normal Terraform work, and the notes below apply to all of them.
**Use `import` blocks, not the `terraform import` command.** Both repositories pin `required_version = "~> 1.12"`, so config-driven import is available. An `import` block lives in a `.tf` file, appears in the pull request, and shows up in the plan that CI posts as a PR comment — so it gets reviewed like any other change. The `terraform import` CLI command instead writes to the shared remote state immediately from whoever's laptop runs it, with no review and no record in the repository. A block looks like this:
import {
to = module.ecr_backend.aws_ecr_repository.this
id = "civictechindex-backend-prod"
}
**Let Terraform write the configuration for you.** Run `terraform plan -generate-config-out=generated.tf` and it emits HCL for every `import` block that has no matching resource yet. The output is verbose and includes defaults and read-only attributes, so treat it as a starting point to trim rather than something to commit as-is. It is still far faster and more accurate than hand-writing a resource block to match a live one.
**The import ID is rarely the ARN, and each resource type differs.** This is the most common reason an import fails. Every resource's page in the Terraform AWS provider registry documentation has an "Import" section giving the exact format. For the types this epic touches: `aws_ecr_repository` takes the repository name, `aws_security_group` takes the `sg-` id, `aws_ecs_service` takes `cluster-name/service-name`, `aws_cloudwatch_log_group` takes the log group name, `aws_iam_user` takes the user name while `aws_iam_policy` takes the full ARN, `aws_lb_target_group` takes the ARN, `aws_route53_zone` takes the zone id, and `aws_route53_record` takes `ZONEID_recordname_TYPE`.
**Read the plan for replacement before merging — this is the dangerous one.** A successful import that plans `must be replaced` or `forces replacement` means the configuration does not match the live resource, and applying it will destroy and recreate the real thing. For an ECR repository that means losing every image; for a hosted zone it means new nameservers and a DNS outage. **Merging to the default branch runs `terraform apply` with `auto_approve: true`**, so there is no second gate after review — the PR plan is the last chance to catch it. The target state is a plan that adds the resource to state and changes nothing else, aside from tags.
**Expect the plan to add tags, and use that.** Both providers set `default_tags`, so an imported resource will show `managed-by` being added. That diff is normal and is the mechanism by which the resource starts reporting as managed in devops#199's coverage report. Until an apply actually runs, the resource stays untagged and the report still calls it unmanaged, so verify with `terraform state list` immediately after import and treat the coverage report as the post-apply check.
**Import parents before children, and remember children are separate resources.** Security group rules are not pulled in with their security group; in AWS provider v4 and later a bucket's policy, versioning and encryption are each their own resource rather than attributes of `aws_s3_bucket`. Import one logical group per pull request — batching many makes it impossible to tell which one caused a failure.
**To back an import out, use a `removed` block rather than `terraform state rm`**, for the same reason as above: it is reviewable and it runs through CI. Setting `lifecycle { destroy = false }` inside it drops the resource from state while leaving the real infrastructure untouched.
**Two local gotchas.** Check `aws sts get-caller-identity` before running anything, because the `aws` provider block pins neither account nor region and takes both from the ambient environment. And the plan workflow assumes the `incubator-tf-plan` role, which is read-only and separate from the apply role — if a plan fails on permissions for a resource type nobody has imported before, that role is the first place to look. Note also that the `terraform-docs` job pushes a README commit back to your branch, so pull before pushing again.
Guida per i contributori
Apri la guida per i contributori
Direzione di ricerca
Start with devops#199 and run ./scripts/aws-terraform-coverage.ps1 -ListArns to review the 282 unmanaged resources, then read the relevant sub-issue and the historical Terragrunt state before choosing a disposition. Work is done when every resource is imported into one of the two real Terraform states, deleted, or documented as intentionally unmanaged, and the coverage report confirms the result.
Scritto dal modello di indicizzazione a partire dal testo della issue.
Valutazione
- Stack tecnologico
- aws, powershell, terraform
- Ambito
- cloud, devops, infrastructure
- Tipo di issue
- Funzionalità
- Difficoltà
- 5/5
- Tempo stimato
- Più di una settimana
- Stato di attività
- Attiva
- Chiarezza
- Abbastanza chiara
- Idoneità per principianti
- 30/100