Use TiDB Cloud Serverless Export Resource

June 27, 2025 · View on GitHub

This document describes how to manage a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task using the tidbcloud_serverless_export resource.

The features of the tidbcloud_serverless_export resource include the following:

Create TiDB Cloud Serverless data export tasks.
Import TiDB Cloud Serverless data export tasks.
Delete TiDB Cloud Serverless data export tasks.

Note:

TiDB Cloud Serverless export resource cannot be modified. If you want to change the configuration of a TiDB Cloud Serverless export resource, you need to delete the existing one, and then create a new one.

Prerequisites

Get TiDB Cloud Terraform Provider v0.4.0 or later.
Create a TiDB Cloud Serverless cluster.

Create a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task

You can create a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task using the tidbcloud_serverless_export resource.

The following example shows how to create a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task.

Create a directory for the export and enter it.
Create a export.tf file:
```
terraform {
  required_providers {
    tidbcloud = {
      source = "tidbcloud/tidbcloud"
    }
  }
}

provider "tidbcloud" {
  public_key = "your_public_key"
  private_key = "your_private_key"
}

resource "tidbcloud_serverless_export" "example" {
  cluster_id   = 10476959660988000000
}
```
Use the resource block to define the resource of TiDB Cloud, including the resource type, resource name, and resource details.
- To use the serverless export resource, set the resource type as tidbcloud_serverless_export.
- For the resource name, you can define it as needed. For example, example.
- For the resource details, you can configure them according to the serverless export specification information.
- To get the serverless export specification information, see tidbcloud_serverless_export (Resource).

Run the terraform apply command. It is not recommended to use terraform apply --auto-approve when you apply a resource.

$ terraform apply

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
    + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

    # tidbcloud_serverless_export.example will be created
    + resource "tidbcloud_serverless_export" "example" {
        + cluster_id     = "10476959660988000000"
        + complete_time  = (known after apply)
        + create_time    = (known after apply)
        + created_by     = (known after apply)
        + display_name   = (known after apply)
        + expire_time    = (known after apply)
        + export_id      = (known after apply)
        + export_options = (known after apply)
        + reason         = (known after apply)
        + snapshot_time  = (known after apply)
        + state          = (known after apply)
        + target         = (known after apply)
        + update_time    = (known after apply)
    }

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

Do you want to perform these actions?
    Terraform will perform the actions described above.
    Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

    Enter a value:

In the preceding result, Terraform generates an execution plan for you, which describes the actions that Terraform will take:

You can check the difference between the configurations and the states.
You can also see the results of this apply. It will add a new resource, and no resource will be changed or destroyed.
known after apply indicates that you will get the corresponding value after apply.

If everything in your plan looks fine, type yes to continue:

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Creating...
tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Creation complete after 1s

Apply complete! Resources: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

In this example, the tidbcloud_serverless_export.example resource will create an export task to export data from the entire cluster.

This resource is not synchronized. You can use terraform refresh to retrieve its latest state.

Use the terraform show or terraform state show tidbcloud_serverless_export.${resource-name} command to inspect the state of your resource. The former command shows the states of all resources and data sources.

$ terraform state show tidbcloud_serverless_export.example
# tidbcloud_serverless_export.example:
resource "tidbcloud_serverless_export" "example" {
    cluster_id     = "10476959660988000000"
    create_time    = "2025-06-16T08:54:10Z"
    created_by     = "apikey-S2000000"
    display_name   = "SNAPSHOT_2025-06-16T08:54:10Z"
    export_id      = "exp-ezsli6ugtzg2nkmzaitt000000"
    export_options = {
        compression = "GZIP"
        file_type   = "CSV"
    }
    snapshot_time  = "2025-06-16T08:54:10Z"
    state          = "RUNNING"
    target         = {
        type = "LOCAL"
    }
}

Import a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task

For a TiDB Serverless data export task that is not managed by Terraform, you can use Terraform to manage it just by importing it.

Import a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task that is not created by Terraform as follows:

Add an import block for the new TiDB Cloud Serverless export resource.

Add the following import block to your .tf file, replace example with a desired resource name, and replace ${id} with the format of cluster_id,export_id:
```
import {
  to = tidbcloud_serverless_export.example
  id = "${id}"
}
```
Generate the new configuration file.

Generate the new configuration file for the new serverless export resource according to the import block:
```
terraform plan -generate-config-out=generated.tf
```
Do not specify an existing .tf filename in the preceding command. Otherwise, Terraform will return an error.
Review and apply the generated configuration.

Review the generated configuration file to ensure that it meets your needs. Optionally, you can move the contents of this file to your preferred location.

Then, run terraform apply to import your infrastructure. After applying, the example output is as follows:
```
tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Importing... 
tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Import complete 

Apply complete! Resources: 1 imported, 0 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.
```

Now you can manage the imported export with Terraform.

Delete a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task

To delete a TiDB Cloud Serverless data export task, you can delete the configuration of the tidbcloud_serverless_export resource, then use the terraform apply command to destroy the resource:

$ terraform apply
tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Refreshing state...

Terraform used the selected providers to generate the following execution plan. Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  - destroy

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  # tidbcloud_serverless_export.example will be destroyed
  # (because tidbcloud_serverless_export.example is not in configuration)
  - resource "tidbcloud_serverless_export" "example" {
      - cluster_id     = "10476959660988000000" -> null
      - create_time    = "2025-06-16T08:54:10Z" -> null
      - created_by     = "apikey-S2000000" -> null
      - display_name   = "SNAPSHOT_2025-06-16T08:54:10Z" -> null
      - export_id      = "exp-ezsli6ugtzg2nkmzaitt000000" -> null
      - export_options = {
          - compression = "GZIP" -> null
          - file_type   = "CSV" -> null
        } -> null
      - snapshot_time  = "2025-06-16T08:54:10Z" -> null
      - state          = "RUNNING" -> null
      - target         = {
          - type = "LOCAL" -> null
        } -> null
    }

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

Do you want to perform these actions?
  Terraform will perform the actions described above.
  Only 'yes' will be accepted to approve.

  Enter a value: yes

tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Destroying...
tidbcloud_serverless_export.example: Destruction complete after 2s

Apply complete! Resources: 0 added, 0 changed, 1 destroyed.

Now, if you run the terraform show command, it will show no managed resources because the resource has been cleared:

$ terraform show