[Bug]: backend configuration argument "role_arn" given on the command line is not expected for the selected backend type.

[jkampfwealthbox]

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Terraform Core Version

1.10

AWS Provider Version

5.0

Affected Resource(s)

Running a Terraform init for a s3 backend using assumed roles.

terraform init -backend-config=bucket=mybucket -backend-config=key=mykey.tfstate -backend-config=dynamodb_table=terraform-locks -backend-config=role_arn=arn:aws:iam::XXX:role/terraform-gh-permissions-manager-XXX-state-role -backend-config=region=us-east-1 -no-color -input=false

Expected Behavior

The Terraform init comand works and uses the assumed role specified by the -backend-config=role_arn argument.

Actual Behavior

`Error: Invalid backend configuration argument

The backend configuration argument "role_arn" given on the command line is not expected for the selected backend type.`

Relevant Error/Panic Output Snippet

`Error: Invalid backend configuration argument

The backend configuration argument "role_arn" given on the command line is
not expected for the selected backend type.`

Terraform Configuration Files

`terraform {

backend "s3" { }

required_providers { aws = { source = "hashicorp/aws" version = "~> 5.0" } } } `

Steps to Reproduce

Using Terraform 1.10:

terraform init -backend-config=bucket=mybucket -backend-config=key=mykey.tfstate -backend-config=dynamodb_table=terraform-locks -backend-config=role_arn=arn:aws:iam::XXX:role/terraform-gh-permissions-manager-XXX-state-role -backend-config=region=us-east-1 -no-color -input=false

Debug Output

2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [INFO] Terraform version: 1.10.0 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] using github.com/hashicorp/go-tfe v1.70.0 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] using github.com/hashicorp/hcl/v2 v2.23.0 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] using github.com/hashicorp/terraform-svchost v0.1.1 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] using github.com/zclconf/go-cty v1.15.1-0.20241111215639-63279be090d7 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [INFO] Go runtime version: go1.23.3 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [INFO] CLI args: []string{"terraform", "init", "-backend-config=bucket=my-bucket", "-backend-config=key=AWS_ACCOUNT/github-aws-permissions-manager/crm-infra.tfstate", "-backend-config=dynamodb_table=terraform-locks", "-backend-config=role_arn=arn:aws:iam::XXX:role/terraform-gh-permissions-manager-AWS_ACCOUNT-state-role", "-backend-config=region=us-east-1", "-no-color", "-input=false"} 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] Attempting to open CLI config file: /home/runner/.terraformrc 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] File doesn't exist, but doesn't need to. Ignoring. 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory terraform.d/plugins 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /home/runner/.terraform.d/plugins 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /home/runner/.local/share/terraform/plugins 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /usr/local/share/terraform/plugins 2024-12-02T23:12:30.770Z [DEBUG] ignoring non-existing provider search directory /usr/share/terraform/plugins 2024-12-02T23:12:30.771Z [INFO] CLI command args: []string{"init", "-backend-config=bucket=my-bucket", "-backend-config=key=AWS_ACCOUNT/github-aws-permissions-manager/crm-infra.tfstate", "-backend-config=dynamodb_table=terraform-locks", "-backend-config=role_arn=arn:aws:iam::XXX:role/terraform-gh-permissions-manager-AWS_ACCOUNT-state-role", "-backend-config=region=us-east-1", "-no-color", "-input=false"}

Panic Output

No response

Important Factoids

No response

References

No response

Would you like to implement a fix?

None

[github-actions[bot]]

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[FrancescaRodricks]

We've had the same error

╷
│ Error: Invalid backend configuration argument
│ 
│ The backend configuration argument "role_arn" given on the command line is
│ not expected for the selected backend type.
╵

[jkampfwealthbox]

We've had the same error

╷
│ Error: Invalid backend configuration argument
│ 
│ The backend configuration argument "role_arn" given on the command line is
│ not expected for the selected backend type.
╵

I have a work around where I am forcing the use of the 1.9.8 version of Terraform and not going to the latest (currently 1.10)

[ghost]

Terraform 1.10.0 deprecated some assume role attributes and now requires the assume_role block. Reference: https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/pull/35721

[jkampfwealthbox]

Terraform 1.10.0 deprecated some assume role attributes and now requires the assume_role block. Reference: hashicorp/terraform#35721

Yes I saw that. However there is no guidance or documentation as to how to accomplish this now.

[RMooijweer]

Found an article on what the correct syntax is : https://github.com/hashicorp/terraform/issues/27579#issuecomment-1781090234

In short I changed: -backend-config="role_arn=${REMOTE_ROLE}" to: -backend-config="assume_role={role_arn=\"${REMOTE_ROLE}\"}"

and I was able to do a terraform init with versions 1.9.8 and 1.10.1

[justinretzolk]

Hi all 👋 Thank you for taking the time to raise this and for the additional discussion. Issues with the S3 backend should be reported to the Terraform Core repository, as backends are handled by Terraform itself, rather than via providers such as the AWS Provider. With that in mind, and since it looks like the correct answer has already been mentioned, I'm going to close this issue.

[github-actions[bot]]

[!WARNING] This issue has been closed, meaning that any additional comments are hard for our team to see. Please assume that the maintainers will not see them.

Ongoing conversations amongst community members are welcome, however, the issue will be locked after 30 days. Moving conversations to another venue, such as the AWS Provider forum, is recommended. If you have additional concerns, please open a new issue, referencing this one where needed.

[github-actions[bot]]

I'm going to lock this issue because it has been closed for 30 days ⏳. This helps our maintainers find and focus on the active issues. If you have found a problem that seems similar to this, please open a new issue and complete the issue template so we can capture all the details necessary to investigate further.