Remnant CloudWatch Dashboards persist on each dashboard rename

[JamesPeiris]

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Terraform Version

v0.11.13

Affected Resource(s)

• aws_cloudwatch_dashboard

Terraform Configuration Files

resource "aws_cloudwatch_dashboard" "example" {
  dashboard_name = "dashboard-name-before"

  dashboard_body = <<EOF
    {
      ... some JSON
    }
  EOF
}

Debug Output

N/A - no relevant debug output - the bug only presents itself in the AWS Console

Panic Output

N/A - no panics

Expected Behavior

On update of the dashboard resource's dashboard_name
✅ The dashboard with the new name should be deployed to AWS
✅ The dashboard with the original name should be destroyed in AWS

Actual Behavior

On update of the dashboard resource's dashboard_name
✅ The dashboard with the new name is deployed to AWS
❌ The dashboard with the original name is not destroyed in AWS

Steps to Reproduce

1. Deploy a dashboard with some arbitrary dashboard_body JSON
2. Check the dashboard exists and has the correct name.
   
3. Check the terraform state reflects the deployed infrastructure

{
  "version": 3,
  "terraform_version": "0.11.13",
  "serial": 1,
  "lineage": "cc8370ef-4c74-de56-db09-db767317bb9c",
  "modules": [
    {
      "path": [
        "root"
      ],
      "outputs": {},
      "resources": {
        "aws_cloudwatch_dashboard.main": {
          "type": "aws_cloudwatch_dashboard",
          "depends_on": [],
          "primary": {
            "id": "dashboard-name-before",
            "attributes": {
              "dashboard_arn": "arn:aws:cloudwatch::<ACCOUNT_ID>:dashboard/dashboard-name-before",
              "dashboard_body": " { ... Dashboard Body JSON here... } ",
              "dashboard_name": "dashboard-name-before",
              "id": "dashboard-name-before"
            },
            "meta": {},
            "tainted": false
          },
          "deposed": [],
          "provider": "provider.aws"
        }
      },
      "depends_on": []
    }
  ]
}

4. Once deployed, change only the dashboard_name property
5. Run terraform plan to see the "update-in-place" output:

~ aws_cloudwatch_dashboard.main
    dashboard_name: "dashboard-name-before" => "dashboard-name-after"

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

6. Run terraform apply
7. Check the renamed dashboard exists and has the correct name.
   8. Confirm that the old dashboard still exists
   
   9. Confirm that only the new dashboard exists in the terraform state

{
  "version": 3,
  "terraform_version": "0.11.13",
  "serial": 2,
  "lineage": "cc8370ef-4c74-de56-db09-db767317bb9c",
  "modules": [
    {
      "path": [
        "root"
      ],
      "outputs": {},
      "resources": {
        "aws_cloudwatch_dashboard.main": {
          "type": "aws_cloudwatch_dashboard",
          "depends_on": [],
          "primary": {
            "id": "dashboard-name-after",
            "attributes": {
              "dashboard_arn": "arn:aws:cloudwatch::<ACCOUNT_ID>:dashboard/dashboard-name-after",
              "dashboard_body": " { ... Dashboard Body JSON here... } ",
              "dashboard_name": "dashboard-name-after",
              "id": "dashboard-name-after"
            },
            "meta": {},
            "tainted": false
          },
          "deposed": [],
          "provider": "provider.aws"
        }
      },
      "depends_on": []
    }
  ]
}

Important Factoids

N/A - reproduced on personal and work account

References

• N/A

[bflad]

The fix for this has been merged and will release with version 2.44.0 of the Terraform AWS Provider, next Thursday. Thanks to @JamesPeiris for the implementation. 👍

[ghost]

This has been released in version 2.44.0 of the Terraform AWS provider. Please see the Terraform documentation on provider versioning or reach out if you need any assistance upgrading.

For further feature requests or bug reports with this functionality, please create a new GitHub issue following the template for triage. Thanks!

[ghost]

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 feel this issue should be reopened, we encourage creating a new issue linking back to this one for added context. Thanks!