# Referencing resources created using for\_each

**URL:** <https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/referencing-resources-created-using-for-each/5560>\
**Category:** Terraform\
**Created:** [January 31, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/referencing-resources-created-using-for-each/5560 "2020-01-31T19:11:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![faizan82](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/hashicorp/user_avatar/discuss.hashicorp.com/faizan82/32/4348_2.png) [@faizan82](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/u/faizan82)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/referencing-resources-created-using-for-each/5560/1 "2020-01-31T19:11:30Z")

</div>

I am trying to utilize for\_each/for feature added in 0.12 to deploy resources by establishing a tree structure for dependencies.

Structure:

values.tfvars

```
  subnets = {
    dmz-1 = {
      name = "subnet-a"
      cidr = "10.0.1.0/24",
      nsgs = {
        nsg1 = {
            httpallowinbound = {
              name = "httpallow"
              priority = 100
              direction = "Inbound"
              access = "Allow"
              protocol = "Tcp"
              source_port_range = "*"
              destination_port_range = "*"
              source_address_prefix = "*"
              destination_address_prefix = "*"
            },
            httpdenyinbound = {
              name = "httpdeny"
              priority = 101
              direction = "Inbound"
              access = "Deny"
              protocol = "Tcp"
              source_port_range = "*"
              destination_port_range = "*"
              source_address_prefix = "*"
              destination_address_prefix = "*"
           },
        },
        nsg2 = {
            test1allowinbound = {
              name = "httpallow"
              priority = 100
              direction = "Inbound"
              access = "Allow"
              protocol = "Tcp"
              source_port_range = "*"
              destination_port_range = "*"
              source_address_prefix = "*"
              destination_address_prefix = "*"
            },
            test2denyinbound = {
              name = "httpdeny"
              priority = 101
              direction = "Inbound"
              access = "Deny"
              protocol = "Tcp"
              source_port_range = "*"
              destination_port_range = "*"
              source_address_prefix = "*"
              destination_address_prefix = "*"
           },
        },
      }
    }
  }

```

locals.tf

```
  nsgs = flatten([
    for subnets_name, subnets_values in var.subnets : [
      for nsg_name, nsg_values in subnets_values.nsgs : [
        for rule_name, rule_values in nsg_values: {
          nsg_name = nsg_name
          rule = rule_name
          name = rule_values.name
          priority = rule_values.priority
          direction = rule_values.direction
          access = rule_values.access
          protocol = rule_values.protocol
          source_port_range = rule_values.source_port_range
          destination_port_range = rule_values.destination_port_range
          source_address_prefix = rule_values.source_address_prefix
          destination_address_prefix = rule_values.destination_address_prefix
       }
      ]
    ]
  ])

```

resources

```
resource "azurerm_network_security_group" "this" {
  for_each = {
      for sg in local.nsg_name:
        "${sg.nsg_name}" => sg
  }
  name = each.value.nsg_name
  location = var.location
  resource_group_name = var.resource_group_name
}

resource "azurerm_network_security_rule" "this" {
  for_each = {
      for sg in local.nsgs:
        "${sg.rule}.${sg.name}" => sg
        //sg.nsg_name => sg...
  }
  name = each.value.name
  priority = each.value.priority
  direction = each.value.direction
  access = each.value.access
  protocol = each.value.protocol
  source_port_range = each.value.source_port_range
  destination_port_range = each.value.destination_port_range
  source_address_prefix = each.value.source_address_prefix
  destination_address_prefix = each.value.destination_address_prefix
  resource_group_name = var.resource_group_name
  network_security_group_name = azurerm_network_security_group.this[each.value.nsg_name]
}

```

I am unable to attach security rule back to nsg using this:

`network_security_group_name = azurerm_network_security_group.this[each.value.nsg_name]`

It throws this error:

```
Error: Incorrect attribute value type

  on ../../vnet.tf line 55, in resource "azurerm_network_security_rule" "this":
  55: network_security_group_name = azurerm_network_security_group.this[each.value.nsg_name]
    |----------------
    | azurerm_network_security_group.this is object with 2 attributes
    | each.value.nsg_name is "nsg1"

```

Have tried to use tostring function but that does not help either. Any suggestions please to move forward.

```
Terraform v0.12.19
+ provider.azurerm v1.42.0
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joatmon08](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/hashicorp/user_avatar/discuss.hashicorp.com/joatmon08/32/37342_2.png) [@joatmon08](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/u/joatmon08)\
**Post date:** [February 7, 2020, 9:46pm UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/referencing-resources-created-using-for-each/5560/2 "2020-02-07T21:46:53Z")

</div>

Hi Faizan!

Thanks for breaking down your configuration and putting all them together! It is really useful for debugging. Could you check if all of the locals have been declared?

```auto
resource "azurerm_network_security_group" "this" {
  for_each = {
      for sg in local.nsg_name:
        "${sg.nsg_name}" => sg
  }
  name = each.value.nsg_name
  location = var.location
  resource_group_name = var.resource_group_name
}

```

The configuration above cannot find `local.nsg_name` and wanted to make sure we are debugging it with the correct names and types!

Rosemary