json.Marshal(): json: error calling MarshalJSON for type msgraph.Application

Question

What specific syntax or configuration changes must be made in order to resolve the error below in which terraform is failing to create an instance of azuread_application?

THE CODE:

The terraform code that is triggering the error when terraform apply is run is as follows:

variable "tenantId" { }
variable "clientId" { }
variable "clientSecret" { }
variable "instanceName" { }

terraform {
  required_providers {
    azuread = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azuread"
      version = "2.5.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "azuread" {
  tenant_id       = var.tenantId
  client_id       = var.clientId
  client_secret   = var.clientSecret
}

resource "azuread_application" "appRegistration" {
  display_name = var.instanceName
  app_role {
    allowed_member_types = ["User", "Application"]
    description          = "Admins can manage roles and perform all task actions"
    display_name         = "Admin"
    enabled              = true
    id                   = "1b19509b-32b1-4e9f-b71d-4992aa991967"
    value                = "admin"
  }
}

THE ERROR:

The error and log output that result from running the above code with terraform apply are:

2021/10/05 17:47:18 [DEBUG] module.ad-admin.azuread_application.appRegistration:
 apply errored, but we're indicating that via the Error pointer rather than returning it:
 Could not create application: json.Marshal():
 json: error calling MarshalJSON for type msgraph.Application:
 json: error calling MarshalJSON for type *msgraph.Owners: marshaling Owners: encountered DirectoryObject with nil ODataId

2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] EvalMaybeTainted: module.ad-admin.azuread_application.appRegistration encountered an error during creation, so it is now marked as tainted
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] EvalWriteState: removing state object for module.ad-admin.azuread_application.appRegistration
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] EvalApplyProvisioners: azuread_application.appRegistration has no state, so skipping provisioners
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] EvalMaybeTainted: module.ad-admin.azuread_application.appRegistration encountered an error during creation, so it is now marked as tainted
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] EvalWriteState: removing state object for module.ad-admin.azuread_application.appRegistration
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] vertex "module.ad-admin.azuread_application.appRegistration": visit complete

2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.output.application_id (expand)" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.azuread_service_principal.appRegistrationSP" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "output.application_id" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.output.appId (expand)" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.azuread_service_principal_password.appRegistrationSP_pwd" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "output.appId" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.azurerm_role_assignment.appRegistrationSP_role_assignment_vault" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.azurerm_role_assignment.appRegistrationSP_role_assignment" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.provider[\"registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/azuread\"] (close)" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin.provider[\"registry.terraform.io/hashicorp/azurerm\"] (close)" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "module.ad-admin (close)" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "meta.count-boundary (EachMode fixup)" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] dag/walk: upstream of "root" errored, so skipping
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] statemgr.Filesystem: creating backup snapshot at terraform.tfstate.backup
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] statemgr.Filesystem: state has changed since last snapshot, so incrementing serial to 391
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] statemgr.Filesystem: writing snapshot at terraform.tfstate
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] statemgr.Filesystem: removing lock metadata file .terraform.tfstate.lock.info

Error: Could not create application

  on ..\..\..\..\modules\ad-admin\active-directory.tf line 69, in resource "azuread_application" "appRegistration":
  69: resource "azuread_application" "appRegistration" {

json.Marshal(): json: error calling MarshalJSON for type msgraph.Application:
json: error calling MarshalJSON for type *msgraph.Owners: marshaling Owners:
2021/10/05 17:47:18 [TRACE] statemgr.Filesystem: unlocked by closing terraform.tfstate
encountered DirectoryObject with nil ODataId

terraform -version gives:

Terraform v1.0.8 on windows_amd64

Answer 1

This was a bug, reported as GitHub issue:

• Error: ODataId was nil when creating an azuread_group resource #588

The resolution to the problem in the OP is to upgrade the version from 2.5.0 to 2.6.0 in the required_providers block from the code in the OP above as follows:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    azuread = {
      source  = "hashicorp/azuread"
      version = "2.6.0"
    }
  }
}