AWS CloudFormation Speed up cloud provisioning with infrastructure as code (IaC) Will Chalmers (he/him) Solutions Architect

• What is AWS CloudFormation • Template Structure • Intrinsic Functions • Pseudo Parameters • Code Standards & Template Library • Demo Agenda

What is AWS CloudFormation

YAML JSON They do the same thing

Parameters

Metadata

Mappings Key/Value pairs which can be used for lookups

Conditions

Resources

Outputs

Stack Deployment

Logical v Physical Resources Application Load Balancer

Intrinsic Functions Function Name Description Ref / !Ref Returns the value of the specified parameter or resource Fn::Sub / !Sub Substitutes variables inside a string. Fn::GetAtt / !GetAtt Returns the value of an attribute from a resource in the template. Fn::Join / !Join Joins a set of values into one value Plus lots more, Fn::Length, Fn::Split, Fn::ImportValue

Other Features Drift Detection Deletion Policy Stack Roles Change Sets A feature that analyses CloudFormation stacks for any changes to resources made manually. Changes to CloudFormed resources out with CloudFormation can be problematic A setting for some resources stating how they will be deleted: • Delete • Retain • Snapshot A role that is used to deploy a stack. Meaning it can have more permissions than the user deploying it. A dry run template update to view resource changes before they are executed. It shows: • Replacements • Deletions • Creations • Changes

Code Standards & Template Library Code standards document - How CloudFormation should be written, tested and deployed Setting up your IDE document – Recommended optimal IDE configuration for CloudFormation/aws development Template Library – GitHub repo with code snippets & full templates to reference.

Thank You! Q&A + Demo Time