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Mastering AWS CloudFormation
Mastering AWS CloudFormation

Mastering AWS CloudFormation: Build resilient and production-ready infrastructure in Amazon Web Services with CloudFormation , Second Edition

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Mastering AWS CloudFormation

Working with CloudFormation

Cloud computing introduced a brand-new way of managing infrastructure.

As the usage of the AWS cloud grew, the usual routine and operational tasks became troublesome. The AWS cloud allowed any type of business to rapidly grow and solve all the business needs regarding compute power; however, the need to maintain a certain stack of resources was hard.

DevOps culture brought a set of methodologies and ways of working, and one of those is called Infrastructure as Code (IaC). This process is about treating your infrastructure – network, virtual machines, storage, databases, and so on – as a computer program.

AWS CloudFormation was developed to solve this kind of problem.

I expect that you already have some working knowledge of CloudFormation, but let’s quickly refresh our memory and look again at what CloudFormation is and how we use it.

Later, we will dive deep into learning advanced template development and how to provision...

Technical requirements

The code for this chapter can be found in this book’s GitHub repository at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Mastering-AWS-CloudFormation-Second-Edition/tree/main/Chapter01.

Check out the following video to see the Code in Action: https://packt.link/efSwY.

Understanding the internals of AWS CloudFormation

AWS services consist of three parts:

  • API
  • Backend
  • Storage

We interact with AWS by making calls to its API services. If we want to create an EC2 instance, we need to perform an ec2:RunInstances call.

When we develop our template and create a stack, we invoke the cloudformation:CreateStack API method. AWS CloudFormation will receive the command along with the template, validate it, and start creating resources, making API calls to various AWS services, depending on what we have declared for it.

If the creation of any resource fails, then CloudFormation will roll back the changes and delete the resources that were created before the failure. But if there are no errors during the creation process, we will see our resources provisioned across the account.

If we want to make changes to our stack, then all we need to do is update the template file and invoke the cloudformation:UpdateStack API method. CloudFormation...

Creating and updating a CloudFormation stack

I’m sure you’ve done this before.

We begin by developing our template first. This is going to be a simple S3 bucket. I’m going to use YAML template formatting, but you may use JSON formatting if you wish:

// my_bucket.yamlAWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: This is my first bucket
Resources:
  MyBucket:
    Type: AWS::S3::Bucket

Now, we just need to create the stack with awscli:

$ aws cloudformation create-stack \      --stack-name mybucket \
      --template-body file://my_bucket.yaml

After a while, we will see that our bucket has been created if we go to the AWS console or run aws s3 ls in the terminal.

Now, let’s add some public access to our bucket:

// my_bucket.yamlAWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: This is my first bucket
Resources:
  ...

Managing CloudFormation IAM permissions

We already know that CloudFormation performs API calls when we create or update the stack. Now, the question is, does CloudFormation have the same powers as a root user?

When you work with production-grade AWS accounts, you need to control access to your environment for humans (yourself and your co-workers) and machines (build systems, other AWS services or resources, and so on). Ignoring the least privilege principle may lead to disastrous security breaches, which is why controlling access for CloudFormation is important.

By default, when the user runs stack creation, they invoke the cloudformation:CreateStack API method. CloudFormation will use that user’s permissions to invoke other API methods during stack creation.

This means that if our user has an IAM policy with an allowed action of ec2:* but attempts to create an RDS instance with CloudFormation, the stack will fail to create, with an error stating that the User is unauthorized...

Drift detection

CloudFormation, as a service, often refers to the term state. The state is inventory information that contains a pair of values: the logical resource name, such as what name we define in the template, and the physical resource ID that is assigned by AWS, such as the EC2 Instance ID, DynamoDB table name, and so on.

CloudFormation uses its state to understand which resources to create or update. If we create a stack with a resource with a logical name of foo, change the property of this resource (foo) in a template, and run an update, then CloudFormation will change the corresponding physical resource in the account.

CloudFormation has a set of constraints. For example, it will not update the stack if we do not introduce changes to it. If we make manual changes to the resource, then CloudFormation will change them only when we make changes to the template.

Cloud engineers had to rethink their way of managing the infrastructure once they started using CloudFormation...

Summary

In this refresher chapter, we renewed our knowledge as to what CloudFormation is, how we create and update stacks, why service roles are important, and how to implement them. We also remembered what drifts in CloudFormation are, when they occur, and how to detect them.

While this was an introductory chapter, we covered the fundamental building blocks of CloudFormation. In the following chapters, we will use service roles and drift detection again, but first, we need to dive deep into the internals of the CloudFormation template, which is what we will do in the next chapter.

Questions

  1. Which API method is invoked when we create a CloudFormation stack?
  2. What is a CloudFormation service role?
  3. Which IAM policies are used if we do not specify the CloudFormation service role?
  4. How is the information about stack resources stored in CloudFormation?
  5. What happens if we delete the resource created by CloudFormation and try to create the same stack?
  6. What happens if we delete the resource created by CloudFormation and try to update the same stack?
  7. Why can’t CloudFormation recreate the deleted resource?
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Key benefits

  • Leverage AWS CloudFormation to manage your entire infrastructure
  • Get up and running with maintaining your infrastructure as code and automating your environment
  • Simplify infrastructure management and increase productivity with AWS CloudFormation
  • Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Description

The advent of DevOps and the cloud revolution has compelled software engineers and operations teams to rethink how to manage complex infrastructures and build resilient solutions. With this AWS book, you’ll find out how you can use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to simplify infrastructure operations and manage the modern cloud with AWS CloudFormation. This guide covers AWS CloudFormation comprehensively, from template structures to developing complex and reusable infrastructure stacks. It takes you through template validation, stack deployment, and handling deployment failures. It also demonstrates the use of AWS CodeBuild and CodePipeline for automating resource delivery and implementing continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices. As you advance, you’ll learn how to modularize and unify your template on the fly using macros or by fixating the version using modules. You’ll create resources outside of AWS with custom resources and catalog them with the CloudFormation registry. Finally, you’ll improve the way you manage the modern cloud environment on AWS by extending CloudFormation through the AWS serverless application model (SAM) and the AWS cloud development kit (CDK). By the end of this book, you’ll have mastered key AWS CloudFormation concepts and will be able to extend its capabilities for developing and deploying your own infrastructure.

Who is this book for?

If you are a developer who wants to learn how to write templates, a DevOps engineer or SRE interested in deployment and orchestration, or a solutions architect looking to understand the benefits of streamlined and scalable infrastructure management, this book is for you. Prior understanding of the AWS Cloud is necessary.

What you will learn

  • Understand modern approaches to IaC
  • Develop universal, modular, and reusable CloudFormation templates
  • Discover ways of applying continuous delivery with CloudFormation
  • Implement IaC best practices in the AWS cloud
  • Provision massive applications across multiple regions and accounts
  • Automate template generation and software provisioning for AWS
  • Extend CloudFormation features with custom resources and the registry
  • Modularize and unify templates using modules and macros
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Publication date : Nov 10, 2023
Length: 310 pages
Edition : 2nd
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781805123903
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Table of Contents

18 Chapters
Part 1: CloudFormation Internals Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 1: Working with CloudFormation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 2: Advanced Template Development Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Part 2: Provisioning and Deployment at Scale Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 3: Validation, Linting, and Deploying the Stack Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 4: Continuous Integration and Deployment Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 5: Deploying to Multiple Regions and Accounts Using StackSets Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 6: Configuration Management of EC2 Instances Using cfn-init Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Part 3: Extending CloudFormation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 7: Creating Resources Outside AWS Using Custom Resources Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 8: Creating Your Own Resource Registry for CloudFormation Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 9: Scale Your Templates Using Macros, Nested Stacks, and Modules Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 10: Generating CloudFormation Templates Using AWS CDK Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 11: Deploying Serverless Applications Using AWS SAM Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Chapter 12: What’s Next? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Assessments Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
(2 Ratings)
5 star 100%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Mario Mercado Coronado Dec 13, 2023
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book really goes in-depth on CloudFormation features. I liked how the author managed the content walking us from zero CloudFormation knowledge all the way up to expert. Nice book! super recommended!!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Yinglong Wang Jan 28, 2024
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book serves as a comprehensive guide to AWS CloudFormation, adeptly covering a wide spectrum from commonly used basics to advanced techniques. It's an ideal resource for both newcomers seeking a quick start and experienced users looking for in-depth knowledge. While the book provides thorough and valuable information, readers should be aware of AWS's continual evolution and may need to consult recent updates for the latest features in CloudFormation.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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