Getting Started with CloudFormation

1 hour
  • 3 Learning Objectives

About this Hands-on Lab

CloudFormation is a powerful automation service within AWS. It can be used to create simple or complex sets of infrastructure any number of times. This hands-on lab provides a gentle introduction to CloudFormation, using it to create and update a number of S3 buckets. By the end of this hands-on lab, you will be comfortable using CloudFormation and can begin experimenting with your own templates.

Learning Objectives

Successfully complete this lab by achieving the following learning objectives:

Create a CloudFormation Stack

Create a CloudFormation stack named cfnlab from the provided template.

Update the CloudFormation Stack
  1. Update the CloudFormation stack cfnlab using updatestack1.json to observe how resources are added and removed.
  2. Update cfnlab again, replacing the current template with createstack.json to observe how resources are changed.
  3. In a text editor, open the updatestack2.json template file and modify the characters 123 in catsareawesome123.
  4. Save the file.
  5. Update cfnlab again, replacing the current template with the modified updatestack2.json template.
Delete CloudFormation Stack

Delete the CloudFormation stack you created, and observe how the resources are deleted.

Additional Resources

Log in to the live AWS environment using the credentials provided, and make sure you are in the us-east-1 (N. Virginia) Region.

The CloudFormation templates and other hands-on lab files can found here and cloned from GitHub. For this lab, you will be working from the /labs/getting started with cfn folder, which has the files that you will be required to upload from your computer.

Alternatively, you can download the files from the direct raw links below. To save the file, click on the provided link. Once the file opens in your browser, right-click and select Save as to save the JSON or YAML file to your computer.

Raw File Download Links

Here are the links where you can download the raw files:

A list of AWS resources and what happens when updates occur can be found here.

What are Hands-on Labs

Hands-on Labs are real environments created by industry experts to help you learn. These environments help you gain knowledge and experience, practice without compromising your system, test without risk, destroy without fear, and let you learn from your mistakes. Hands-on Labs: practice your skills before delivering in the real world.

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