AWS CloudFormation Template Tutorial
Summary
TLDRThis tutorial demonstrates the process of using AWS CloudFormation to create, update, and delete cloud resources. It begins with the creation of an EC2 instance and an Elastic IP, followed by the addition of security groups. The script illustrates how CloudFormation templates are updated to reflect changes, and how the service manages resource lifecycle, including automatic cleanup. The video concludes with a demonstration of deleting a stack, showcasing CloudFormation's efficiency in resource management.
Takeaways
- π The script provides a hands-on example of using AWS CloudFormation to create an EC2 instance, an Elastic IP, and two security groups.
- π The focus is on understanding the process of creating and updating CloudFormation templates rather than the syntax or content of the template itself.
- π It's important to work in the AWS North Virginia region (USEast1) to ensure consistency with the course setup.
- π The script demonstrates how to upload a CloudFormation template to Amazon S3 and create a stack from that template.
- π Tags are used in CloudFormation to categorize and manage resources, with the example showing a 'course' tag with 'CloudFormation' as its value.
- π CloudFormation templates can be updated by uploading a new template, which triggers changes to the stack, including resource creation and updates.
- π οΈ The script shows that adding certain resources to a template can result in the replacement of existing resources, such as when adding security groups to an EC2 instance.
- π CloudFormation provides a preview of changes before updating a stack, allowing users to review what will be created, updated, or deleted.
- ποΈ Deleting a CloudFormation stack automatically cleans up all resources associated with that stack, simplifying the management process.
- π The script highlights the importance of managing resources through CloudFormation for consistency, control, and ease of maintenance.
- π The script emphasizes the visibility provided by CloudFormation's event logs, which track the creation, update, and deletion of resources.
Q & A
What is an EC2 instance in AWS?
-An EC2 instance is a virtual server in the cloud that users can launch and manage in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. It is a fundamental part of the AWS infrastructure that allows users to run applications on virtual servers in the AWS cloud.
What is an Elastic IP and why is it used in AWS?
-An Elastic IP is a static IP address designed for dynamic cloud computing, designed to be associated with an EC2 instance in a VPC. It is used to maintain a consistent IP address even when the underlying instance changes, which is useful for maintaining a persistent connection to an application.
What are security groups in AWS and what role do they play?
-Security groups act as a virtual firewall for instances to control inbound and outbound traffic. They are used to allow or deny network access to instances based on IP addresses, protocols, and ports.
What is CloudFormation and how does it simplify infrastructure management?
-AWS CloudFormation provides a common language for you to describe and provision all the infrastructure resources in your cloud environment. It simplifies the management of related resources as a stack, making it easier to manage and update the infrastructure as a whole.
Why is it important to work in the US East (N. Virginia) region for this course?
-The instructor wants all participants to have the exact same setup as them to ensure consistency and avoid confusion. This standardization helps in following along with the course without encountering region-specific differences.
What is the purpose of tags in CloudFormation?
-Tags in CloudFormation are used to organize and categorize resources within a stack. They can be used to filter resources and provide additional metadata about the resources that are created.
How does CloudFormation handle updates to a stack?
-CloudFormation updates a stack by deploying changes to the resources defined in the new template. It can create new resources, update existing ones, and even replace resources if necessary, while ensuring that the overall stack remains functional.
What happens when a CloudFormation stack is updated with a new template?
-When a stack is updated, CloudFormation compares the new template with the current state of the stack and determines the changes needed. It then applies these changes, which may include creating new resources, modifying existing ones, or replacing them entirely.
How does CloudFormation manage resource dependencies during updates?
-CloudFormation understands the dependencies between resources and updates them in the correct order. For example, it may create security groups before an EC2 instance to ensure that the instance can be properly configured with the groups.
What is the process for deleting resources created by CloudFormation?
-To delete resources created by CloudFormation, you can use the 'Delete Stack' option in the CloudFormation console. This will initiate the deletion of all resources associated with the stack in the correct order, ensuring a clean removal of the infrastructure.
Outlines
π Introduction to AWS CloudFormation
The video script begins with an introduction to AWS CloudFormation, focusing on creating a simple EC2 instance, which is a fundamental server offering in AWS. The presenter guides the audience to set aside concerns about code syntax and instead concentrate on the process of creating a CloudFormation template. The script emphasizes the importance of having the same setup as the presenter, particularly the use of the North Virginia (US East) region in AWS. The audience is instructed to navigate to the CloudFormation service and create a new stack using an uploaded template, which in this case, is a basic EC2 instance template. The presenter also explains the process of uploading the template to Amazon S3, validating it, and initiating the creation of the stack.
π οΈ Exploring CloudFormation Stack Resources and Tags
In this section, the script delves into the resources created by the CloudFormation stack, specifically highlighting the creation of an EC2 instance with tags that include a course identifier and CloudFormation-specific tags such as the logical ID, stack ID, and stack name. The presenter demonstrates how to access the EC2 management console to view the instance and its tags, emphasizing the automatic application of tags specified in the CloudFormation template. The script then discusses the need to update the stack to include additional resources, such as security groups and an elastic IP, which requires uploading a new CloudFormation template and reviewing the changes before updating the stack.
π Updating and Managing CloudFormation Stacks
The script continues with a detailed explanation of how to update an existing CloudFormation stack by uploading a new template that includes modifications such as additional security groups and an elastic IP. The presenter clarifies that CloudFormation templates cannot be edited directly but must be replaced with updated versions. The audience is shown how to review the changes that will occur, including the addition of resources and the replacement of the EC2 instance due to the security group update. The script also covers the automatic cleanup performed by CloudFormation, such as terminating the old EC2 instance once the new one is up and running. Finally, the presenter discusses the process of deleting a CloudFormation stack, which cleans up all associated resources in the correct order, demonstrating the ease and efficiency of managing cloud resources through CloudFormation.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘CloudFormation
π‘EC2 Instance
π‘Elastic IP
π‘Security Groups
π‘Template
π‘Stack
π‘S3
π‘Update Stack
π‘Tagging
π‘Logical ID
π‘Delete Stack
Highlights
Introduction to creating a simple EC2 instance using AWS CloudFormation.
Explanation of EC2 instances as servers in AWS available on-demand.
Guidance on adding an Elastic IP to an EC2 instance for static IP addressing.
Demonstration of assigning two security groups to an EC2 instance for enhanced security.
Emphasis on ignoring code syntax for now to focus on CloudFormation template creation and updates.
Instructions to use the North Virginia US East region for consistency during the course.
Step-by-step guide on how to upload a CloudFormation template from Amazon S3.
Tutorial on specifying a stack name and adding resource tags in CloudFormation.
Overview of the CloudFormation stack creation process and its status updates.
Description of the event log in CloudFormation for tracking the creation and update of resources.
Explanation of how CloudFormation automatically applies tags to resources based on the stack.
Illustration of managing and customizing AWS resources through CloudFormation tags.
Process of updating a CloudFormation stack with new resources like security groups and an Elastic IP.
Clarification that CloudFormation templates cannot be edited directly but require uploading a new template.
Demonstration of previewing changes before updating a CloudFormation stack.
Observation of CloudFormation's intelligent handling of resource creation and deletion order.
Highlight of CloudFormation's self-cleaning feature after updates by terminating old instances.
Tutorial on deleting a CloudFormation stack to clean up all associated resources.
Conclusion emphasizing the power and efficiency of CloudFormation for managing AWS resources.
Transcripts
okay so let's get started with some
hands-on example around cloud formation
in this example when you create a simple
ec2 instance and ec2 instances pretty
much everyone knows about it it's the
server's in AWS that you can get on
demand we're also going to create and
add an elastic IP to that instance and
we're also going to add two security
groups to it for now I want you to
forget about the code syntax I want you
to forget about what is the content of
the template just for now we'll do a
much bigger deeper dive later on in this
course what I'm going to focus on is how
it creates my alias CloudFormation
template how it's being updated what
happens in my alias account and so on
okay so we'll see how in no time you are
able to get started with cloud formation
so hopefully in the previous lecture you
did download the code it was attached in
the resources so you should have the
code by now so here is your areas
console and I just created my accounts
if you don't have one should create one
obviously you do is tap it with cloud
signup and you have it when you're
logged in you see this screen the first
thing I want to make sure is that for
the rest of this class just to make sure
we're on the same page I want you to
work in a North Virginia US East region
and that's called USGS one and the only
reason is I want you to have the exact
same setup as me
it doesn't matter when you get to work
into your own region you can change the
region later on but for this course
please bear with me and please use the
US East North Virginia region okay so if
you find CloudFormation you click on
services and then you just type in cloud
formation and this is the first link we
are being greeted by the screen which
prompts us to create stack stack set
designing a template or from educating
resources for now we're just going to
create a new stack when we get into that
screen it's ask us for a template we can
either design a template and we'll go
over that's in there for next lectures
or we can choose a template we can
select from some templates that they
already have for us we can upload a file
to Amazonas
three or specify an Amazon s3 template
URL so what we notice is already that
either we do something in the cloud or
directly we have to select something
that lives already in Amazon s3 so we'll
choose upload a template Amazon s3 now
if we look at the templates
we'll have to we have just easy to and
easy to is security group II IP which is
the more complex one so we'll just start
with just ec2 and you can have a look
already but what this will do is that it
will create one ec2 instance in the US
east one a availability zone and there
will be a teacher micro which is part of
the free tier so what I'll do is I'll
just upload this file for this there
easy
I choose a file and I click on 0 just
ec2 alright so far so good then we click
Next and the template is being uploaded
to Amazon s3
and it's being validated now we have to
specify it's stacked a stack name for
this I will call it introduction and you
can choose whatever you want but I like
to call things but what they are this is
an introduction so we'll call this
introduction
next you are able to specify some tags
in your resources and tags we'll just
add one the name of the tag will be
course and the value will be
CloudFormation just to show you what
this does when we do create these
resources we have a bunch of Advanced
Options we'll go over there later on
next here is our template URL it has
been uploaded through Amazon s3 there's
no description here we can estimate the
class booking on a cost the stock name
is introduction we have a tag name
confirmation and that's about it and we
click on creates so here we go we see
now the screen is being populated with
the stock name introduction and has been
created at this time and the status is
created in progress
so while we wait basically what this
will do is that it will go ahead and
create whatever was in a CloudFormation
document in which case what we had was
just an ec2 instance
so this CloudFormation template will not
go green up until that ec2 instance has
been created and is working ok so that's
why right now you see create in progress
the really cool thing though is that you
can refresh obviously and you see that
there's an events tab right here which
tells you exactly with the timestamp how
the events are going for example I
started at 22 29 32 and 26 seconds later
the create was completes ok so you can
see all the events into one very nice
timeline now if you go to overview
there's nothing new I put nothing but if
we go to resources now we see that there
is an ec2 instance that has been create
complete and the logical idea is my
instance so if you click on it and open
it in a new tab we get redirected to the
ec2 management console and we see right
here that we have our instance I opposed
to just teach you micro in the
availability zone that we wanted u.s. 1a
and it's been created so pretty amazing
right we just dumped a file into cloud
formation around the cloud formation and
all of a sudden we end up with an issue
2 instance what's even better is that if
you go to tags we can see that this
instance has been tagged with a lot of
things already first of all there is
this course CloudFormation tag that I
specified during the lunch so what that
means that for your cloud formations any
tags that you specify in the cloud
formation prompts will be applied to any
resource in the stack which is amazing
but also you inherit three areas
specific tags based on cloud formation
the number one is the logical idea of
the thing which is my instance the
second one is the stack ID
it belongs to my big AR n stack and
finally this tech name which was cool
introduction so that's really cool
because from a management and from a
custom perspective you have lots and
lots of control over which instance is
tagged with what what it belongs to and
so on so it's pretty amazing
so to summarize I've created a cloud
formation template
and has just an easy-to instance now say
you go you go you go and guess what
things change your boss asked for two
security groups and an elastic IP as we
can see right now there are no security
groups there's just a default one okay
and there is no elastic IP just a public
IP but it was random so let's go ahead
and edit this cloud formation templates
well it turns out you can't edit
CloudFormation template instead what you
have to do is to provide a new cloud
formation templates so let's do this
we're going to click on update stack and
we get right back to that first screen
of selected templates again we have to
upload a new file okay we can't edit
what already existed we have to plot a
new file and now we have one easy to
with s G and E IP if you don't look at
the code again we'll go an emerge deeper
dive later on in this course but now we
have our instance and it has two
security groups which are defined right
here but also it has an elastic IP and
that elastic IP belongs to my instance
so let's to take on again it believe me
that basically creates the resources and
links them together ok so I would put
the file I click on next and I'm going
to be asked to review the cloud
formation name and as you can see this
is grayed out we can't change the name
after it's been created ok so if you do
specify a stack name you can't change it
later you have to delete your task stack
and recreate it to change the name press
next and as you can see we can add more
tags we can delete the previous ones
it's pretty cool ok anyway what we'll do
is go on next and what we see is that we
can review what's happening there's a
new template URL the stack names the
same the tags are the same but oh here
we go
something happens cloud formations tells
us there's going to be changes and of
course they're gonna be changes because
we did upload a new templates but what's
really
is that we can preview what the changes
are going to be and that's really nice
because if you were to change something
you really want to make sure that you're
not you know messing things around so
here we go we're going to add an elastic
IP and it says add we're going to modify
our ec2 instance okay and because we
added security groups to it and that
change actually will trigger a
replacement of that instance so very
good to know that previous one will be
replaced entirely finally we'll have two
security groups that will be created all
right so yeah I'm pretty happy with this
changes I'll click on updates and here
we go so now if we look at the events
log again the previous events are kept
but now we are into an update in
progress events so as I as a refresh we
can see that the event is getting more
and more populated for example here it
created my two security groups and now
it's going to create my ec2 instance so
it's going to create a whole new one and
stuff so as I let it happen basically
Arius CloudFormation figures out the
order in which things need to happen it
understood that first you needed to
create the security groups before you
could create the ec2 instance and that's
why the security rules were created
first and then my ec2 instance was being
created so if you're crippling freshing
for example once the ec2 instance has
been created then we can go ahead and
have our elastic IP being created and
finally once the elastic IP is created
which might take a while it weighs we'll
go and remove the old ec2 instance so
one more refresh
anyway in the meantime what we can do is
go to resources and as you can see now
in the resources we don't see one item
though and now we see four items we see
that we have two security groups my
instance and an elastic IP that has this
IP and that's really cool because
everything was provisioned from within a
template okay so as we've seen here
every resources has been created
successfully and some were created
somewhere updated and then finally in
the event log is going to delete the old
database instance that we didn't use
okay so let's go ahead and review all
these resources if we go to the
management console we see that the new
instance is running but now it has two
security groups attached to them so
let's just go and go to the security
groups and if you check the security
groups we can see that the group name is
introduction which is the name of my
stack and then the idea of my group and
some random number the tags are what we
expect them to be here is the course
CloudFormation tag and it has the right
rules we assign them to this is my
second group right here and again the
tags are correct
the group name is different obviously
and so on finally if we check something
the elastic IP parent has been defined
and we can open it and again obviously
you know what if you guess now the
elastic IP will be exactly what we want
it to be okay anyone have the right
association so it's all very very very
very nice but finally let's look at what
happened the previous instance got
terminated so on top of like creating a
new instance areas cloud formation was
smart enough to say wait wait I'm going
to terminate the old instance because my
user doesn't want it anymore and it went
ahead and terminated it so that's
awesome
because it just cleaned up after itself
and that's really cool that's something
we can see in the events log and for
example here
the cleanup was happening and it was
delete
the old instance and completing the
deletes so so far we've seen a create an
updates and to finish this little part
of the tutorial say we want to delete
say we want to clean up what we did
because we created one is you to
instance we have created two security
groups and we have created elastic IPS
so how do we go about and cleaning
everything do I go here and and
terminate and everything or or is there
a better way or in fact there's a better
way if you go to the cloud formation
right-click and say delete stack it will
go ahead and delete all the stack
resources for you which is amazing
because everything you've created
through cloud formation will be deleted
with your cloud formation so I'll go
ahead and say yes deletes and the delete
is in progress and as you can guess it
will start deleting things in order as
well so you don't have to figure out
what to delete first and what not to
delete first it with cloud formation
will figure this out for you so as you
go ahead first will be deleted the
elastic IP then the instance and then
finally the security groups when all of
this is over
basically the cloud formation will
disappear and you can change the filter
to go and delete it so I'll just pause
when this is done so after using the
filter and everything disappears you can
see that you can just use the filters
get back to your CloudFormation template
and then you see that the event log
everything was being deleted and the
delete is complete so now if I go to my
management console and just refresh all
my instances have been terminated if I
go to my security groups my two new
secrets are gone and if I go to my
elastic IPS I would see the elastic IP
will be gone so it's really cool because
CloudFormation just cleaned up
everything in one click so here we just
witness the power of cloud formation for
creating updating and deleting errors
resources in no time
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