Mastering AWS CloudFormation : Plan, Develop, and Deploy Your Cloud Infrastructure Effectively Using AWS CloudFormation

Build scalable and production-ready infrastructure in Amazon Web Services with CloudFormation Key Features Leverage AWS CloudFormation templates to manage your entire infrastructure Get up and running with writing your infrastructure as code and automating your environment Simplify infrastructure management and increase productivity with AWS CloudFormation Book Description DevOps and the cloud revolution have forced software engineers and operations teams to rethink how to manage infrastructures. With this AWS book, you'll understand how you can use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to simplify IT operations and manage the modern cloud infrastructure effectively with AWS CloudFormation. This comprehensive guide will help you explore AWS CloudFormation from template structures through to developing complex and reusable infrastructure stacks. You'll then delve into validating templates, deploying stacks, and handling deployment failures. The book will also show you how to leverage AWS CodeBuild and CodePipeline to automate resource delivery and apply continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices to the stack. As you advance, you'll learn how to generate templates on the fly using macros and create resources outside AWS with custom resources. Finally, you'll improve the way you manage the modern cloud in AWS by extending CloudFormation using AWS serverless application model (SAM) and AWS cloud development kit (CDK). By the end of this book, you'll have mastered all the major AWS CloudFormation concepts and be able to simplify infrastructure management. What you will learn Understand modern approaches to IaC Develop universal and reusable CloudFormation templates Discover ways to apply continuous delivery with CloudFormation Implement IaC best practices for the AWS Cloud Provision massive applications across multiple regions and accounts Automate template generation and software provisioning for AWS Extend CloudFormation with custom resources and template macros Who this book is for If you are a developer who wants to learn how to write templates, a DevOps engineer interested in deployment and orchestration, or a solutions architect looking to understand the benefits of managing infrastructure with ease, this book is for you. Prior understanding of the AWS Cloud is necessary. Table of Contents CloudFormation Refresher Advanced Template Development Validation, Linting, and Deployment of the Stack Continuous Integration and Deployment Deploying to Multiple Regions and Accounts Using StackSets Configuration Management of the EC2 Instances Using cfn-init Creating Resources outside AWS Using Custom Resources Dynamically Rendering the Template Using Template Macros Generating CloudFormation Templates Using AWS CDK Deploying Serverless Applications Using AWS SAM What's Next? Cover Copyright About PACKT Contributors Table of Contents Preface Section 1: CloudFormation Internals Chapter 1: CloudFormation Wrap Up Technical requirements Understanding the internals of AWS CloudFormation Creating your first stack Understanding CloudFormation IAM permissions Drift detection Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 2: Advanced Template Development Technical requirements Going through the internals of the template AWSTemplateFormatVersion Description Metadata Parameters Mappings Conditions Transform Resources Outputs Creating reusable templates Using conditional elements Deletion policies Referring to existing stacks AWS pseudo parameters AWS::AccountId AWS::NoValue AWS::Region AWS::StackId and AWS::StackName AWS::URLSuffix AWS::Partition Dynamic references with Parameter Store and Secrets Manager Summary Questions Further reading Section 2: Provisioning and Deployment at Scale Chapter 3: Validation, Linting, and Deployment of the Stack Technical requirements Validating the template Using a linter for best practices on templates Linting against specific regions Ignoring specific rules Creating custom rules Provisioning our stack Deploying stacks using Change Sets Handling errors Working with drifts Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 4: Continuous Integration and Deployment Technical requirements Including a template in your application Running smoke tests on your stack Smoke testing for EC2 auto scaling groups Smoke testing VPC resources Best practices for the release management of CloudFormation stacks Always use version control systems Ensuring that your dependencies can be easily retrieved Keeping your code base clean Choosing a proper branching model Always perform a code review Having full test coverage Don't forget to use a CloudFormation IAM role Always perform smoke testing Using the correct CI/CD instruments Keeping up the good work Creating a CI/CD pipeline with CloudFormation and CodePipeline Scenario – core stack Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 5: Deploying to Multiple Regions and Accounts Using StackSets Technical requirements The old-fashioned way of multi-regional and multi-account infrastructure management Introducing StackSets Permissions Deploying to multiple regions Using AWS Console Using awscli Best practices for StackSets Deploying to multiple accounts Preventing failures of multiple StackSet deployments using TAGs Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 6: Configuration Management of the EC2 Instances Using cfn-init Technical requirements Introducing cfn-init Deploying your application to EC2 during stack creation Creating a Hello, World application Creating LNMP stack Using cfn-signal to inform CloudFormation about resource readiness Summary Questions Further reading Section 3: Extending CloudFormation Chapter 7: Creating Resources outside AWS Using Custom Resources Technical requirements Understanding custom resources The internals of the underlying Lambda function Writing and managing your own custom resource Creating databases in RDS using CRs Handling updates, deletions, and failures of CRs Deleting resource Updating resources Extra features for the custom database function Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 8: Dynamically Rendering the Template Using Template Macros Technical requirements Understanding the use cases of the template macro Auto filling resource property values Adding extra resources Making resource declaration easier for developers Introducing the template macro Considerations Writing your own macro AMI ID filler Rendering the application template from a short declaration Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 9: Generating CloudFormation Templates Using AWS CDK Technical requirements Introducing AWS CDK Facilitating template development with AWS CDK Writing your first template using AWS CDK and Python Preparing constructs Rendering core resources Rendering the web tier Rendering the storage tier Deploying CDK application Testing CDK applications Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 10: Deploying Serverless Applications Using AWS SAM Technical requirements Introducing AWS SAM Understanding the differences between SAM and CloudFormation Writing your first serverless application with SAM Prerequisites Developing a Hello, World application Running SAM applications Examining logs with SAM Creating complex applications with SAM Summary Questions Further reading Chapter 11: What's Next? The future of infrastructure as code Understanding the difference between Terraform and CloudFormation Provider support Declaration syntax Development and deployment methodologies Understanding the value of Cloud Development Kit Testing infrastructure Adding artifacts Summary Further reading Assessments Chapter 1: CloudFormation Wrap Up Chapter 2: Advanced Template Development Chapter 3: Validation, Linting, and Deployment of the Stack Chapter 4: Continuous Integration and Deployment Chapter 5: Deploying to Multiple Regions and Accounts Using StackSets Chapter 6: Configuring the Internals of the Resources Using cfn-init Chapter 7: Create Resources outside AWS Using Custom Resources Chapter 8: Dynamically Render the Template Using Template Macros Chapter 9: Generating CloudFormation Templates Using AWS CDK Chapter 10: Deploying Serverless Applications Using AWS SAM Other Books You May Enjoy Build scalable and production-ready infrastructure in Amazon Web Services with CloudFormation * Leverage AWS CloudFormation templates to manage your entire infrastructure * Get up and running with writing your infrastructure as code and automating your environment * Simplify infrastructure management and increase productivity with AWS CloudFormation DevOps and the cloud revolution have forced software engineers and operations teams to rethink how to manage infrastructures. With this AWS book, you'll understand how you can use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to simplify IT operations and manage the modern cloud infrastructure effectively with AWS CloudFormation. By the end of this book, you'll have mastered all the major AWS CloudFormation concepts and be able to simplify infrastructure management. * Understand modern approaches to IaC * Develop universal and reusable CloudFormation templates * Discover ways to apply continuous delivery with CloudFormation * Implement IaC best practices for the AWS Cloud * Provision massive applications across multiple regions and accounts * Automate template generation and software provisioning for AWS * Extend CloudFormation with custom resources and template macros If you are a developer who wants to learn how to write templates, a DevOps engineer interested in deployment and orchestration, or a solutions architect looking to understand the benefits of managing infrastructure with ease, this book is for you. Prior understanding of the AWS Cloud is necessary. 1. CloudFormation Refresher 2. Advanced Template Development 3. Validation, Linting, and Deployment of the Stack 4. Continuous Integration and Deployment 5. Deploying to Multiple Regions and Accounts Using StackSets 6. Configuration Management of the EC2 Instances Using cfn-init 7. Creating Resources outside AWS Using Custom Resources 8. Dynamically Rendering the Template Using Template Macros 9. Generating CloudFormation Templates Using AWS CDK 10. Deploying Serverless Applications Using AWS SAM 11. What's Next? This book is for engineers who work with AWS on a daily basis. Although you will find broad and deep explanations for most of the examples and code blocks in the book, I expect you to have basic knowledge of programming (preferably Python), general IT knowledge, and especially of AWS, as well as an understanding of RESTful APIs, JSON, and YAML. AWS CloudFormation provisions your resources in a safe and repeatable manner, allowing you to build your infrastructure and applications without performing manual actions or writing custom scripts. This comprehensive guide will help readers to implement Infrastructure as a Code using AWS CloudFormation.