All You Need to Know About AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation is a dedicated service provided by Amazon for the purpose of helping the users set up and model the AWS resources. It enables you to spend more time on important things such as focusing on managing the AWS resources and directing your focus on the applications that run within the AWS.

You can create a template that offers you a description of the resources within the AWS that you want such as Amazon RDS DB instances and Amazon EC2 instances. CloudFormation intends to take optimal care of configuration and provisioning of those AWS resources for the users. There is no more necessity of creating or configuring these resources individually as AWS CloudFormation takes complete care of that.

In this blog, we will try and understand all you need to know about AWS configuration.

Working of AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation is a concept that functions on the stack concept. It gives you the potential to create and delete AWS resources collectively with respect to a unit. The users can define the characteristics associated with mappings, stack parameters, output values, and resource properties. This is done with a template which is a JSON compliant file.

You can write and create the template from the beginning or you can also use one of the example templates pre-offered by AWS. Along with this, the users can make the most out of the many AWS products within the CloudFormation such as Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, Amazon Elastic Beanstalk.

While a stack is created, the AWS CloudFormation makes specific service calls upon AWS. This helps in configuring and provisioning the AWS resources. The CloudFormation performs only the actions that you have permission to do. For instance, if you wish to create Amazon EC2 with AWS CloudFormation then you will need special permissions for it. Along with this, there will also be a need for deleting the stacks and terminating the instances.

To manage the permissions, the individuals can use AWS Identity and Access Management. Following this, the calls that AWS CloudFormation processes are declared by the templates. To ensure that you create and modify a CloudFormation template within the YAML or JSON, there is a need to use the AWS CloudFormation Designer. You can create the account and start designing right away.

In addition, you can also prefer other text editors for doing the same but the AWS designer is a suitable platform for deriving effectiveness. The CloudFormation template elaborates on the resources that you wish to use and the settings that are associated with them. For example, if you wish to create one EC2 instance then your template will declare the same and describe the properties accordingly.

After you have created the template, you save it either in the S3 bucket or locally. You must also make sure that you save it with an extension such as .yaml, .txt, or .json. Form the CloudFormation stack by specifying the Amazon S3 URL or the template file location over the local computer. In case you think that the template includes some parameters then you can give the input values for the same after which, you can proceed in the direction of creating the stack. The parameters allow you to enter values for the CloudFormation template and with it, you can customize resources each time you wish to create a stack.

Keep in mind that in case you are just specifying or calling a template that is stored locally then the CloudFormation will automatically upload it on the S3 bucket in the AWS account. The AWS CloudFormation is meant for creating buckets for all regions where you can upload a template file. The buckets within the CloudFormation are accessible by everyone who has Amazon S3 permissions enabled in the account.

AWS CloudFormation Concepts

Anytime you use the AWS CloudFormation, you get to work with templates and stacks. You get to create templates to describe the AWS resources and their properties. Anytime you create a stack, the CloudFormation provisions resources that are described in the template.

1. Templates

An AWS CloudFormation template is a JSON or YAML formatted text file. It is easy to save these files with any extension such as .yaml, .template, .txt, or .json. The AWS CloudFormation uses these templates as blueprints for building the AWS resources.

For instance, you can describe an Amazon EC2 instance in a template as instance type, AMI ID, block device mapping, and Amazon EC2 key pair name. Whenever you create the stack, you can also mention a template that the CloudFormation is using to create whatever you described in the template.

2. Stacks

When you use the AWS CloudFormation, you can manage related resources as a single unit called a stack. It becomes easy to create, update and even delete a collection of resources by just creating, updating, and deleting stacks. All the resources present in a stack are defined by the stack’s CloudFormation template.

Let’s say that you created a template that includes an Auto Scaling group, Amazon Relational Database Service database instance, and an Elastic Load Balancing load balancer. For the creation of these resources, you can create a stack by submitting the template that you have created, and CloudFormation provisions all these resources for you. You can work with the stacks by using the CloudFormation console, AWS CLI, and API.

3. Change Sets

If you think that should be changed to the running resources in a stack, you can update the stack. Before you make any changes to the resources, a changeset can be generated which is basically a summary of all proposed changes. The changesets allow you to see how the changes impact the running resources, particularly for critical resources before implementing them.

For example, in case you change the name of an Amazon RDS database instance, the AWS CloudFormation will create a new database and delete the old one. You can’t risk losing data in the old database unless you have backed it up already. In case you form a changeset, you will see that the change will cause the database to get replaced and you will feel that you plan accordingly before updating the stack.

Why is AWS CloudFormation Needed?

 

To create an architecture that supports acceptance, production, and test environments, there is a need for AWS CloudFormation that can help in doing some activities for the same. The common activities carried out by CloudFormation for building this architecture are launching an instance, creating load balancers, making required installations, attaching instance to load balancers, creating RDS and configuring the EC2 security group, creating and configuring the security groups, and creating the auto-scaling groups.

The AWS CloudFormation template for infrastructure automation is a JSON file that is basically intended to be a powerful tool that can manage all important things. It basically helps in specifying the necessity of resources while the CloudFormation powers you with the resource provisioning in a predictable tangent.

 

Situations in Which AWS CloudFormation Can Be Used

 

The AWS CloudFormation helps in deploying or upgrading the template and its resource collection with the use of AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface, and APIs. Its use cases are not charged additionally because you are only required to pay for the AWS resources that are important for running dedicated applications.

Hence, it can be concluded that the AWS CloudFormation is Infrastructure as Code which actually means that it can be used to read, reuse, and review things. Below, we will see some situations in which the AWS CloudFormation is used. This will help in getting a much better clarity.

The AWS Cloud Formation helps in doing the following things:

1. Simplicity Infrastructure Management

To make a scalable web application that also includes a backend database, you may end up using an Auto Scaling group, Amazon Relational Database Service database instance, and an Elastic Load Balancing load balancer.

These services are used individually for provisioning the resources and after the resources are created, you can configure them to work with each other. These tasks add complexity and time before the application is up and running. You create an AWS CloudFormation template and modify an existing one as well.

A template is capable of describing all the resources and properties. When you use the template for creating a CloudFormation stack, the auto-scaling group, load balancer, and database get provisioned for you. After the stack gets successfully created, the AWS resources are up and running. The stack can delete just as easily and the resources too. With CloudFormation, the collection of resources can easily be managed as a single unit.

2. Replicate Your Infrastructure

If an application demands more availability then this means that there is a need to replicate it into multiple regions. This is because when one region becomes unavailable, the users can use an application from another region.

There is a natural challenge that you need to face at the time of replicating an application which is that you have to replicate the resources too. It is therefore important for you to record all the resources on the basis of the demands of the application. However, along with this, you also have to configure and provision all the resources in each region.

The AWS CloudFormation template can be reused for creating the resources in a consistent and repeatable way. It allows the reusability of the templates and this can be done by describing the resources once and by provisioning the same around many regions. In this way, the infrastructure can be replicated to multiple regions with ease.

3. Controlling Changes Made to Infrastructure

For some cases, there might be a need for an upgrade at times. An example of this can be a need or an urge to upgrade a high-performance instance in the auto-scaling launch configuration. With this, the total number of instances can be reduced within the group.

Manual control, tracking changes, and making upgrades can be a complex endeavor and for all of these things, there is a need to remember the whereabouts of the changed resources. The use of AWS CloudFormation enables the template to describe the provisioned resources and elaborate the settings. It becomes easy to track the infrastructure changes between text files templates.

You can also easily integrate a version control system along with the templates for getting an idea of the changes made to the infrastructure. In addition to this, you can also track who made the change and when it was made. If you want to reverse the changes in the infrastructure, you can also reverse the previous template version. Therefore, controlling and tracking infrastructure changes becomes easy with the AWS CloudFormation.

Conclusion

The details mentioned above are commonly associated with AWS CloudFormation. These are insights that focus on the functionality of CloudFormation and the comfort for the users to run their applications.

The AWS CloudFormation automates the best practices and also scales the infrastructure on a global level. The best thing is that it enables you to integrate CloudFormation with the other AWS services. You can also be capable enough to manage the private and third-party resources.

If you wish to use the AWS CloudFormation, you must take the AWS consulting services that can help in understanding more details, having knowledge of what you are about to integrate, and availing seamlessness for executing applications. Get in touch to know more.