CloudFormation allows users to create and manage AWS infrastructure through templates that describe resources using JSON. The template defines parameters, mappings, resources, and outputs. Resources like EC2 instances are created and deleted by CloudFormation. References and intrinsic functions allow resources to reference attributes of other resources. Parameters allow customization, and mappings enable conditional parameter values. Outputs return information to the user. CloudFormation provides advantages like reuse, transparency, flexibility, customization, and integration without extra charges.

1. -Aniruddha S. Jawanjal
AWSCloudFormation
Cloud Management. Simplified.

2. Contents
• Introduction
• JSON
• Stack
• Template
• Resources
• Reference
• Parameters
• Intrinsic Function
• Mapping
• Output
• Advantages

3. Introduction
• Definition
• Requirement
• Okay… But what it Exactly do?
• JSON, Stack,Template, ….++

4. JSON
• JavaScript Object Notation
• Data-Interchange Format
• Use convention similar to C-family of languages
• Consists two data types
 Collection of name-value pairs
 Ordered List of values

5. Stack
• Collection of AWS resources
• Create a stack
• Track the progress of create operation
• List your running stacks
• Itemize the content of stack
• Delete a stack

6. Template
• Describe your AWS infrastructure requirements
• Complies with JSON standard
• cfn-validate-template
• Six main objects to be declared
 Format version, Description
 Parameters, Mappings
 Resources
 Outputs

7. Resources
• Created and deleted by AWS
CloudFormation
• Each template must declare a
Resource section with at least
one resource
• Declared in Properties section of
Resource section
E.g.
“Resources”:{
“MySimpleImage”:{
“Type”: ”AWS::EC2::Image”,
“Properties”:{
“ImageID”: ”myLinuxBundle-2013-07-
15”
}
}
}

8. References
• With “Ref” function, we
specify logical name of
one resource to
dereference a value in
another resource.
E.g.
“Parameters:” : {
“MyURL” : {
“Type” : “String”,
“Default” : http://aws.amazon.com
},
…
“Outputs” : {
“URL” : {
“Value” : { “Ref” : “MyURL” }
}
}

9. Parameters
• Parameters are values that you define in the template parameter
section
• It can be one of three types
 String
 Number
 CommaDelimitedList
• Pseudo-Parameters
 AWS::Region
 AWS::StackName

10. Intrinsic Function
• Used to pass values while runtime
• Fn::function-name
• Eg.
 Fn::base64
 Fn::FindInMap
 Fn::GetAtt
Eg.
“Properties” : {
“MyLBDNSName” : {
“Fn::GetAtt” :
[“MyLoadBalancer”,”DNSName”]
}
}

11. Mapping
• Enables you to specify
conditional parameter values
when used with Intrinsic function
“Fn::FindInMap”
• Each mapping has a logical name
unique within the template and
defines one or more key
attributes
• We can define many conditional
mappings with one as default
“Mappings” : {
“RegionMap” : {
“us-east-1” : {
“AMI” : “ami-76f0061”
},
“us-west-1” : {
“AMI” : “ami-6600f0a20”
},
“eu-west-1” : {
“AMI” : “ami-7f4eb10a20”
},
}
}

12. Outputs
• Used to declare information to be
passed back to the template user
• cnf-describe-stacks
• Two output properties
 Value
 Description
Eg.
“outputs” : {
“LoadBalancer” : {
“Value” : { “Ref” :
“BackupLoadBalancer”
}
}
}

13. Advantages
• No need to reinvent the wheel
• Transparent & Open
• Declarative & flexible
• Customized via parameters
• Integration ready
• No extra charge