AWS CloudFormation Master Class v2 [2025]

Learn to set up VS Code for AWS CloudFormation using the CloudFormation Linter extension, fcl-lint, and pydot for graph previews, then install cfn-lint with pip to validate templates.

Begin with CloudFormation by deploying a simple EC2 instance in us-east-1a, attach a security group for ports 80 and 22, and manage templates and stacks.

Upload templates to Amazon S3 and reference them in CloudFormation. Create stacks that provision AWS resources; update by re-uploading templates; stacks are region-unique and deleting a stack removes artifacts.

Discover why YAML outshines JSON for CloudFormation templates, and learn YAML basics—key-value pairs, nested objects, arrays, multi-line strings, and comments—through converting JSON to YAML and hands-on practice.

Practice CloudFormation by creating an S3 bucket with a simple template, deploy it as a stack, and review create events and the resulting bucket in the console.

Explore how CloudFormation updates S3 buckets with no interruption, some interruption, or replacements, by applying access control changes and bucket name changes via change sets.

Know that you cannot delete a non-empty S3 bucket; First delete all objects. Then CloudFormation deletes the bucket and the stack; monitor delete in progress and status reasons to debug.

Explore how CloudFormation template options like tags, permissions, notification options, timeout, rollback on failure, rollback configuration, stack policy, and termination protection govern stack creation in the console.

Design applications quickly on AWS using the application composer and drag-and-drop resources to transform templates into visual CloudFormation components. Import existing templates and visualize linked stacks.

Explore cloud formation's building blocks—templates, resources, parameters, mappings, outputs, conditionals, and rules—with hands-on lessons on template format version, metadata, references, and functions.

Deploy CloudFormation templates from manual authoring to automated production workflows using yaml, aws cli, or continuous delivery tools.

Learn to estimate costs for CloudFormation templates by building a demo stack and using the AWS Pricing Calculator to see how an m5.4xlarge EC2 instance affects the monthly bill.

Learn to leverage parameters to customize CloudFormation templates, define types and constraints, fetch parameters from the parameter store, and reference values with Fn::Ref to tailor stacks.

Explore how to define and constrain CloudFormation parameters, including string and number types, NoEcho secrets, AWS-specific types, CIDR patterns, and referencing with Ref and Select.

Explore how to use the SSM parameter type with CloudFormation to fetch parameter store values, including the latest ami id, and understand supported types and validation.

Learn to reference SSM parameter store values in CloudFormation templates, using a private instance type parameter and a public image ID parameter.

Discover how resources drive CloudFormation templates, define dependencies with ref, and let AWS manage the create, update, and delete order from rich documentation and YAML or JSON examples.

Explore a hands-on CloudFormation resources template linking an EC2 instance, Elastic IP, and security groups with Ref and SecurityGroupIngress, and learn the deployment order.

Explore optional attributes for resources, including dependsOn, deletionPolicy, updateReplacePolicy, creationPolicy, updatePolicy, and metadata for Cfn init and stack updates.

Understand how the DependsOn attribute enforces creation order between an EC2 instance and an S3 bucket, with deletion order reversed, shown in a hands-on DependsOn.yaml example.

Explore deletion policies in CloudFormation by using DeletionPolicy values like Retain and Snapshots, with Delete as the default, including how a S3 bucket survives deletion and UpdateReplacePolicy protects resources.

Explore how UpdateReplacePolicy governs resource replacement during stack updates, compare it with DeletionPolicy, and learn to retain old resources using examples with S3 buckets and snapshots.

Explore the resources FAQ: learn to create a dynamic number of resources with CloudFormation macros and transforms, note that most services are supported, and use custom resources for new features.

Discover mappings as fixed variables in CloudFormation to differentiate environments and regions, including region-specific AMI IDs via a RegionMap, and compare mappings with parameters to know when to use each.

Learn how to use the Fn::FindInMap function to access region map values in a CloudFormation template, returning the correct ami id for the current region and architecture.

Learn to implement CloudFormation mappings to deduce EC2 instance types from environment and select region-specific AMIs, using parameterization and FindInMap in hands-on templates.

Explore pseudo parameters in CloudFormation templates, including account id, region, stack id, stack name, notifications arn, no value, partition, and url suffix, to construct ARNs and resource names.

Expose and reuse cloud formation outputs by exporting values from a network stack and referencing them in an application stack, enabling VPC IDs and subnet IDs to flow across stacks.

Practice outputs hands-on by creating an EC2 security group with inbound rules that follow best practices, then expose the group via a CloudFormation output export and reference it using Ref.

Explore cross stack references in CloudFormation by using the ImportValue function to attach an exported SSH security group to an EC2 instance, and understand how dependent stacks prevent deletion.

Discover AWS CloudFormation conditions to selectively create EC2 instances and attach EBS volumes in a shared template based on environment such as dev or prod, using equals and logical functions.

Learn how to use the Fn::GetAtt get attribute function to reference a resource attribute, such as EC2Instance.AvailabilityZone, to place an EBS volume in the same availability zone.

Learn how AWS CloudFormation uses parameters and conditions to conditionally create an EC2 volume and mount point, with prod and test deployment and change sets.

Use CloudFormation rules for cross-parameter validation with a rule condition and assertion, e.g., require an ACM certificate ARN when UseSSL is yes for an SSL listener.

Learn hands-on CloudFormation rules that enforce environment-based instance types, with prod requiring t2 small and dev allowing t2 nano or micro, and cross-perimeter validation, plus two rule-writing approaches.