Introduction to AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation is a fully managed Infrastructure as Code service that lets you model, provision, and manage AWS resources by writing templates in JSON or YAML. You describe what you want, and CloudFormation takes care of creating, configuring, and connecting the resources in the right order.

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How CloudFormation Works

The CloudFormation workflow has three main components:

1. Templates

A template is a text file (JSON or YAML) that describes the AWS resources you want to create. Think of it as a blueprint for your infrastructure. Templates are the input to CloudFormation.

2. Stacks

When you submit a template to CloudFormation, it creates a stack — a collection of AWS resources that are managed as a single unit. Every resource in a stack is created from the template, and you manage them together: update them together, monitor them together, and delete them together.

3. Change Sets

When you need to update a stack, CloudFormation generates a change set that shows you exactly what will change before you apply it. This gives you a chance to review and approve modifications before they take effect.

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The CloudFormation Lifecycle