Resources, Parameters, and Outputs

The Resources section is the only required part of a CloudFormation template, and it is where you define the AWS infrastructure to build. Parameters make your templates reusable by accepting input at deployment time, and Outputs let you expose important values — such as endpoint URLs or resource IDs — after the stack is created. In this lesson we will explore all three in depth with practical examples.

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Resources In-Depth

Resource Syntax

Every resource follows this structure:

Resources:
  LogicalName:
    Type: AWS::Service::Resource
    Properties:
      PropertyName: value

• LogicalName — a name you choose that identifies the resource within the template (e.g., WebServer, AppDatabase)
• Type — the CloudFormation resource type (e.g., AWS::EC2::Instance, AWS::S3::Bucket)
• Properties — configuration settings specific to the resource type

Common Resource Types