Introduction to AWS CloudFormation

49mBeginner2025-05-02

Authors

Brandon Rich

IT Architect, Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame

Course details

CloudFormation automates provisioning of networking, security, and other Amazon Web Services. It’s an integral part of automated infrastructure delivery with AWS, and a must-have for DevOps professionals who are looking for ways to speed up IT deployments. This course provides the knowledge necessary to start working with this important tool. Begin by gaining familiarity with CloudFormation concepts, resources, and templates, then test your skills as you build your own template and use it to create infrastructure. You’ll also advance your skills with a deep dive into plugins, change sets, troubleshooting, and more.

Learning objectives
Implement infrastructure as code in AWS CloudFormation.
Apply CloudFormation concepts like templates, resources, and stacks.
Build your own CloudFormation templates.
Troubleshoot common errors.

Skills covered

AWS CloudFormationIT AutomationCloud DevelopmentIntroduction toDevOps FoundationsAmazonDevOpsNetwork and System AdministrationCloud Computing

Concepts

Introduction

Supercharge your AWS skills with CloudFormation
What you should know

Infrastructure as Code

CloudFormation and infrastructure as code (IaC)

Introduction to CloudFormation

CloudFormation core concepts and terminology
Anatomy of a CloudFormation template
Understanding CloudFormation resources
Launching your first CloudFormation stack
Customize CloudFormation templates with parameters
CloudFormation outputs
Challenge - Use parameters to create multiple stacks
Solution - Use parameters to create multiple stacks

CloudFormation Deep Dive

Building CloudFormation templates with related Resources
Launching a template with multiple resources
Updating a CloudFormation stack
Handling CloudFormation stack errors and troubleshooting
Accelerating CloudFormation development with tools
CloudFormation best practices

Conclusion

Next steps