AWS CloudFormation Command Line Operations
Internal
Validate Templates
aws cloudformation validate-template --template-body file://.../stack-template.yml
Create a Stack
aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name stack-name --template-body file://.../stack-template.yml [--parameters ParameterKey=Parm1,ParameterValue=test1 ParameterKey=Parm2,ParameterValue=test2]
If the template is supposed to create IAM roles, the command line will fail with a message similar to "An error occurred (InsufficientCapabilitiesException) when calling the CreateStack operation: Requires capabilities : [CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM]", unless the capability is explicitly provided on command line with:
aws cloudformation create-stack --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM ...
For more details on capabilities, see CloudFormation Concepts - Capabilities
A stack can only be created once, a subsequent invocation of the 'create-stack' command will result in:
An error occurred (AlreadyExistsException) when calling the CreateStack operation: Stack [api-experiments] already exists
Update a Stack
aws cloudformation update-stack --stack-name stack-name --template-body file://.../stack-template.yml [--parameters ParameterKey=Parm1,ParameterValue=test1 ParameterKey=Parm2,ParameterValue=test2]
Updates a stack as specified in the template. After the call completes successfully, the stack update starts.
aws cloudformation update-stack --stack-name mystack --use-previous-template --parameters ...
Cancel an Update
aws cloudformation cancel-update-stack
Delete a Stack
aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name stack-name
Describe a Stack
aws cloudformation describe-stacks [--stack-name stackname]
Listing Stacks that Use a Specific Export
aws cloudformation list-imports --export-name export-name
Obtaining the Template of an Existing Stack
This is useful when we want to apply an update, but we don't have the original template document.
aws cloudformation get-template
Package
aws cloudformation package --template-file deployment-stack.yaml --s3-bucket ${TARGET_BUCKET} --output-template-file new-deployment-stack.yaml
The command packages the local artifacts (local paths) the CloudFormation template references. The command uploads local artifacts, such as source code for an AWS Lambda function or a Swagger file for an API Gateway REST API to an S3 bucket. The command returns a copy of the template, replacing references to local artifacts with the S3 location where the command uploaded the artifacts. Use this command to quickly upload local artifacts that might be required by your template. After you package your template's artifacts, run the aws cloudformation deploy command to deploy the returned template. This command can upload local artifacts specified by following properties of a resource: BodyS3Location for a AWS::ApiGateway::RestApi resource, Code property for an AWS::Lambda::Function resource or a TemplateURL property of a AWS::CloudFormation::Stack resource.
Deploy
aws cloudformation deploy