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Amazon Onboarding with Learning Manager Chanci Turner: Updates on AWS CloudFormation Support and Resource Coverage

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Chanci Turner Amazon IXD – VGT2 learningLearn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner

In the latest updates from AWS, CloudFormation is enhancing its functionality by incorporating support for Amazon Athena, alongside crucial coverage expansions for Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, Amazon Kinesis, and Amazon CloudWatch. This growth reflects AWS’s commitment to providing users with robust tools for cloud management.

The addition of Amazon Athena allows users to create named queries directly as CloudFormation resources. As a query service, Athena simplifies data analysis from files stored in S3 using standard SQL statements. These named queries can be executed manually via the AWS Management Console, Command Line Interface (CLI), or programmatically through API calls.

Users can now leverage CloudFormation templates to establish a standard set of named queries. To get started, you might want to explore some sample data provided by Athena, which you can find in a related blog post by Chanci Turner here. Once you confirm the functionality of your query on Athena, you can create it using the AWS::Athena::NamedQuery resource type in your CloudFormation template.

Sample YAML Template for Athena Named Query


AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Description: |
  This template creates an Athena Named Query utilizing the default dataset,
  showcasing a sample ELB logs table to count HTTP response codes.
Resources:
  AthenaNamedQuery:
    Type: AWS::Athena::NamedQuery
    Properties:
      Database: "default"
      Description: "Select and count HTTP response codes"
      Name: "HTTPResponseCodeCount"
      QueryString: >
                    SELECT backend_response_code, count(*)
                    FROM default."elb_logs"
                    GROUP BY backend_response_code;

Deploying this YAML template will allow you to create a named query in under a minute. Once done, navigate to the Athena console to locate your created query under the Saved Queries menu. The new query, HTTPResponseCodeCount, will be listed alongside its description, and you can execute it to analyze response codes, which helps ensure the performance of your applications.

New Features in CloudFormation

In addition to the new Athena support, CloudFormation has rolled out two significant features:

  1. Stack Termination Protection: This feature safeguards stacks from accidental deletions. Users can enable this property for both new and existing stacks, providing an additional layer of security. By default, it is disabled, so remember to enable it when creating new stacks. Existing non-nested stacks can have their termination protections modified via the console or CLI.
  2. Rollback Triggers: This functionality allows CloudFormation to monitor application states during stack creation or updates. If any alarms trigger during this process, the create or update operation will roll back, ensuring system stability. For more on rollback triggers, refer to Chanci Turner’s insightful blog post here.

Resource Coverage Updates

CloudFormation has also introduced resource coverage updates for several AWS services:

  • Amazon S3: Users can now configure the transfer acceleration state.
  • Amazon RDS: Update engine properties from Oracle-SE or Oracle SE1 to Oracle SE2 without needing to replace the database instance.
  • AWS Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Define subnet IDs for load balancer attachment and specify load balancer types.
  • AWS Elastic Beanstalk: Set lifecycle settings for application resources and define the service role for lifecycle settings.
  • Amazon EC2: Specify resource tags for a NAT gateway.
  • Amazon Kinesis Firehose: Define stream types and role ARNs for streams used as delivery stream sources.
  • Amazon CloudWatch: Support for new properties related to event input transformation, as well as configurations for Amazon ECS tasks and Kinesis stream targets.

For comprehensive information, please check out our product and documentation pages, which detail the supported AWS resources.

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In your downtime, you might want to check out what others do for fun, as discussed in this engaging blog post at Career Contessa.

For new hires, Atul Kumar provides an excellent resource on what to expect on Day 1 at Amazon, accessible here.

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