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Cloud Operations on AWS

Module 5: Automate Resource Deployment

Cloud Operations on AWS

Module Overview

Deployment using AWS CloudFormation
Deployment using AWS Service Catalog
Troubleshooting scenario
Lab 2: Infrastructure as Code

Deployment Challenges CloudFormation Solves

Provisioning and updating live servers
Multi-Region rollouts and system dependencies
Repeatable, identical environments
Rollback, debugging, and documenting changes

CloudFormation Template Components

Resources — declares AWS resources to create (required)
Parameters — passes values into the template
Outputs — returns values from the stack
Mappings — stores static values by key

CloudFormation Helper Concepts

Concept	Purpose
Ref	Reference other stack components
DependsOn	Order resource creation
Pseudo parameters	AWS::AccountId, AWS::Region, AWS::StackId
cfn-init / cfn-signal	Bootstrap EC2 instances, signal success/failure
WaitCondition / CreationPolicy	Block stack progress until signaled

Best Practices: CloudFormation

Organize stacks by lifecycle and ownership
Use cross-stack references and StackSets for multi-account deployments
Never embed credentials in templates
Create change sets before updating stacks
Use AWS CloudTrail to log CloudFormation API calls

AWS Service Catalog — Administrator Workflow

1

Design a template with parameters

2

Create products

3

Create a portfolio

4

Assign products, add constraints, grant access

5

Add tags to the portfolio and products

AWS Service Catalog — User Workflow

Browse products · select a version
Populate parameters · add required tags
Launch a product · review outputs

Troubleshooting Scenario

Issue: CloudFormation stack resources couldn't be created.

Cause: A required parameter for the resource type is missing.

Solution: Verify the user has permissions for the resource, and compare against a known-working template.

Lab 2: Infrastructure as Code

Deploy resources using AWS CloudFormation
Duration: 50 minutes

Module Summary

Next: Module 6 — Manage Resources

Module 5 Mind Map

Click branch to expand

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