How to Create a VPC Environment Using CloudFormation (Vol.2)

This article is a continuation from our last blog post.

Let's create a VPC from the template file we created last time.

Create a stack

First, log in to the development server and register the API key of the user who executes CloudFormation as shown below.

[root@localhost ~]# aws configure
AWS Access Key ID [****************XXXX]:
AWS Secret Access Key [****************XXXX]:
Default region name [ap-northeast-1]:
Default output format [XXXX]:

If there’s no aws command, install as the following.

[root@localhost ~]# yum install epel-release
[root@localhost ~]# yum install python-pip
[root@localhost ~]# pip install awscli

Make sure that there is vpc.yml that was created last time and then use the following command to create a VPC.

arn:aws:cloudformation:ap-northeast-1:189461266018:stack/vpc/7b29dce0-4c70-11e9-8b3c-0ee87e6fb924

The status can be checked with the following command.

When “CREATE_COMPLETE” is displayed, the resource is completed.

aws cloudformation  describe-stacks --stack-name vpc
STACKS  2019-03-28T02:12:32.683Z    	False   False   arn:aws:cloudformation:ap-northeast-1:189461266018:stack/vpc/f23007a0-50fe-11e9-88b0-0e819627e6da   	vpc 	CREATE_COMPLETE
DRIFTINFORMATION    	NOT_CHECKED
PARAMETERS  	PublicSubnetCider   	10.31.0.0/24
PARAMETERS  	ProjectCode 	test
PARAMETERS  	VPCCider    	10.31.0.0/16

A VPC and a subnet with the specified identifiers must be successfully created.

Delete the resources

Now let’s delete all the resources that were created at once.

When you delete the resources manually, you need to go to each resource’s screen and delete each resource individually, but the resources created with CloudFormation can be deleted from a single console.

Go back to the development server and then run the following command.

[root@localhost ~]# aws cloudformation delete-stack --stack-name vpc

Now, let’s check the deletion progress.

Run the following command and if you see “DELETE_IN_PROGRESS”, it means it’s deleting the resources.

[root@localhost ~]# aws cloudformation  describe-stacks --stack-name vpc
STACKS  2019-03-28T02:12:32.683Z    	2019-03-28T02:20:53.902Z    	False   False   arn:aws:cloudformation:ap-northeast-1:189461266018:stack/vpc/f23007a0-50fe-11e9-88b0-0e819627e6da   	vpc 	DELETE_IN_PROGRESS
DRIFTINFORMATION    	NOT_CHECKED
PARAMETERS  	PublicSubnetCider   	10.31.0.0/24
PARAMETERS  	ProjectCode 	test
PARAMETERS  	VPCCider    	10.31.0.0/16

Once the stack deletion is completed, it shows the following error.

[root@localhost ~]# aws cloudformation  describe-stacks --stack-name vpc
 
An error occurred (ValidationError) when calling the DescribeStacks operation: Stack with id vpc does not exist

The VPC must be deleted at this point.

Explanation

Let me explain what each command does.

# aws cloudformation create-stack \
　　↑ Declare the use of cloudformation by aws cloudformation. create-stack to create a stack, delete-stack to delete a stack. 
 
> --stack-name vpc \
　　↑ stack-name [name]　Set a stack name
 
> --region ap-northeast-1 \
　　↑ --region [region]　Set a region to create a resource.
 
> --template-body file://./vpc.yml
　　↑ --template-body [fileURL]　Specify the template file URL

You can create a VPC with minimum commands like this.

Also, if you want to change the values of the parameters, you can do the following.

# aws cloudformation create-stack \
> --stack-name vpc \
> --region ap-northeast-1 \
> --template-body file://./vpc.yml
> --parameters \
> ParameterKey=ProjectCode,ParameterValue=test-beyondjapan \
> ParameterKey=VPCCider,ParameterValue="10.23.0.0/16" \
> ParameterKey=PublicSubnetCider,ParameterValue="10.23.0.0/24"

Declare each parameter to use with “Parameters”, and set a parameter ID with “ParameterKey”, and set value with “ParameterValue”.

Summary

This time, the creation and deletion of a stack and each resource could be performed from the console.

You can easily delete and create AWS resources using CloudFormation like this.

This blog post is translated from a blog post written by Okazaki Junichiro on our Japanese website Beyond Co..