{"id":642,"date":"2019-05-03T15:07:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T13:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.besharp.it\/aws-cloudformation-the-top-5-reasons-for-not-using-it\/"},"modified":"2021-03-29T17:13:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T15:13:54","slug":"aws-cloudformation-the-top-5-reasons-for-not-using-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.besharp.it\/aws-cloudformation-the-top-5-reasons-for-not-using-it\/","title":{"rendered":"AWS CloudFormation: the \u201ctop 5\u201d reasons for not using it"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to survive the most common pitfalls and take advantage of this service, without too many headaches.<\/h2>\n
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Who hasn\u2019t had problems with\u00a0AWS CloudFormation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sadly, it is commonly known that AWS CloudFormation is as powerful of a tool as it is frustrating; this short article will highlight the most common pitfalls and the most annoying situations, as well as, obviously,\u00a0ways to avoid them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We begin our journey by\u00a0describing the service:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAWS CloudFormation provides you with a common language for describing and provisioning all infrastructure resources in your cloud environment. With CloudFormation you can use a simple text file to model and implement provisioning, in an automated and secure manner, of all resources needed for your applications on all regions and all accounts. Such file will be the only source of your cloud environment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CloudFormation is available at no additional cost; you are only charged the cost of AWS resources needed to run the applications.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the main advantages of using AWS CloudFormation is precisely to have\u00a0a template of your own infrastructure, which can be versioned, revised, and easily replicated<\/strong>\u00a0as often as necessary.<\/p>\n

There are problems, however, right from the description of the service.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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#1 An (in)complete modeling<\/h3>\n

Although the AWS service presentation page explicitly states that AWS CloudFormation offers complete cloud infrastructure modeling, this, in fact, does not happen.<\/p>\n

At least, not always; in fact,\u00a0there are many configurations and\/or resources that cannot be specified in an AWS CloudFormation template.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To date, for example, it is not possible to:<\/p>\n