1

00:00:11,259  -->  00:00:16,599
Welcome back to BackSpace Academy. Now
from our introduction to AWS we should

2

00:00:16,599  -->  00:00:21,009
already know that cloudformation uses
text files that we create called

3

00:00:21,009  -->  00:00:27,429
templates and it interprets those to
deploy resources across the AWS cloud

4

00:00:27,429  -->  00:00:30,160
we're going to have a look at what one
of these templates looks like the

5

00:00:30,160  -->  00:00:34,690
structure and the sections of them, then
we'll look at the stacksets service

6

00:00:34,690  -->  00:00:39,309
which allows you to use a cloudformation template to launch across

7

00:00:39,309  -->  00:00:44,649
multiple AWS accounts which is great if
you're a large organization. We'll look at

8

00:00:44,649  -->  00:00:49,660
the cloudformer tool which can look at
your existing infrastructure and create

9

00:00:49,660  -->  00:00:55,809
a template from that which can then be
used to create a replica of that infrastructure

10

00:00:55,809  -->  00:01:00,699
and finally we'll look at
the cloudformation designer which is a

11

00:01:00,699  -->  00:01:07,149
graphical user interface to the cloudformation service. A cloudformation

12

00:01:07,149  -->  00:01:14,380
template allows you to define in a text
file exactly what your deployment looks

13

00:01:14,380  -->  00:01:20,200
like and the configuration of it and
because it's a text file you can manage

14

00:01:20,200  -->  00:01:25,000
it in the same way that you would manage
code and you would use version control

15

00:01:25,000  -->  00:01:31,509
in the same way so you could use git
subversion or Microsoft sourcesafe to

16

00:01:31,509  -->  00:01:37,390
manage the version control of that text
file. Now those files are in either JSON

17

00:01:37,390  -->  00:01:42,759
or JavaScript object notation or YAML
which stands for yet another markup

18

00:01:42,759  -->  00:01:48,700
language and that template describes all
of the AWS resources that you need to

19

00:01:48,700  -->  00:01:53,770
deploy and then cloudformation will
interpret that text file and will take

20

00:01:53,770  -->  00:01:59,729
care of the provisioning and configuring
of that infrastructure

21

00:01:59,729  -->  00:02:03,869
so this is what a cloudformation
template structure looks like

22

00:02:03,869  -->  00:02:09,539
so with JSON you can see the individual
objects of that template are separated

23

00:02:09,539  -->  00:02:14,790
by brackets and commas
now YAML is similar to if you have ever

24

00:02:14,790  -->  00:02:19,140
coded in CoffeeScript or if you've done
development with Pug or anything like that

25

00:02:19,140  -->  00:02:24,989
the brackets and the commas are
replaced by indentations and so what

26

00:02:24,989  -->  00:02:29,760
that means is that you get really
concise and neat code and as you can see

27

00:02:29,760  -->  00:02:35,280
there the JSON on the Left looks a lot
messier than the YAML on the right so

28

00:02:35,280  -->  00:02:40,140
I'd encourage you to use YAML and in
the exam if you have a question on cloud

29

00:02:40,140  -->  00:02:44,670
formation and they supply a template
they normally provide both a JSON and

30

00:02:44,670  -->  00:02:50,400
the YAML so don't be too concerned about
which one you selected the first section

31

00:02:50,400  -->  00:02:56,100
of a template will be the format version
and that will be the version of the

32

00:02:56,100  -->  00:03:02,370
cloudformation interpreter that the
template conforms to next we'll have a

33

00:03:02,370  -->  00:03:07,590
description and that will always follow
the format version then we could have

34

00:03:07,590  -->  00:03:12,840
metadata which will be JSON objects or
keys that can be put in there in that

35

00:03:12,840  -->  00:03:17,940
template to provide additional info we
have parameters and that allows you to

36

00:03:17,940  -->  00:03:23,579
pass information to the cloudformation
service when the stack is being deployed

37

00:03:23,579  -->  00:03:27,989
for example you might want to get
information from the end user when

38

00:03:27,989  -->  00:03:32,040
they're deploying this stack of what
size of the instance for example that

39

00:03:32,040  -->  00:03:37,260
they would like to deploy with and we
have mappings and they match keys to

40

00:03:37,260  -->  00:03:42,150
corresponding name value pairs for
example you might want to match a

41

00:03:42,150  -->  00:03:48,810
specific ami to a region so if your end
user selects a certain region as a

42

00:03:48,810  -->  00:03:56,040
parameter then we could map that
parameter to a specific ami for that

43

00:03:56,040  -->  00:04:01,889
region transforms are used for two
purposes first of all they can be used

44

00:04:01,889  -->  00:04:07,440
for defining the service application
model to use if you're going to be doing

45

00:04:07,440  -->  00:04:12,330
a service architecture or they can be
used to include

46

00:04:12,330  -->  00:04:17,760
template snippets from cloudformation
to include in your cloudformation

47

00:04:17,760  -->  00:04:22,290
template we also have the output section
and that would declare output values

48

00:04:22,290  -->  00:04:26,550
that can be put out to the screen to the
person that is deploying the stack or

49

00:04:26,550  -->  00:04:32,880
they could actually be outputs to
another cloudformation template and the

50

00:04:32,880  -->  00:04:39,390
resources section is the only compulsory
section of a template so you must have

51

00:04:39,390  -->  00:04:43,860
the resources section and that simply
just declares the resources that you're

52

00:04:43,860  -->  00:04:49,770
going to be deploying and finally we've
got conditions and we can use those to

53

00:04:49,770  -->  00:04:55,050
control when a resource can be created
or a property defined so we've under

54

00:04:55,050  -->  00:05:01,010
certain conditions we don't want that to
occur we can put that in as a condition

55

00:05:01,010  -->  00:05:07,950
cloudformation as stack sets allows you
to create stacks across regions and even

56

00:05:07,950  -->  00:05:13,350
across multiple accounts so that is
great if you're a large enterprise and

57

00:05:13,350  -->  00:05:17,250
you've got organizations across the
globe and they've all got individual

58

00:05:17,250  -->  00:05:21,720
accounts or you might have departments
with individual AWS accounts so that's

59

00:05:21,720  -->  00:05:25,980
great for that situation where you would
have a one controlling administrator

60

00:05:25,980  -->  00:05:31,740
account that would have a stack set and
that could be deployed across all of

61

00:05:31,740  -->  00:05:38,820
your infrastructure company-wide
cloud former is an application that

62

00:05:38,820  -->  00:05:45,180
runs on an ec2 instance and you deploy the
application using cloudformation

63

00:05:45,180  -->  00:05:49,650
When that application has been deployed
the application that's running on that

64

00:05:49,650  -->  00:05:55,380
ec2 instance will look at all of your
infrastructure in your account and it

65

00:05:55,380  -->  00:06:00,180
will compile that for you and then you
can select those resources that are

66

00:06:00,180  -->  00:06:04,740
deployed and it will put them
automatically into a cloudformation

67

00:06:04,740  -->  00:06:09,600
template for you. So that's great because
you can have any existing infrastructure

68

00:06:09,600  -->  00:06:14,490
and you don't want to go to the work of
having to create a cloudformation

69

00:06:14,490  -->  00:06:23,010
template the cloud format all can do it
all for you and finally we've got the

70

00:06:23,010  -->  00:06:28,110
cloudformation designer now that's a
great tool and maybe going on to do the

71

00:06:28,110  -->  00:06:33,150
associate level course we'll get to use
this quite a bit and what it does it's a

72

00:06:33,150  -->  00:06:39,360
visual drag-and-drop interface for
creating cloudformation templates it'll

73

00:06:39,360  -->  00:06:44,760
automatically produce that JSON or Yama
file for you which is really good

74

00:06:44,760  -->  00:06:50,669
because you're going from an
architecture design diagram and in

75

00:06:50,669  -->  00:06:55,140
getting that directly to a template
which is a great workflow to you so I

76

00:06:55,140  -->  00:07:00,390
thoroughly encourage that you get to
learn cloudformation designer it takes

77

00:07:00,390  -->  00:07:05,610
a lot of time to get used to but I think
it's worth the effort so that brings us

78

00:07:05,610  -->  00:07:09,270
to the end of the cloudformation
lecture I hope you've enjoyed it and

79

00:07:09,270  -->  00:07:12,590
I'll see you in the next one