Creating a stack - AWS CloudFormation

Creating a stack

To create a stack you run the aws cloudformation create-stack command. You must provide the stack name, the location of a valid template, and any input parameters.

Parameters are separated with a space and the key names are case sensitive. If you mistype a parameter key name when you run aws cloudformation create-stack, AWS CloudFormation doesn't create the stack and reports that the template doesn't contain that parameter.

Note

If you specify a local template file, AWS CloudFormation uploads it to an Amazon S3 bucket in your AWS account. AWS CloudFormation creates a unique bucket for each region in which you upload a template file. The buckets are accessible to anyone with Amazon S3 permissions in your AWS account. If an AWS CloudFormation-created bucket already exists, the template is added to that bucket.

You can use your own bucket and manage its permissions by manually uploading templates to Amazon S3. Then whenever you create or update a stack, specify the Amazon S3 URL of a template file.

By default, aws cloudformation describe-stacks returns parameter values. To prevent sensitive parameter values such as passwords from being returned, include a NoEcho property set to TRUE in your AWS CloudFormation template.

Important

Using the NoEcho attribute does not mask any information stored in the following:

  • The Metadata template section. CloudFormation does not transform, modify, or redact any information you include in the Metadata section. For more information, see Metadata.

  • The Outputs template section. For more information, see Outputs.

  • The Metadata attribute of a resource definition. For more information, Metadata attribute.

We strongly recommend you do not use these mechanisms to include sensitive information, such as passwords or secrets.

Important

Rather than embedding sensitive information directly in your AWS CloudFormation templates, we recommend you use dynamic parameters in the stack template to reference sensitive information that is stored and managed outside of CloudFormation, such as in the AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store or AWS Secrets Manager.

For more information, see the Do not embed credentials in your templates best practice.

The following example creates the myteststack stack: 

PROMPT> aws cloudformation create-stack --stack-name myteststack --template-body file:///home/testuser/mytemplate.json --parameters ParameterKey=Parm1,ParameterValue=test1 ParameterKey=Parm2,ParameterValue=test2
{
  "StackId" : "arn:aws:cloudformation:us-west-2:123456789012:stack/myteststack/330b0120-1771-11e4-af37-50ba1b98bea6"
}