stackmanager

Utility to manage CloudFormation stacks based upon a Template (either local or in S3) and a YAML configuration file.

Uses ChangeSets to create or update CloudFormation stacks, allowing the ChangeSets to either be automatically applied or applied later (e.g. during a later phase of a build pipeline after review of the ChangeSet).

There are also some utility methods for building a lambda file zip and uploading files to S3. These are to provide some of the AWS SAM CLI functionality while fitting into the workflow and configuration style of stackmanager.

Installation

stackmanager is available as a Python package or a Docker image based upon Debian.

The Docker image can be used to run container jobs in Azure DevOps pipelines and potentially other CI/CD products.

Configuration

The configuration file can either be a single YAML document containing the configuration for a stack for a specific environment and region, or can contain multiple documents for different deployments of that stack to different environments and regions.

Single Environment

The configuration combines together the different values that are typically passed to the CloudFormation command line when creating or updating a CloudFormation stack.

Environment: dev
StackName: "{{ EnvironmentCode }}-StackManager-Integration"
Region: us-east-1
Parameters:
  Environment: "{{ Environment }}"
Tags:
  Application: StackManager
  Environment: "{{ Environment }}"
Variables:
  EnvironmentCode: d
Template: integration/template.yaml
Capabilities:
  - CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

The configuration file makes use of Jinja2 templating to perform replacements into the StackName, Parameters and Tags values using the Environment and Region values and any values from the Variables section.

It's also possible to make use of Jinja2 filters, for example to lowercase the Environment to pass into a parameter that is going to be used where it's required to be lowercase (e.g. in forming a bucket name):

Parameters:
  LowerEnvironment: "{{ Environment|lower() }}" 

Multiple Environments

---
Environment: all
StackName: "{{ EnvironmentCode }}-StackManager-Integration-{{ Region }}"
Parameters:
  Environment: "{{ Environment }}"
Tags:
  Application: StackManager
  Environment: "{{ Environment }}"
Template: integration/template.yaml
---
Environment: dev
Region: us-east-1
Variables:
  EnvironmentCode: d
---
Environment: dev
Region: us-east-2
Variables:
  EnvironmentCode: d
---
Environment: prod
Region: us-east-1
Tags:
  CostCenter: 200
Variables:
  EnvironmentCode: p
---
Environment: prod
Region: us-east-2
Tags:
  CostCenter: 300
Variables:
  EnvironmentCode: p

A multi-environment configuration can be used to combine all the configurations for different versions of a stack across environments and regions, using inheritance from a specially named all Environment to avoid the need to repeat values.

Because of the special handling of the all Environment, it's not possible to deploy an environment named all.

Supported Configuration Values

Name	Required	Templated	Notes
Environment	Yes	No	Name of environment to be deployed
Region	Yes	No	AWS region (e.g. us-east-1) - not required for the 'all' environment
Parameters	No	Yes	Each parameter value is templated, and parameters are inherited from 'all'
Tags	No	Yes	Each tag value is templated, and tags are inherited from 'all'
Variables	No	No	Values are inherited from all and then substituted into StackName, Parameters and Tags
Capabilities	No	No	List of capabilities (e.g. CAPABILITY_IAM)
Template	No	No	Can be supplied on command line, so not required in configuration
TerminationProtection	No	No	Termination Protection defaults to True

In 1.2.0, Termination Protection support was added and defaults to True, set to False in config.yml to disable. When deleting a stack using stackmanager, termination protection will be automatically disabled.

Usage

Stackmanager has the following commands:

• deploy - Create or update a CloudFormation stack for a specific environment/region using a ChangeSet. By default exits after creating the changeset, but can --auto-apply.
• apply - Apply a previously created ChangeSet
• reject - Reject a previously created ChangeSet
• delete - Delete an existing CloudFormation stack
• status - Print current status of Stack
• get-output - Get Stack Output value
• upload - Uploads a local file to S3. Utility method to prevent the need to use the AWS CLI or other tools.
• build-lambda - Build a Lambda zip file using aws-lambda-builders.

Usage: stackmanager [OPTIONS] COMMAND1 [ARGS]... [COMMAND2 [ARGS]...]...

  Utility for managing CloudFormation stacks.

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT  AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -r, --region TEXT   AWS Region to deploy
  --help              Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  apply         Apply a CloudFormation ChangeSet to create or update a CloudFormation stack.
  build-lambda  Build a Lambda function zip file.
  delete        Delete a CloudFormation stack.
  deploy        Create or update a CloudFormation stack using ChangeSets.
  get-output    Returns matching Output value if it exists.
  reject        Reject a CloudFormation ChangeSet, deleting the stack if in REVIEW_IN_PROGRESS status and has no other ChangeSets.
  status        Print current status of Stack.
  upload        Uploads a File to S3.

The --profile and --region options can be set either on the root stackmanager command, or on the nested commands.

Multiple commands can be chained together, and the sequence of build-lambda -> upload -> deploy can be used to deploy Lambda functions.

The path to the Zip file generated by build-lambda is passed as the --filename option on upload, and the S3 bucket and key from the upload command is passed as parameters to the deploy command.

deploy

Usage: stackmanager deploy [OPTIONS]

  Create or update a CloudFormation stack using ChangeSets.

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT              AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -c, --config-file TEXT          YAML Configuration file  [required]
  -e, --environment TEXT          Environment to deploy  [required]
  -r, --region TEXT               AWS Region to deploy  [required]
  -t, --template TEXT             Override template
  --parameter TEXT...             Override a parameter, can be specified multiple times
  --parameter-use-previous TEXT   Use previous value for a parameter, can be specified multiple times
  --change-set-name TEXT          Custom ChangeSet name
  --existing-changes [ALLOW|FAILED_ONLY|DISALLOW]
                                  Whether deployment is allowed when there are
                                  existing ChangeSets
  --auto-apply                    Automatically apply created ChangeSet
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

The --parameter argument can be supplied multiple times and requires two values (the key and the value), for example:

stackmanager deploy --parameter LambdaBucket mybucket --parameter LambdaKey mykey ...

The --parameter-use-previous argument can be supplied multiple times and requires one value (the name of the parameter), and is typically used when a previous run has supplied a --parameter argument either as an override or for a value not included in the configuration.

If --parameter and --parameter-use-previous are specified for the same parameter name, the --parameter value will be used.

Existing ChangeSets, if any, will be listed for the stack and depending upon the --existing-changes value (which defaults to ALLOW) this may prevent the deployment. If set to FAILED_ONLY then failed ChangeSets will not prevent a new change from being created, but if set to DISALLOW any existing ChangeSets will prevent new changes.

apply

Usage: stackmanager apply [OPTIONS]

  Apply a CloudFormation ChangeSet to create or update a CloudFormation stack. 
  If using --change-set-name then --config --environment are --region are required. 
  If using --change-set-id no other values are required (although --profile and --region may be needed).

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT      AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -c, --config-file TEXT  YAML Configuration file
  -e, --environment TEXT  Environment to deploy
  -r, --region TEXT       AWS Region to deploy
  --change-set-name TEXT  Name of ChangeSet to apply
  --change-set-id TEXT    Identifier of ChangeSet to apply
  --help                  Show this message and exit.

(since 0.7.0) Using --change-set-id allows you to apply a ChangeSet without loading the configuration. This can be useful in a CI/CD pipeline as this may avoid the need to checkout the repository for applying a change.

reject

Usage: stackmanager reject [OPTIONS]

  Reject a CloudFormation ChangeSet, deleting the stack if in REVIEW_IN_PROGRESS status and has no other ChangeSets. 
  If using --change-set-name then --config --environment are --region are required. 
  If using --change-set-id no other values are required (although --profile and --region may be needed).

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT      AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -c, --config-file TEXT  YAML Configuration file
  -e, --environment TEXT  Environment for stack
  -r, --region TEXT       AWS Region for stack
  --change-set-name TEXT  Name of ChangeSet to reject
  --change-set-id TEXT    Identifier of ChangeSet to reject
  --help                  Show this message and exit.

delete

Usage: stackmanager delete [OPTIONS]

  Delete a CloudFormation stack.

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT       AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -c, --config-file TEXT   YAML Configuration file  [required]
  -e, --environment TEXT   Environment to deploy  [required]
  -r, --region TEXT        AWS Region to deploy  [required]
  --retain-resources TEXT  Logical Ids of resources to retain
  -Y, --yes                Confirm the action without prompting.
  --help                   Show this message and exit.

Since 1.2.0 deletion requires a confirmation, either interactively or by supplying the -Y/--yes option. Deletion also now automatically removes termination protection (the logic being that you've confirmed you want to delete).

get-output

Sometimes it's necessary to get an output value from a stack to pass to something else. While SSM parameter store or CloudFormation exports are a preferred way to pass values between stacks, this can be used to pass a value from one stackmanager execution to another (e.g. when they are in different regions):

myoutput=$(stackmanger get-output -e dev -r us-east-1 -c mystack.yml -o OutputKey)

The output value will be the only value written to stdout.

If the stack does not exist, or a matching output does not exist an error will be printed to stderr and the return code will be -1.

Usage: stackmanager get-output [OPTIONS]

  Returns matching Output value if it exists.

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT      AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -c, --config-file TEXT  YAML Configuration file  [required]
  -e, --environment TEXT  Environment to deploy  [required]
  -r, --region TEXT       AWS Region to deploy
  -o, --output-key TEXT   Output Key  [required]
  --help                  Show this message and exit.

status

Usage: stackmanager status [OPTIONS]

  Print current status of Stack. Includes pending ChangeSets and recent events.

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT      AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -c, --config-file TEXT  YAML Configuration file  [required]
  -e, --environment TEXT  Environment to deploy  [required]
  -r, --region TEXT       AWS Region to deploy  [required]
  --event-days INTEGER    Number of days of events to include in output
  --help                  Show this message and exit.

upload

Usage: stackmanager upload [OPTIONS]

  Uploads a File to S3. This might be a large CloudFormation template, or a
  Lambda zip file. Can be chained into the deploy command where it pre-populates 
  parameters for the uploaded file.

Options:
  -p, --profile TEXT       AWS Profile, will use default or environment variables if not specified
  -r, --region TEXT        AWS Region to upload to
  -f, --filename TEXT      File to upload
  -b, --bucket TEXT        Bucket to upload to  [required]
  -k, --key TEXT           Key to upload to  [required]
  --bucket-parameter TEXT  CloudFormation parameter for Bucket
  --key-parameter TEXT     CloudFormation parameter for Key
  --help                   Show this message and exit.

build-lambda

Usage: stackmanager build-lambda [OPTIONS]

  Build a Lambda function zip file. Can be chained into the upload command
  where it pre-populates the --filename option.

Options:
  -s, --source-dir TEXT  Source directory  [required]
  -o, --output-dir TEXT  Output directory  [required]
  --runtime TEXT         Lambda Runtime  [required]
  --archive-name TEXT    Override archive name (defaults to source directory name)
  --help                 Show this message and exit.

CI/CD Pipeline support

Azure DevOps

Stackmanager will automatically detect when it is running in an Azure DevOps pipeline by looking for the SYSTEM_TEAMPROJECTID environment variable.

It will print ##vso strings under the following circumstances:

• deploy has created a ChangeSet and it has not been auto-applied:
  Sets two variables for the ChangeSet name and identifier. These default to change_set_name and change_set_id (since 0.7.0) but the name of these variables can be changed with the CHANGE_SET_NAME_VARIABLE and CHANGE_SET_ID_VARIABLE environment variables. These values can be used with the apply command in a later stage.
• deploy has created a ChangeSet but it contains no changes:
  This logs a warning (##vso[task.logissue]) and sets the status to SucceededWithIssues (##vso[task.complete]) allowing following steps/jobs/stages to be skipped by checking for the SucceededStatus in a condition.
• deploy or apply fails when applying a ChangeSet:
  This logs an error (##vso[task.logissue])

Additional Configuration

Future plans are to have a global configuration or a larger set of environment variables that can configure behavior.

By default displayed timestamps (e.g. for CloudFormation events) will be displayed in the detected local timezone including the timezone offset. If you specify a timezone using the STACKMANAGER_TIMEZONE environment variable then this will be used instead and the timezone offset will be omitted. Olson Timezones (e.g. America/New_York) are supported.