AWS Cloud Development Kit Core Library
This library includes the basic building blocks of the AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK). It defines the core classes that are used in the rest of the
AWS Construct Library.
See the AWS CDK Developer
Guide for
information of most of the capabilities of this library. The rest of this
README will only cover topics not already covered in the Developer Guide.
Nested Stacks
Nested stacks are stacks created as part of other stacks. You create a nested stack within another stack by using the NestedStack
construct.
As your infrastructure grows, common patterns can emerge in which you declare the same components in multiple templates. You can separate out these common components and create dedicated templates for them. Then use the resource in your template to reference other templates, creating nested stacks.
For example, assume that you have a load balancer configuration that you use for most of your stacks. Instead of copying and pasting the same configurations into your templates, you can create a dedicated template for the load balancer. Then, you just use the resource to reference that template from within other templates.
The following example will define a single top-level stack that contains two nested stacks: each one with a single Amazon S3 bucket:
import { Stack, Construct, StackProps } from '@aws-cdk/core';
import cfn = require('@aws-cdk/aws-cloudformation');
import s3 = require('@aws-cdk/aws-s3');
class MyNestedStack extends cfn.NestedStack {
constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props?: cfn.NestedStackProps) {
super(scope, id, props);
new s3.Bucket(this, 'NestedBucket');
}
}
class MyParentStack extends Stack {
constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props?: StackProps) {
super(scope, id, props);
new MyNestedStack(this, 'Nested1');
new MyNestedStack(this, 'Nested2');
}
}
Resources references across nested/parent boundaries (even with multiple levels of nesting) will be wired by the AWS CDK
through CloudFormation parameters and outputs. When a resource from a parent stack is referenced by a nested stack,
a CloudFormation parameter will automatically be added to the nested stack and assigned from the parent; when a resource
from a nested stack is referenced by a parent stack, a CloudFormation output will be automatically be added to the
nested stack and referenced using Fn::GetAtt "Outputs.Xxx"
from the parent.
Nested stacks also support the use of Docker image and file assets.
Durations
To make specifications of time intervals unambiguous, a single class called
Duration
is used throughout the AWS Construct Library by all constructs
that that take a time interval as a parameter (be it for a timeout, a
rate, or something else).
An instance of Duration is constructed by using one of the static factory
methods on it:
Duration.seconds(300)
Duration.minutes(5)
Duration.hours(1)
Duration.days(7)
Duration.parse('PT5M')
Size (Digital Information Quantity)
To make specification of digital storage quantities unambiguous, a class called
Size
is available.
An instance of Size
is initialized through one of its static factory methods:
Size.kibibytes(200)
Size.mebibytes(5)
Size.gibibytes(40)
Size.tebibytes(200)
Size.pebibytes(3)
Instances of Size
created with one of the units can be converted into others.
By default, conversion to a higher unit will fail if the conversion does not produce
a whole number. This can be overridden by unsetting integral
property.
Size.mebibytes(2).toKibibytes()
Size.kibibytes(2050).toMebibyte({ integral: false })
Secrets
To help avoid accidental storage of secrets as plain text, we use the SecretValue
type to
represent secrets. Any construct that takes a value that should be a secret (such as
a password or an access key) will take a parameter of type SecretValue
.
The best practice is to store secrets in AWS Secrets Manager and reference them using SecretValue.secretsManager
:
const secret = SecretValue.secretsManager('secretId', {
jsonField: 'password'
versionId: 'id'
versionStage: 'stage'
});
Using AWS Secrets Manager is the recommended way to reference secrets in a CDK app.
SecretValue
also supports the following secret sources:
SecretValue.plainText(secret)
: stores the secret as plain text in your app and the resulting template (not recommended).SecretValue.ssmSecure(param, version)
: refers to a secret stored as a SecureString in the SSM Parameter Store.SecretValue.cfnParameter(param)
: refers to a secret passed through a CloudFormation parameter (must have NoEcho: true
).SecretValue.cfnDynamicReference(dynref)
: refers to a secret described by a CloudFormation dynamic reference (used by ssmSecure
and secretsManager
).
ARN manipulation
Sometimes you will need to put together or pick apart Amazon Resource Names
(ARNs). The functions stack.formatArn()
and stack.parseArn()
exist for
this purpose.
formatArn()
can be used to build an ARN from components. It will automatically
use the region and account of the stack you're calling it on:
stack.formatArn({
service: 'lambda',
resource: 'function',
sep: ':',
resourceName: 'MyFunction'
});
parseArn()
can be used to get a single component from an ARN. parseArn()
will correctly deal with both literal ARNs and deploy-time values (tokens),
but in case of a deploy-time value be aware that the result will be another
deploy-time value which cannot be inspected in the CDK application.
const arnComponents = stack.parseArn(arn, ':');
const functionName = arnComponents.resourceName;
Note that depending on the service, the resource separator can be either
:
or /
, and the resource name can be either the 6th or 7th
component in the ARN. When using these functions, you will need to know
the format of the ARN you are dealing with.
For an exhaustive list of ARN formats used in AWS, see AWS ARNs and
Namespaces
in the AWS General Reference.
Dependencies
Construct Dependencies
Sometimes AWS resources depend on other resources, and the creation of one
resource must be completed before the next one can be started.
In general, CloudFormation will correctly infer the dependency relationship
between resources based on the property values that are used. In the cases where
it doesn't, the AWS Construct Library will add the dependency relationship for
you.
If you need to add an ordering dependency that is not automatically inferred,
you do so by adding a dependency relationship using
constructA.node.addDependency(constructB)
. This will add a dependency
relationship between all resources in the scope of constructA
and all
resources in the scope of constructB
.
If you want a single object to represent a set of constructs that are not
necessarily in the same scope, you can use a ConcreteDependable
. The
following creates a single object that represents a dependency on two
constructs, constructB
and constructC
:
const bAndC = new ConcreteDependable();
bAndC.add(constructB);
bAndC.add(constructC);
constructA.node.addDependency(bAndC);
Stack Dependencies
Two different stack instances can have a dependency on one another. This
happens when an resource from one stack is referenced in another stack. In
that case, CDK records the cross-stack referencing of resources,
automatically produces the right CloudFormation primitives, and adds a
dependency between the two stacks. You can also manually add a dependency
between two stacks by using the stackA.addDependency(stackB)
method.
A stack dependency has the following implications:
- Cyclic dependencies are not allowed, so if
stackA
is using resources from
stackB
, the reverse is not possible anymore. - Stacks with dependencies between them are treated specially by the CDK
toolkit:
- If
stackA
depends on stackB
, running cdk deploy stackA
will also
automatically deploy stackB
. stackB
's deployment will be performed before stackA
's deployment.
Custom Resources
Custom Resources are CloudFormation resources that are implemented by arbitrary
user code. They can do arbitrary lookups or modifications during a
CloudFormation deployment.
To define a custom resource, use the CustomResource
construct:
import { CustomResource } from '@aws-cdk/core';
new CustomResource(this, 'MyMagicalResource', {
resourceType: 'Custom::MyCustomResource',
properties: {
Property1: 'foo',
Property2: 'bar'
},
serviceToken: 'ARN'
});
Custom Resource Providers
Custom resources are backed by a custom resource provider which can be
implemented in one of the following ways. The following table compares the
various provider types (ordered from low-level to high-level):
Legend:
- Compute type: which type of compute can is used to execute the handler.
- Error Handling: whether errors thrown by handler code are automatically
trapped and a FAILED response is submitted to CloudFormation. If this is
"Manual", developers must take care of trapping errors. Otherwise, events
could cause stacks to hang.
- Submit to CloudFormation: whether the framework takes care of submitting
SUCCESS/FAILED responses to CloudFormation through the event's response URL.
- Max Timeout: maximum allows/possible timeout.
- Language: which programming languages can be used to implement handlers.
- Footprint: how many resources are used by the provider framework itself.
A NOTE ABOUT SINGLETONS
When defining resources for a custom resource provider, you will likely want to
define them as a stack singleton so that only a single instance of the
provider is created in your stack and which is used by all custom resources of
that type.
Here is a basic pattern for defining stack singletons in the CDK. The following
examples ensures that only a single SNS topic is defined:
function getOrCreate(scope: Construct): sns.Topic {
const stack = Stack.of(this);
const uniqueid = 'GloballyUniqueIdForSingleton';
return stack.node.tryFindChild(uniqueid) as sns.Topic ?? new sns.Topic(stack, uniqueid);
}
Amazon SNS Topic
Every time a resource event occurs (CREATE/UPDATE/DELETE), an SNS notification
is sent to the SNS topic. Users must process these notifications (e.g. through a
fleet of worker hosts) and submit success/failure responses to the
CloudFormation service.
Set serviceToken
to topic.topicArn
in order to use this provider:
import * as sns from '@aws-cdk/aws-sns';
import { CustomResource } from '@aws-cdk/core';
const topic = new sns.Topic(this, 'MyProvider');
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
serviceToken: topic.topicArn
});
AWS Lambda Function
An AWS lambda function is called directly by CloudFormation for all resource
events. The handler must take care of explicitly submitting a success/failure
response to the CloudFormation service and handle various error cases.
Set serviceToken
to lambda.functionArn
to use this provider:
import * as lambda from '@aws-cdk/aws-lambda';
import { CustomResource } from '@aws-cdk/core';
const fn = new lambda.Function(this, 'MyProvider');
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
serviceToken: lambda.functionArn
});
The core.CustomResourceProvider
class
The class @aws-cdk/core.CustomResourceProvider
offers a basic low-level
framework designed to implement simple and slim custom resource providers. It
currently only supports Node.js-based user handlers, and it does not have
support for asynchronous waiting (handler cannot exceed the 15min lambda
timeout).
The provider has a built-in singleton method which uses the resource type as a
stack-unique identifier and returns the service token:
const serviceToken = CustomResourceProvider.getOrCreate(this, 'Custom::MyCustomResourceType', {
codeDirectory: `${__dirname}/my-handler`,
runtime: CustomResourceProviderRuntime.NODEJS_12,
});
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
resourceType: 'Custom::MyCustomResourceType',
serviceToken: serviceToken
});
The directory (my-handler
in the above example) must include an index.js
file. It cannot import
external dependencies or files outside this directory. It must export an async
function named handler
. This function accepts the CloudFormation resource
event object and returns an object with the following structure:
exports.handler = async function(event) {
const id = event.PhysicalResourceId;
const props = event.ResourceProperties;
const oldProps = event.OldResourceProperties;
switch (event.RequestType) {
case "Create":
case "Update":
throw new Error('Failed!');
case "Delete":
}
return {
PhysicalResourceId: "REF",
Data: {
Att1: "BAR",
Att2: "BAZ"
},
Reason: "User-visible message",
NoEcho: true
};
}
Here is an complete example of a custom resource that summarizes two numbers:
sum-handler/index.js
:
exports.handler = async e => {
return {
Data: {
Result: e.ResourceProperties.lhs + e.ResourceProperties.rhs
}
};
};
sum.ts
:
export interface SumProps {
readonly lhs: number;
readonly rhs: number;
}
export class Sum extends Construct {
public readonly result: number;
constructor(scope: Construct, id: string, props: SumProps) {
super(scope, id);
const resourceType = 'Custom::Sum';
const serviceToken = CustomResourceProvider.getOrCreate(this, resourceType, {
codeDirectory: `${__dirname}/sum-handler`,
runtime: CustomResourceProviderRuntime.NODEJS_12,
});
const resource = new CustomResource(this, 'Resource', {
resourceType: resourceType,
serviceToken: serviceToken,
properties: {
lhs: props.lhs,
rhs: props.rhs
}
});
this.result = Token.asNumber(resource.getAtt('Result'));
}
}
Usage will look like this:
const sum = new Sum(this, 'MySum', { lhs: 40, rhs: 2 });
new CfnOutput(this, 'Result', { value: sum.result });
The Custom Resource Provider Framework
The @aws-cdk/custom-resource
module includes an advanced framework for
implementing custom resource providers.
Handlers are implemented as AWS Lambda functions, which means that they can be
implemented in any Lambda-supported runtime. Furthermore, this provider has an
asynchronous mode, which means that users can provide an isComplete
lambda
function which is called periodically until the operation is complete. This
allows implementing providers that can take up to two hours to stabilize.
Set serviceToken
to provider.serviceToken
to use this type of provider:
import { Provider } from 'custom-resources';
const provider = new Provider(this, 'MyProvider', {
onEventHandler: onEventLambdaFunction,
isCompleteHandler: isCompleteLambdaFunction
});
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
serviceToken: provider.serviceToken
});
See the documentation for more details.
Amazon SNS Topic
Every time a resource event occurs (CREATE/UPDATE/DELETE), an SNS notification
is sent to the SNS topic. Users must process these notifications (e.g. through a
fleet of worker hosts) and submit success/failure responses to the
CloudFormation service.
Set serviceToken
to topic.topicArn
in order to use this provider:
import * as sns from '@aws-cdk/aws-sns';
import { CustomResource } from '@aws-cdk/core';
const topic = new sns.Topic(this, 'MyProvider');
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
serviceToken: topic.topicArn
});
AWS Lambda Function
An AWS lambda function is called directly by CloudFormation for all resource
events. The handler must take care of explicitly submitting a success/failure
response to the CloudFormation service and handle various error cases.
Set serviceToken
to lambda.functionArn
to use this provider:
import * as lambda from '@aws-cdk/aws-lambda';
import { CustomResource } from '@aws-cdk/core';
const fn = new lambda.Function(this, 'MyProvider');
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
serviceToken: lambda.functionArn
});
The Custom Resource Provider Framework
The @aws-cdk/custom-resource
module includes an advanced framework for
implementing custom resource providers.
Handlers are implemented as AWS Lambda functions, which means that they can be
implemented in any Lambda-supported runtime. Furthermore, this provider has an
asynchronous mode, which means that users can provide an isComplete
lambda
function which is called periodically until the operation is complete. This
allows implementing providers that can take up to two hours to stabilize.
Set serviceToken
to provider.serviceToken
to use this provider:
import { Provider } from 'custom-resources';
const provider = new Provider(this, 'MyProvider', {
onEventHandler: onEventLambdaFunction,
isCompleteHandler: isCompleteLambdaFunction
});
new CustomResource(this, 'MyResource', {
serviceToken: provider.serviceToken
});
AWS CloudFormation features
A CDK stack synthesizes to an AWS CloudFormation Template. This section
explains how this module allows users to access low-level CloudFormation
features when needed.
Stack Outputs
CloudFormation stack outputs and exports are created using
the CfnOutput
class:
new CfnOutput(this, 'OutputName', {
value: bucket.bucketName,
description: 'The name of an S3 bucket',
exportName: 'TheAwesomeBucket',
});
Parameters
CloudFormation templates support the use of Parameters to
customize a template. They enable CloudFormation users to input custom values to
a template each time a stack is created or updated. While the CDK design
philosophy favors using build-time parameterization, users may need to use
CloudFormation in a number of cases (for example, when migrating an existing
stack to the AWS CDK).
Template parameters can be added to a stack by using the CfnParameter
class:
new CfnParameter(this, 'MyParameter', {
type: 'Number',
default: 1337,
});
The value of parameters can then be obtained using one of the value
methods.
As parameters are only resolved at deployment time, the values obtained are
placeholder tokens for the real value (Token.isUnresolved()
would return true
for those):
const param = new CfnParameter(this, 'ParameterName', { });
param.valueAsString;
param.valueAsNumber;
param.valueAsList;
Pseudo Parameters
CloudFormation supports a number of pseudo parameters,
which resolve to useful values at deployment time. CloudFormation pseudo
parameters can be obtained from static members of the Aws
class.
It is generally recommended to access pseudo parameters from the scope's stack
instead, which guarantees the values produced are qualifying the designated
stack, which is essential in cases where resources are shared cross-stack:
const stack = Stack.of(this);
stack.account;
stack.region;
stack.partition;
Resource Options
CloudFormation resources can also specify resource
attributes. The CfnResource
class allows
accessing those through the cfnOptions
property:
const rawBucket = new s3.CfnBucket(this, 'Bucket', { });
const rawBucket = bucket.node.defaultChild as s3.CfnBucket;
rawBucket.cfnOptions.condition = new CfnCondition(this, 'EnableBucket', { });
rawBucket.cfnOptions.metadata = {
metadataKey: 'MetadataValue',
};
Resource dependencies (the DependsOn
attribute) is modified using the
cfnResource.addDependsOn
method:
const resourceA = new CfnResource(this, 'ResourceA', { });
const resourceB = new CfnResource(this, 'ResourceB', { });
resourceB.addDependsOn(resourceA);
Intrinsic Functions and Condition Expressions
CloudFormation supports intrinsic functions. These functions
can be accessed from the Fn
class, which provides type-safe methods for each
intrinsic function as well as condition expressions:
Fn.base64('SGVsbG8gQ0RLIQo=');
const environmentParameter = new CfnParameter(this, 'Environment');
Fn.conditionAnd(
Fn.conditionEquals('Production', environmentParameter),
Fn.conditionNot(Fn.conditionEquals('us-east-1', Aws.REGION)),
);
When working with deploy-time values (those for which Token.isUnresolved
returns true
), idiomatic conditionals from the programming language cannot be
used (the value will not be known until deployment time). When conditional logic
needs to be expressed with un-resolved values, it is necessary to use
CloudFormation conditions by means of the CfnCondition
class:
const environmentParameter = new CfnParameter(this, 'Environment');
const isProd = new CfnCondition(this, 'IsProduction', {
expression: Fn.conditionEquals('Production', environmentParameter),
});
const stage = Fn.conditionIf(isProd.logicalId, 'Beta', 'Prod').toString();
const bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'Bucket');
const cfnBucket = bucket.node.defaultChild as s3.CfnBucket;
cfnBucket.cfnOptions.condition = isProd;
Mappings
CloudFormation mappings are created and queried using the
CfnMappings
class:
const mapping = new CfnMapping(this, 'MappingTable', {
mapping: {
regionName: {
'us-east-1': 'US East (N. Virginia)',
'us-east-2': 'US East (Ohio)',
},
}
});
mapping.findInMap('regionName', Aws.REGION);
Dynamic References
CloudFormation supports dynamically resolving values
for SSM parameters (including secure strings) and Secrets Manager. Encoding such
references is done using the CfnDynamicReference
class:
new CfnDynamicReference(this, 'SecureStringValue', {
service: CfnDynamicReferenceService.SECRETS_MANAGER,
referenceKey: 'secret-id:secret-string:json-key:version-stage:version-id',
});
Template Options & Transform
CloudFormation templates support a number of options, including which Macros or
Transforms to use when deploying the stack. Those can be
configured using the stack.templateOptions
property:
const stack = new Stack(app, 'StackName');
stack.templateOptions.description = 'This will appear in the AWS console';
stack.templateOptions.transforms = ['AWS::Serverless-2016-10-31'];
stack.templateOptions.metadata = {
metadataKey: 'MetadataValue',
};
Emitting Raw Resources
The CfnResource
class allows emitting arbitrary entries in the
Resources section of the CloudFormation template.
new CfnResource(this, 'ResourceId', {
type: 'AWS::S3::Bucket',
properties: {
BucketName: 'bucket-name'
},
});
As for any other resource, the logical ID in the CloudFormation template will be
generated by the AWS CDK, but the type and properties will be copied verbatim in
the synthesized template.
Including raw CloudFormation template fragments
When migrating a CloudFormation stack to the AWS CDK, it can be useful to
include fragments of an existing template verbatim in the synthesized template.
This can be achieved using the CfnInclude
class.
new CfnInclude(this, 'ID', {
template: {
Resources: {
Bucket: {
Type: 'AWS::S3::Bucket',
Properties: {
BucketName: 'my-shiny-bucket'
}
}
}
},
});
Termination Protection
You can prevent a stack from being accidentally deleted by enabling termination
protection on the stack. If a user attempts to delete a stack with termination
protection enabled, the deletion fails and the stack--including its status--remains
unchanged. Enabling or disabling termination protection on a stack sets it for any
nested stacks belonging to that stack as well. You can enable termination protection
on a stack by setting the terminationProtection
prop to true
.
const stack = new Stack(app, 'StackName', {
terminationProtection: true,
});
By default, termination protection is disabled.
CfnJson
CfnJson
allows you to postpone the resolution of a JSON blob from
deployment-time. This is useful in cases where the CloudFormation JSON template
cannot express a certain value.
A common example is to use CfnJson
in order to render a JSON map which needs
to use intrinsic functions in keys. Since JSON map keys must be strings, it is
impossible to use intrinsics in keys and CfnJson
can help.
The following example defines an IAM role which can only be assumed by
principals that are tagged with a specific tag.
const tagParam = new CfnParameter(this, 'TagName');
const stringEquals = new CfnJson(this, 'ConditionJson', {
value: {
[`aws:PrincipalTag/${tagParam.valueAsString}`]: true
},
});
const principal = new AccountRootPrincipal().withConditions({
StringEquals: stringEquals,
});
new Role(this, 'MyRole', { assumedBy: principal });
Explanation: since in this example we pass the tag name through a parameter, it
can only be resolved during deployment. The resolved value can be represented in
the template through a { "Ref": "TagName" }
. However, since we want to use
this value inside a aws:PrincipalTag/TAG-NAME
IAM operator, we need it in the key of a StringEquals
condition. JSON keys
must be strings, so to circumvent this limitation, we use CfnJson
to "delay" the rendition of this template section to deploy-time. This means
that the value of StringEquals
in the template will be { "Fn::GetAtt": [ "ConditionJson", "Value" ] }
, and will only "expand" to the operator we synthesized during deployment.