AWS CDK Custom Resources
Provider Framework
AWS CloudFormation custom resources are extension points to the provisioning
engine. When CloudFormation needs to create, update or delete a custom resource,
it sends a lifecycle event notification to a custom resource provider. The provider
handles the event (e.g. creates a resource) and sends back a response to CloudFormation.
The @aws-cdk/custom-resources.Provider
construct is a "mini-framework" for
implementing providers for AWS CloudFormation custom resources. The framework offers a high-level API which makes it easier to implement robust
and powerful custom resources and includes the following capabilities:
- Handles responses to AWS CloudFormation and protects against blocked
deployments
- Validates handler return values to help with correct handler implementation
- Supports asynchronous handlers to enable operations that require a long waiting period for a resource, which can exceed the AWS Lambda timeout
- Implements default behavior for physical resource IDs.
The following code shows how the Provider
construct is used in conjunction
with a CustomResource
and a user-provided AWS Lambda function which implements
the actual handler.
import { CustomResource } from '@aws-cdk/core';
import * as logs from '@aws-cdk/aws-logs';
import * as cr from '@aws-cdk/custom-resources';
const onEvent = new lambda.Function(this, 'MyHandler', { });
const myProvider = new cr.Provider(this, 'MyProvider', {
onEventHandler: onEvent,
isCompleteHandler: isComplete,
logRetention: logs.RetentionDays.ONE_DAY
});
new CustomResource(this, 'Resource1', { serviceToken: myProvider.serviceToken });
new CustomResource(this, 'Resource2', { serviceToken: myProvider.serviceToken });
Providers are implemented through AWS Lambda functions that are triggered by the
provider framework in response to lifecycle events.
At the minimum, users must define the onEvent
handler, which is invoked by the
framework for all resource lifecycle events (Create
, Update
and Delete
)
and returns a result which is then submitted to CloudFormation.
The following example is a skeleton for a Python implementation of onEvent
:
def on_event(event, context):
print(event)
request_type = event['RequestType']
if request_type == 'Create': return on_create(event)
if request_type == 'Update': return on_update(event)
if request_type == 'Delete': return on_delete(event)
raise Exception("Invalid request type: %s" % request_type)
def on_create(event):
props = event["ResourceProperties"]
print("create new resource with props %s" % props)
physical_id = ...
return { 'PhysicalResourceId': physical_id }
def on_update(event):
physical_id = event["PhysicalResourceId"]
props = event["ResourceProperties"]
print("update resource %s with props %s" % (physical_id, props))
def on_delete(event):
physical_id = event["PhysicalResourceId"]
print("delete resource %s" % physical_id)
Users may also provide an additional handler called isComplete
, for cases
where the lifecycle operation cannot be completed immediately. The
isComplete
handler will be retried asynchronously after onEvent
until it
returns IsComplete: true
, or until the total provider timeout has expired.
The following example is a skeleton for a Python implementation of isComplete
:
def is_complete(event, context):
physical_id = event["PhysicalResourceId"]
request_type = event["RequestType"]
is_ready = ...
return { 'IsComplete': is_ready }
Handling Lifecycle Events: onEvent
The user-defined onEvent
AWS Lambda function is invoked whenever a resource
lifecycle event occurs. The function is expected to handle the event and return
a response to the framework that, at least, includes the physical resource ID.
If onEvent
returns successfully, the framework will submit a "SUCCESS" response
to AWS CloudFormation for this resource operation. If the provider is
asynchronous (isCompleteHandler
is
defined), the framework will only submit a response based on the result of
isComplete
.
If onEvent
throws an error, the framework will submit a "FAILED" response to
AWS CloudFormation.
The input event includes the following fields derived from the Custom Resource
Provider Request:
Field | Type | Description |
---|
RequestType | String | The type of lifecycle event: Create , Update or Delete . |
LogicalResourceId | String | The template developer-chosen name (logical ID) of the custom resource in the AWS CloudFormation template. |
PhysicalResourceId | String | This field will only be present for Update and Delete events and includes the value returned in PhysicalResourceId of the previous operation. |
ResourceProperties | JSON | This field contains the properties defined in the template for this custom resource. |
OldResourceProperties | JSON | This field will only be present for Update events and contains the resource properties that were declared previous to the update request. |
ResourceType | String | The resource type defined for this custom resource in the template. A provider may handle any number of custom resource types. |
RequestId | String | A unique ID for the request. |
StackId | String | The ARN that identifies the stack that contains the custom resource. |
The return value from onEvent
must be a JSON object with the following fields:
Field | Type | Required | Description |
---|
PhysicalResourceId | String | No | The allocated/assigned physical ID of the resource. If omitted for Create events, the event's RequestId will be used. For Update , the current physical ID will be used. If a different value is returned, CloudFormation will follow with a subsequent Delete for the previous ID (resource replacement). For Delete , it will always return the current physical resource ID, and if the user returns a different one, an error will occur. |
Data | JSON | No | Resource attributes, which can later be retrieved through Fn::GetAtt on the custom resource object. |
any | any | No | Any other field included in the response will be passed through to isComplete . This can sometimes be useful to pass state between the handlers. |
Asynchronous Providers: isComplete
It is not uncommon for the provisioning of resources to be an asynchronous
operation, which means that the operation does not immediately finish, and we
need to "wait" until the resource stabilizes.
The provider framework makes it easy to implement "waiters" by allowing users to
specify an additional AWS Lambda function in isCompleteHandler
.
The framework will repeatedly invoke the handler every queryInterval
. When
isComplete
returns with IsComplete: true
, the framework will submit a
"SUCCESS" response to AWS CloudFormation. If totalTimeout
expires and the
operation has not yet completed, the framework will submit a "FAILED" response
with the message "Operation timed out".
If an error is thrown, the framework will submit a "FAILED" response to AWS
CloudFormation.
The input event to isComplete
includes all request fields, combined with all
fields returned from onEvent
. If PhysicalResourceId
has not been explicitly
returned from onEvent
, it's value will be calculated based on the heuristics
described above.
The return value must be a JSON object with the following fields:
Field | Type | Required | Description |
---|
IsComplete | Boolean | Yes | Indicates if the operation has finished or not. |
Data | JSON | No | May only be sent if IsComplete is true and includes additional resource attributes. These attributes will be merged with the ones returned from onEvent |
Physical Resource IDs
Every resource in CloudFormation has a physical resource ID. When a resource is
created, the PhysicalResourceId
returned from the Create
operation is stored
by AWS CloudFormation and assigned to the logical ID defined for this resource
in the template. If a Create
operation returns without a PhysicalResourceId
,
the framework will use RequestId
as the default. This is sufficient for
various cases such as "pseudo-resources" which only query data.
For Update
and Delete
operations, the resource event will always include the
current PhysicalResourceId
of the resource.
When an Update
operation occurs, the default behavior is to return the current
physical resource ID. if the onEvent
returns a PhysicalResourceId
which is
different from the current one, AWS CloudFormation will treat this as a
resource replacement, and it will issue a subsequent Delete
operation for
the old resource.
As a rule of thumb, if your custom resource supports configuring a physical name
(e.g. you can specify a BucketName
when you define an AWS::S3::Bucket
), you
must return this name in PhysicalResourceId
and make sure to handle
replacement properly. The S3File
example demonstrates this
through the objectKey
property.
Handling Provider Framework Error
As mentioned above, if any of the user handlers fail (i.e. throws an exception)
or times out (due to their AWS Lambda timing out), the framework will trap these
errors and submit a "FAILED" response to AWS CloudFormation, along with the error
message.
Since errors can occur in multiple places in the provider (framework, onEvent
,
isComplete
), it is important to know that there could situations where a
resource operation fails even though the operation technically succeeded (i.e.
isComplete throws an error).
When AWS CloudFormation receives a "FAILED" response, it will attempt to roll
back the stack to it's last state. This has different meanings for different
lifecycle events:
- If a
Create
event fails, the resource provider framework will automatically
ignore the subsequent Delete
operation issued by AWS CloudFormation. The
framework currently does not support customizing this behavior (see
https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/issues/5524). - If an
Update
event fails, CloudFormation will issue an additional Update
with the previous properties. - If a
Delete
event fails, CloudFormation will abandon this resource.
Provider Framework Execution Policy
Similarly to any AWS Lambda function, if the user-defined handlers require
access to AWS resources, you will have to define these permissions
by calling "grant" methods such as myBucket.grantRead(myHandler)
), using myHandler.addToRolePolicy
or specifying an initialPolicy
when defining the function.
Bear in mind that in most cases, a single provider will be used for multiple
resource instances. This means that the execution policy of the provider must
have the appropriate privileges.
The following example grants the onEvent
handler s3:GetObject*
permissions
to all buckets:
new lambda.Function(this, 'OnEventHandler', {
initialPolicy: [
new iam.PolicyStatement({ actions: [ 's3:GetObject*' ], resources: [ '*' ] })
]
});
Timeouts
Users are responsible to define the timeouts for the AWS Lambda functions for
user-defined handlers. It is recommended not to exceed a 14 minutes timeout,
since all framework functions are configured to time out after 15 minutes, which
is the maximal AWS Lambda timeout.
If your operation takes over 14 minutes, the recommended approach is to
implement an asynchronous provider, and
then configure the timeouts for the asynchronous retries through the
queryInterval
and the totalTimeout
options.
Provider Framework Examples
This module includes a few examples for custom resource implementations:
S3File
Provisions an object in an S3 bucket with textual contents. See the source code
for the
construct and
handler.
The following example will create the file folder/file1.txt
inside myBucket
with the contents hello!
.
new S3File(this, 'MyFile', {
bucket: myBucket,
objectKey: 'folder/file1.txt',
content: 'hello!',
public: true
});
This sample demonstrates the following concepts:
- Synchronous implementation (
isComplete
is not defined) - Automatically generates the physical name if
objectKey
is not defined - Handles physical name changes
- Returns resource attributes
- Handles deletions
- Implemented in TypeScript
S3Assert
Checks that the textual contents of an S3 object matches a certain value. The check will be retried for 5 minutes as long as the object is not found or the value is different. See the source code for the construct and handler.
The following example defines an S3Assert
resource which waits until
myfile.txt
in myBucket
exists and includes the contents foo bar
:
new S3Assert(this, 'AssertMyFile', {
bucket: myBucket,
objectKey: 'myfile.txt',
expectedContent: 'foo bar'
});
This sample demonstrates the following concepts:
- Asynchronous implementation
- Non-intrinsic physical IDs
- Implemented in Python
Custom Resources for AWS APIs
Sometimes a single API call can fill the gap in the CloudFormation coverage. In
this case you can use the AwsCustomResource
construct. This construct creates
a custom resource that can be customized to make specific API calls for the
CREATE
, UPDATE
and DELETE
events. Additionally, data returned by the API
call can be extracted and used in other constructs/resources (creating a real
CloudFormation dependency using Fn::GetAtt
under the hood).
The physical id of the custom resource can be specified or derived from the data
returned by the API call.
The AwsCustomResource
uses the AWS SDK for JavaScript. Services, actions and
parameters can be found in the API documentation.
Path to data must be specified using a dot notation, e.g. to get the string value
of the Title
attribute for the first item returned by dynamodb.query
it should
be Items.0.Title.S
.
To make sure that the newest API calls are available the latest AWS SDK v2 is installed
in the Lambda function implementing the custom resource. The installation takes around 60
seconds. If you prefer to optimize for speed, you can disable the installation by setting
the installLatestAwsSdk
prop to false
.
Custom Resource Execution Policy
You must provide the policy
property defining the IAM Policy that will be applied to the API calls.
The library provides two factory methods to quickly configure this:
AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls
- Use this to auto-generate IAM Policy statements based on the configured SDK calls.
Note that you will have to either provide specific ARN's, or explicitly use AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE
to allow access to any resource.AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromStatements
- Use this to specify your own custom statements.
The custom resource also implements iam.IGrantable
, making it possible to use the grantXxx()
methods.
As this custom resource uses a singleton Lambda function, it's important to note
that the function's role will eventually accumulate the permissions/grants from all
resources.
Chained API calls can be achieved by creating dependencies:
const awsCustom1 = new AwsCustomResource(this, 'API1', {
onCreate: {
service: '...',
action: '...',
physicalResourceId: PhysicalResourceId.of('...')
},
policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls({resources: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE})
});
const awsCustom2 = new AwsCustomResource(this, 'API2', {
onCreate: {
service: '...',
action: '...'
parameters: {
text: awsCustom1.getResponseField('Items.0.text')
},
physicalResourceId: PhysicalResourceId.of('...')
},
policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls({resources: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE})
})
Physical Resource Id Parameter
Some AWS APIs may require passing the physical resource id in as a parameter for doing updates and deletes. You can pass it by using PhysicalResourceIdReference
.
const awsCustom = new AwsCustomResource(this, '...', {
onCreate: {
service: '...',
action: '...'
parameters: {
text: '...'
},
physicalResourceId: PhysicalResourceId.of('...')
},
onUpdate: {
service: '...',
action: '...'.
parameters: {
text: '...',
resourceId: new PhysicalResourceIdReference()
}
},
policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls({resources: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE})
})
Handling Custom Resource Errors
Every error produced by the API call is treated as is and will cause a "FAILED" response to be submitted to CloudFormation.
You can ignore some errors by specifying the ignoreErrorCodesMatching
property, which accepts a regular expression that is
tested against the code
property of the response. If matched, a "SUCCESS" response is submitted.
Note that in such a case, the call response data and the Data
key submitted to CloudFormation would both be an empty JSON object.
Since a successful resource provisioning might or might not produce outputs, this presents us with some limitations:
PhysicalResourceId.fromResponse
- Since the call response data might be empty, we cannot use it to extract the physical id.getResponseField
and getResponseFieldReference
- Since the Data
key is empty, the resource will not have any attributes, and therefore, invoking these functions will result in an error.
In both the cases, you will get a synth time error if you attempt to use it in conjunction with ignoreErrorCodesMatching
.
Customizing the Lambda function implementing the custom resource
Use the role
, timeout
, logRetention
and functionName
properties to customize
the Lambda function implementing the custom resource:
new AwsCustomResource(this, 'Customized', {
role: myRole,
timeout: cdk.Duration.minutes(10)
logRetention: logs.RetentionDays.ONE_WEEK
functionName: 'my-custom-name',
})
Custom Resource Examples
Verify a domain with SES
const verifyDomainIdentity = new AwsCustomResource(this, 'VerifyDomainIdentity', {
onCreate: {
service: 'SES',
action: 'verifyDomainIdentity',
parameters: {
Domain: 'example.com'
},
physicalResourceId: PhysicalResourceId.fromResponse('VerificationToken')
},
policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls({resources: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE})
});
new route53.TxtRecord(this, 'SESVerificationRecord', {
zone,
recordName: `_amazonses.example.com`,
values: [verifyDomainIdentity.getResponseField('VerificationToken')]
});
Get the latest version of a secure SSM parameter
const getParameter = new AwsCustomResource(this, 'GetParameter', {
onUpdate: {
service: 'SSM',
action: 'getParameter',
parameters: {
Name: 'my-parameter',
WithDecryption: true
},
physicalResourceId: PhysicalResourceId.of(Date.now().toString())
},
policy: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.fromSdkCalls({resources: AwsCustomResourcePolicy.ANY_RESOURCE})
});
getParameter.getResponseField('Parameter.Value')
This module is part of the AWS Cloud Development Kit project.