aws-cdk

What is aws-cdk?

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) is an open-source software development framework to define cloud infrastructure in code and provision it through AWS CloudFormation. It provides high-level components called constructs that preconfigure cloud resources with proven defaults, so you can build cloud applications without needing to be an expert in AWS services.

What are aws-cdk's main functionalities?

Defining Infrastructure

This feature allows you to define AWS infrastructure using familiar programming languages. The code sample demonstrates how to define a new VPC using the AWS CDK.

const vpc = new ec2.Vpc(this, 'VPC');

Creating a Lambda Function

With AWS CDK, you can create serverless functions such as AWS Lambda. The code sample shows how to define a Lambda function with the Node.js 12.x runtime.

const lambdaFunction = new lambda.Function(this, 'MyFunction', {
  runtime: lambda.Runtime.NODEJS_12_X,
  handler: 'index.handler',
  code: lambda.Code.fromAsset('lambda')
});

Hosting a Static Website

AWS CDK can be used to host static websites on Amazon S3. The code sample illustrates how to create an S3 bucket configured for website hosting and how to deploy website content to it.

const bucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'WebsiteBucket', {
  websiteIndexDocument: 'index.html'
});
new s3deploy.BucketDeployment(this, 'DeployWebsite', {
  sources: [s3deploy.Source.asset('./website-dist')],
  destinationBucket: bucket
});

Setting up an API Gateway

This feature enables the creation of Amazon API Gateway endpoints. The code sample shows how to set up a REST API with a GET method integrated with a Lambda function.

const api = new apigateway.RestApi(this, 'MyApi', {
  restApiName: 'Service'
});
const getLambdaIntegration = new apigateway.LambdaIntegration(getLambda);
api.root.addMethod('GET', getLambdaIntegration);

Other packages similar to aws-cdk

serverless

The Serverless Framework is similar to AWS CDK in that it allows you to define and deploy cloud infrastructure using code. It supports multiple cloud providers and is focused on building serverless applications. It uses a configuration file approach rather than an object-oriented programming model.

terraform

Terraform by HashiCorp is an infrastructure as code tool that allows you to define both cloud and on-premises resources with a declarative configuration language. It is cloud-agnostic and supports multiple providers, whereas AWS CDK is focused on AWS services.

pulumi

Pulumi is an infrastructure as code tool that allows you to define infrastructure using general-purpose programming languages. Similar to AWS CDK, Pulumi provides an object-oriented approach but supports multiple cloud providers, not just AWS.

README

AWS CDK Toolkit

The AWS CDK Toolkit provides the cdk command-line interface that can be used to work with AWS CDK applications.

Command	Description
cdk docs	Access the online documentation
cdk init	Start a new CDK project (app or library)
cdk list	List stacks in an application
cdk synth	Synthesize a CDK app to CloudFormation template(s)
cdk diff	Diff stacks against current state
cdk deploy	Deploy a stack into an AWS account
cdk destroy	Deletes a stack from an AWS account
cdk bootstrap	Deploy a toolkit stack to support deploying large stacks & artifacts
cdk doctor	Inspect the environment and produce information useful for troubleshooting

This module is part of the AWS Cloud Development Kit project.

Commands

cdk docs

Outputs the URL to the documentation for the current toolkit version, and attempts to open a browser to that URL.

$ # Open the documentation in the default browser (using 'open')
$ cdk docs
https://awslabs.github.io/aws-cdk/versions/0.7.4-beta/

$ # Open the documentation in Chrome.
$ cdk docs --browser='chrome %u'
https://awslabs.github.io/aws-cdk/versions/0.7.4-beta/

cdk init

Creates a new CDK project.

$ # List the available template types & languages
$ cdk init --list
Available templates:
* app: Template for a CDK Application
   └─ cdk init app --language=[java|typescript]
* lib: Template for a CDK Construct Library
   └─ cdk init lib --language=typescript

$ # Create a new library application in typescript
$ cdk init lib --language=typescript

cdk list

Lists the stacks modeled in the CDK app.

$ # List all stacks in the CDK app 'node bin/main.js'
$ cdk list --app='node bin/main.js'
Foo
Bar
Baz

$ # List all stack including all details (add --json to output JSON instead of YAML)
$ cdk list --app='node bin/main.js' --long
-
    name: Foo
    environment:
        name: 000000000000/bermuda-triangle-1
        account: '000000000000'
        region: bermuda-triangle-1
-
    name: Bar
    environment:
        name: 111111111111/bermuda-triangle-2
        account: '111111111111'
        region: bermuda-triangle-2
-
    name: Baz
    environment:
        name: 333333333333/bermuda-triangle-3
        account: '333333333333'
        region: bermuda-triangle-3

cdk synthesize

Synthesize the CDK app and outputs CloudFormation templates. If the application contains multiple stacks and no stack name is provided in the command-line arguments, the --output option is mandatory and a CloudFormation template will be generated in the output folder for each stack.

By default, templates are generated in YAML format. The --json option can be used to switch to JSON.

$ # Generate the template for StackName and output it to STDOUT
$ cdk synthesize --app='node bin/main.js' MyStackName

$ # Generate the template for MyStackName and save it to template.yml
$ cdk synth --app='node bin/main.js' MyStackName --output=template.yml

$ # Generate templates for all the stacks and save them into templates/
$ cdk synth --app='node bin/main.js' --output=templates

cdk diff

Computes differences between the infrastructure specified in the current state of the CDK app and the currently deployed application (or a user-specified CloudFormation template). This command returns non-zero if any differences are found.

$ # Diff against the currently deployed stack
$ cdk diff --app='node bin/main.js' MyStackName

$ # Diff against a specific template document
$ cdk diff --app='node bin/main.js' MyStackName --template=path/to/template.yml

cdk deploy

Deploys a stack of your CDK app to it's environment. During the deployment, the toolkit will output progress indications, similar to what can be observed in the AWS CloudFormation Console. If the environment was never bootstrapped (using cdk bootstrap), only stacks that are not using assets and synthesize to a template that is under 51,200 bytes will successfully deploy.

$ cdk deploy --app='node bin/main.js' MyStackName

cdk destroy

Deletes a stack from it's environment. This will cause the resources in the stack to be destroyed (unless they were configured with a DeletionPolicy of Retain). During the stack destruction, the command will output progress information similar to what cdk deploy provides.

$ cdk destroy --app='node bin/main.js' MyStackName

cdk bootstrap

Deploys a CDKToolkit CloudFormation stack into the specified environment(s), that provides an S3 bucket that cdk deploy will use to store synthesized templates and the related assets, before triggering a CloudFormation stack update. The name of the deployed stack can be configured using the --toolkit-stack-name argument.

$ # Deploys to all environments
$ cdk bootstrap --app='node bin/main.js'

$ # Deploys only to environments foo and bar
$ cdk bootstrap --app='node bin/main.js' foo bar

cdk doctor

Inspect the current command-line environment and configurations, and collect information that can be useful for troubleshooting problems. It is usually a good idea to include the information provided by this command when submitting a bug report.

$ cdk doctor
ℹ️ CDK Version: 0.7.4-beta (build 0191444)
ℹ️ AWS environment variables:
  - AWS_EC2_METADATA_DISABLED = 1
  - AWS_SDK_LOAD_CONFIG = 1

Configuration

On top of passing configuration through command-line arguments, it is possible to use JSON configuration files. The configuration's order of precedence is:

1. Command-line arguments
2. Project configuration (./cdk.json)
3. User configuration (~/.cdk.json)

JSON Configuration files

Some of the interesting keys that can be used in the JSON configuration files:

{
    "app": "node bin/main.js", // Command to start the CDK app     (--app='node bin/main.js')
    "context": {               // Context entries                  (--context=key=value)
        "key": "value",
    },
    "toolkitStackName": "foo", // Customize 'bootstrap' stack name (--toolkit-stack-name=foo)
    "versionReporting": false, // Opt-out of version reporting     (--no-version-reporting)
}