📋 CloudFormation Cheat Sheet

CloudFormation is central to SOA-C03 deployment and provisioning automation.

Stack Operations

  • Templates define infrastructure; stacks are deployed instances of those templates.
  • Change sets preview resource changes before execution.
  • Rollback returns a stack toward the previous known-good state when creation or update fails.
  • Stack policies protect critical stack resources from unintended updates.

Scale and Governance

  • StackSets deploy stacks across accounts and Regions.
  • Nested stacks reuse common infrastructure patterns.
  • Drift detection identifies resources changed outside CloudFormation.
  • Deletion policies can retain resources such as databases or buckets when a stack is deleted.

Exam Cues

  • Need preview before update: change set.
  • Need deploy to many accounts/Regions: StackSets.
  • Need know what changed outside IaC: drift detection.
  • Need protect a database during stack deletion: deletion policy Retain.

Practice CloudFormation Questions

Put your knowledge to the test with practice questions.

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