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AWS CloudFormation Templates

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AWS CloudFormation Templates are the basis for a CloudFormation stack. It is a JSON or YAML-formatted text file that describes the infrastructure resources needed and their dependencies. The template follows a specified schema, allowing users to specify resources, configurations, and mapping values…

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AWS Certified Solutions Architect - AWS CloudFormation Templates Example Questions

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Question 1

You need a modular IaC design where a single CloudFormation parent stack orchestrates creation of a VPC, an RDS DB instance, and an EC2 Auto Scaling Group, ensuring the compute and database are deployed into the same VPC by passing VPC and subnet identifiers to child components. Which approach should you use?

Correct Answer: Use AWS CloudFormation nested stacks

A nested-stacks design lets a single parent CloudFormation stack create and control the VPC and then pass the VPC/Subnet/Security Group IDs as parameters to child stacks that deploy the RDS instance and the EC2 Auto Scaling Group. This ensures both resources are placed in the same VPC, preserves full IaC management (ordering, rollback, drift detection), and avoids hard-coding IDs or using imperative scripts. Simply creating separate templates without explicit cross-stack orchestration does not guarantee correct wiring, referencing resource IDs directly is brittle and not CloudFormation-driven, and running AWS CLI commands in UserData circumvents CloudFormation state and idempotency.

Question 2

You are working on a new AWS CloudFormation project, and you have been given the requirement to create a single stack which includes multiple environments such as Development, Staging, and Production. You are required to deploy a different EC2 instance type based on the environment. Which approach would you use to accomplish this?

Correct Answer: Use an AWS CloudFormation parameter

Using a CloudFormation parameter allows you to provide dynamic inputs for your template, which can include different EC2 instance types for different environments within a single stack. Other approaches like creating separate templates or hard-coding values would not be efficient or maintainable.

Question 3

You have an existing CloudFormation template that deploys an Amazon DynamoDB table along with several AWS resources. A project requirement now insists on only creating the DynamoDB table when a specific parameter is set to 'true'. What is the most efficient method to conditionally create the DynamoDB table?

Correct Answer: Use AWS CloudFormation resource conditions

Using AWS CloudFormation resource conditions allows you to have conditional resource creation based on the input parameter values. This ensures that the DynamoDB table is created or not created based on the specified condition. Other methods, like creating separate templates, modifying properties, or manual creation, do not efficiently adhere to best practices.

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