Utilizing CloudFormation StackSets for Distributing Globally

Welcome to this guide on CloudFormation StackSets. In this article, we explore how StackSets address the challenge of distributing operationally secure, security-approved CloudFormation templates across all regions and member accounts.

The image illustrates a CloudFormation StackSet architecture, showing an administration account deploying stacks to multiple target accounts across different regions.

CloudFormation StackSets offer a centralized mechanism to distribute and manage your CloudFormation templates—whether you are provisioning networking, security configurations, virtual machines, containers, or serverless architectures. In a typical setup, an administration (management) account creates the stack, and the StackSet propagates the stack instance to all designated member accounts and regions.

Once the StackSet is created, you can update or delete it as needed, ensuring that resources and services remain consistently provisioned and maintained across your entire AWS environment.

The image illustrates how AWS CloudFormation StackSets work, showing the relationship between a management account and member accounts, and the processes of creating, updating, and deleting stack instances.

Key Benefits

Using CloudFormation StackSets brings several advantages:

Consistent configuration across multiple regions
Scalability to deploy stacks in multiple regions simultaneously
Reduced room for human error by leveraging a single approved template

The image outlines the key benefits of CloudFormation StackSets, including centralized management, consistency across regions, scalability, and reduced human error.

In multi-account environments, StackSets can be configured to automatically deploy stacks to every account within your organization. For instance, when a new account is added, it can immediately receive a networking CloudFormation stack, ensuring compliance and operational consistency without manual intervention.

The image lists features that enhance StackSets for global deployment, including automatic deployment on new account addition in OU, drift detection, and rollback capabilities.

Additional features provided by CloudFormation StackSets include:

Drift Detection: Verifies that deployed resources maintain alignment with the original configuration.
Rollback Capabilities: Prevents an update that encounters issues in one region from affecting others.

Exam Readiness

Understanding CloudFormation StackSets is crucial for AWS architecture best practices and may appear in certification exams. Make sure you are familiar with its centralized management and deployment capabilities.

Thank you for reading this article. We look forward to exploring more AWS features with you in the lab.

Watch Video

Watch video content