What AWS CloudFormation best practices should I know before starting?

[StevenCR]

I'm finally diving deeper into infrastructure as code and trying to nail down some aws cloudformation best practices for my team. What are the most common pitfalls you wish you'd known about when you started?

[VictoriaR]

One pitfall I wish I caught early is baking environment specifics into the template like ARNs and region names. Use parameters and mappings so the same template can run in dev, staging, and prod. Also always run a ChangeSet before updating a live stack and enable stack policy so a bad update won’t break things. These CloudFormation templates best practices save you from messy rollbacks.

[VioletYW]

Modularity mattered a lot for me. If you start with a huge monolith template you’ll hate life later. Break things into smaller templates with nested stacks or use a library of reusable constructs. And think about versioning your templates in Git so you can track every change. CloudFormation vs Terraform is a common debate, but sticking to AWS CloudFormation deployment best practices and keeping templates modular helped our ops stay sane.

[Aubrey.M]

Keep templates idempotent by relying on AWS resource dependencies rather than overusing DependsOn. Use Capabilities where needed, but avoid granting broad permissions in templates. Add a descriptive Metadata block and a Description to help future reviewers. aws cloudformation best practices

[HarperLL]

For testing, use simulated changes with ChangeSets, run drift detection, and have a CI check that lints templates. A small dry run policy plus a rollback trigger can save a lot of pain. AWS CloudFormation deployment best practices say to keep stack updates small and reversible.

[Aaron_S]

Store templates in a versioned S3 bucket and separate parameter files for each environment. Document outputs so downstream teams know what to expect. Avoid hard coded values and use intrinsic functions to compute values. CloudFormation templates best practices

[PaisleyBC]

Consider using nested stacks or the CDK as a stepping stone. If your team prefers code, CDK can help, but always validate the generated template with a quick lint and a test deploy. It’s not a silver bullet but can smooth things when used with CloudFormation templates best practices.

[Chloe50]

Guardrails matter: enable termination protection, apply stack policies, require approvals for critical stacks, and monitor via CloudWatch events tied to stack lifecycles. Keep a living runbook with rollback steps and a clear owner for each stack. aws cloudformation best practices