AWS::CloudFormation::StackInstance - New Resource

[benbridts]

1. Title -> AWS::CloudFormation::StackInstance
2. Scope of request -> A StackInstance resource that can be used to add Stacks to a StackSet
3. Expected behavior -> It takes a !Ref to a StackSet (see AWS::CloudFormation::StackSet - New Resource #102), an AccountId and a Region. One StackInstance should be exactly one account+region.
4. Links to existing API doc (optional) -> https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/APIReference/API_CreateStackInstances.html
5. Category tag (optional) -> Management & Governance
6. Any additional context (optional)
   The API allows creating mulitple stack instances at the same time. This may be a possible way to do it, but I think that having one Resource per Instance makes more sense in a CloudFormation template.

[piersf]

Hi all,

Are there any updates or any estimation when this will be implemented? Having this feature adds massive value to our ability to use StackSets with AWS Organizations for governance at scale.

Thank you!

[rafalwrzeszcz]

In the meantime you may want to check out:

https://rafalwrzeszcz-wrzasqpl.github.io/pl.wrzasq.lambda/lambda-cform/lambda-cform-stackset/guide/usage.html
https://rafalwrzeszcz-wrzasqpl.github.io/pl.wrzasq.lambda/lambda-cform/lambda-cform-stackset-instance/guide/usage.html

[piersf]

CloudFormation released support for StackSet 3 days ago - https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2020/09/aws-cloudformation-now-supports-stacksets-resource-type-in-the-cloudformation-registry/

This is awesome!

[benbridts]

That unfortunately does not allow you to add a stack instance to an existing stack stack set :(

[piersf]

@ikben what do you mean?

[rafalwrzeszcz]

@ikben It's not stated (probably documentation not updated) but you can import existing stack set. There is however other big limitation: https://github.com/aws-cloudformation/aws-cloudformation-resource-providers-cloudformation/blob/master/aws-cloudformation-stackset/src/main/java/software/amazon/cloudformation/stackset/util/Validator.java#L20 you can not deploy StackSet with nesteed stacks with this solution.

I created an issue for that aws-cloudformation/aws-cloudformation-resource-providers-cloudformation#16

[benbridts]

Sorry, I forgot a word.
The current resources do not allow you to create a Stack Instance in an existing Stack Set.

Or in other words: You cannot create the StackSet in one template/stack and have another template/stack create a StackInstance in that StackSet.

You would run into this if you want to deploy from an account-centric standpoint instead of a stack-set-centric one. In the account-centric approach, you could have one stack per account, that registers a Stack Instance in all the relevant Stack Sets (which allows you to determine the order of the StackSets)