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Labs

Updating CloudFormation Stacks with Direct Updates and Change Sets

In this hands-on lab, we will walk through proper ways to update CloudFormation stacks. We will first update a stack with direct updates and then use change sets to update a stack. In the process, we will create multiple change sets and view the behavior of the stack when a change set is applied.

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Lab platform
Lab Info
Level
Intermediate
Last updated
Sep 22, 2025
Duration
1h 0m

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Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Deploy a LAMP Stack Using an AWS CloudFormation Template
    • Navigate to the CloudFormation console to create the stack.
    • Upload the LAMP stack template provided with the lab and create the stack.
    • Change* InstanceType* to t3.micro.
    • Select your VPC and two subnets in the template.

      Note: You will need to create a key pair in the EC2 console before you can deploy the template.

    • Once it is deployed, check the CloudFormation outputs for the DNS name of the load balancer.
    • Copy the URL into a browser to verify the sample site has deployed correctly.
  2. Challenge

    Use an Update Stack to Scale Up
    • In the CloudFormation console, using the same template, update the stack and change the instance type from t3.micro to t3.medium on the Parameters page.
    • Using the load balancer URL, verify that our server comes up and the site becomes available once more.
  3. Challenge

    Use a Change Set to Scale Out
    • In the CloudFormation console, upload the changeset.yaml template to add a second server in another subnet and ensure that it is added to the load balancer.
    • View and then execute the change set.
    • Once it is finished, use the load balancer DNS name to confirm the site is up and running.
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