Deploy these AWS CDK Examples and Dig Deep Into Cloud Infra

Published:12 May 2022 - 8 min. read

Azure Cloud Labs: these FREE, on‑demand Azure Cloud Labs will get you into a real‑world environment and account, walking you through step‑by‑step how to best protect, secure, and recover Azure data.

Deploying applications to the cloud, such as in AWS, can be manual or through automation tools. Suppose you are working with a basic application with only a handful of cloud resources; manual deployment could be manageable. But, as the complexity increases, manual deployment is no longer practical. In such cases, the AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) will be a lifesaver. In this article, you’ll learn some AWS CDK Examples.

AWS CDK is an open-source development framework for defining cloud infrastructure as code (IaC). CDK allows you to code in modern programming languages like Java and Python to automate AWS infrastructure.

By following this tutorial, you’ll learn to create and deploy a basic AWS CDK app, from initializing the project to deploying the resulting AWS CloudFormation template. The app will contain one stack, which contains one resource: an Amazon API Gateway to call the Lambda function.

Prerequisites

To follow along with this hands-on tutorial, make sure you have the following requirements.

  • An AWS account. A free tier account should suffice.
  • A Windows or Linux computer. This tutorial will be using a Windows 10 PC.
  • Your computer must have the following software to follow along.

Node.js versions 13.0.0 through 13.6.0 are not compatible with the AWS CDK due to compatibility issues with its dependencies.

  • Git, here the version used is 2.36.0.
  • The latest AWS CLI version, here 2.6.2 is used.
  • Python version 3.10.4 is used (3.6 minimum).

Installing AWS CDK

AWS CDK converts the infrastructure code to a CloudFormation script before execution. AWS CDK includes a library of AWS constructors for each AWS service, such as Amazon S3 buckets, Lambda functions, Amazon DynamoDB tables, and so on.

The main CDK package is called aws-cdk-lib, which contains base classes like Stack and App used in most CDK applications.

For the guide, you will be using Python as the programming language to provision cloud resources using CDK. Before starting, make sure to configure your workstation with your credentials and an AWS region if you have not already done so.

1. Open a terminal and run the below command to initiate the AWS CLI configuration.

aws configure

2. Type in your AWS Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and Default region name. Do not change the Default output format empty.

Configuring your AWS CLI profile
Configuring your AWS CLI profile

3. Type the following command to check the calling IAM user id. This role will be the one with which you will create and have complete access to your CDK app.

aws sts get-caller-identity
Confirming the AWS profile identity
Confirming the AWS profile identity

4. Next, install the AWS CDK CLI (aws-cdk)on your computer by running the Node Package Manager (npm) command.

npm install -g aws-cdk
Installing the AWS CDK CLI
Installing the AWS CDK CLI

5. Restart your terminal and confirm the AWS CDK version you installed. As of this writing, the latest CDK version is 2.23.0 (build 50444aa).

cdk --version
 Checking the CDK version
Checking the CDK version

6. Finally, execute the following command to install the aws-cdk-lib module, which contains the base classes for most CDK applications.

python -m pip install aws-cdk-lib

Wait for the installation to finish.

Installing AWS CDK
Installing AWS CDK

Creating Your First AWS CDK Example Application

Two core concepts of AWS CDK are stacks and constructs. Stacks are the smallest deployable unit in AWS CDK. Resources defined in a stack are assumed to be a single unit. These stacks contain constructs that encapsulate AWS resources to create a reusable cloud component.

For example, the resources can be an s3.Bucket that represents an Amazon S3 bucket or sqs.Queue that represents an Amazon SQS queue.

Now you have successfully installed AWS CDK CLI and its Python module, the next step is to create a new CDK project.

1. Create an empty directory and invoke cdk init to create an AWS CDK project. You may create the project directory anywhere you have access. In this example, the directory will be on the user’s Desktop.

# Create an empty directory for the project
mkdir cdk_py_project && cd cdk_py_project

# Create the CDK project and set Python as its language
cdk init app --language python
Creating a CDK project
Creating a CDK project

2. The cdk init command created files and directory structure. The command also created a virtual environment to run Python and install packages and AWS CDK core dependencies.

To activate the virtual environment, run the below command.

.venv\\Scripts\\activate.bat

As you can see below, you have now entered the virtual environment. The prompt changed to have the (.venv) prefix.

Activating the virtual environment
Activating the virtual environment

3. Next, install the CDK project requirements by running the below command and for the installation to complete.

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
Installing the requiremen
Installing the requirement

4. After the installation of the requirements, list the directory contents to view the files and folders.

dir

You should see a similar output as below. The folder you will be working with is cdk_py_project. The app.py file instantiates the instance of the stack that you will create.

Listing the project directory contents
Listing the project directory contents

5. Lastly, verify everything is working correctly by listing the stacks in your app with the following command.

cdk list

At this point, you should only see one stack.

Synthesizing an AWS CloudFormation Template From the Application

You’ve finished defining the resources into the stack. Next, you’ll need to translate these resources into an AWS CloudFormation template using a process called synthesizing.

Run the below command to synthesize the CDK app into a CloudFormation template. The process may take several seconds to a few minutes complete.

cdk synth

If your app contains more than one stack, you must specify which stack to synthesize by adding the stack name to the command. For example,cdk synth <stack name>.

You’ll see a similar output like the screenshot below after the command ends.

Synthesizing an AWS CloudFormation Template
Synthesizing an AWS CloudFormation Template

The command saves the template into a JSON document called <stack name>.template.json under the cdk.out directory. To confirm, list the contents of the directory like so.

dir cdk.out
Listing the template directory contents
Listing the template directory contents

Bootstrapping the Environment

AWS CDK requires resources to perform the deployment. Specifically, the resources CDK requires are an S3 bucket for storage and specific IAM roles to perform the deployment. The process of provisioning these initial resources is called bootstrapping.

The bootstrap stack, also known as CDKToolkit, includes all these required resources. Follow the below steps to start the bootstrap.

1. Run the below command to install the bootstrap stack into your virtual environment and wait for the process to complete. cdk bootstrap

Listing the template directory contents

You will see an output on the screen similar to the screenshot below.

Bootstrapping the environment
Bootstrapping the environment

2. Next, run the below command to deploy the CDKToolkit to AWS.

cdk deploy

The output will contain ACCOUNT-ID, STACK-ID, and REGION where you created the app.

Deploying the CDK stack
Deploying the CDK stack

3. Now, open a web browser and navigate to the AWS CloudFormation console. Make sure you are in the right region. You should now see the stacks you deployed.

AWS CloudFormation console
AWS CloudFormation console

Updating your Application Code

You’ve deployed your AWS CDK stack, but because you haven’t added any code yet, the application doesn’t do anything. For your app to be useful, you must add your code for what you intend the app to do.

While there are many AWS CDK examples that exist that you can try, nothing beats creating your own AWS CDK example application from scratch. In this section, you will create a Lambda function that will handle the infrastructure and process the events for your application.

For simplicity, you will create a function that returns the current date and time, including the HTTP status code and HTTP headers.

1. First, open your project directory in the code editor. This example uses Visual Studio Code as the editor. # Open the current directory in VSCode code .

# Open the current directory in VSCode
code .

2. Next, create a directory called lambda at the root of your project. And under the lambda folder, create a new file called time_.py.

Creating a new folder and file
Creating a new folder and file

3. Copy the function code below and paste it into the time_.py file. This code returns the current date and time. Save the file after adding the code.

import json

import datetime


def handler(event, context):

    current_time = datetime.datetime.now()

    body = {

        "message": "Hello, the current date and time is " + str(current_time)

    }

    response = {

        "statusCode": 200,
        "headers": {
            'Content-Type': 'text/plain'
        },

        "body": json.dumps(body)

    }

    return response

4. Now, open cdk_py_project/cdk_py_project_stack.py.

Open the cdk_py_project_stack.py file
Open the cdk_py_project_stack.py file

Replace the existing code with the one below. To briefly explain this code:

  • Import aws_lambda module as _lambda (note the underscore) because lambda is a built-in identifier in Python.
  • The function will use the Python 3.9 runtime.
  • The time_.handler refers to the function handler in app.py.
from aws_cdk import (
    # Duration,
    Stack,
    # aws_sqs as sqs,
    aws_lambda as _lambda,
)
from constructs import Construct


class CdkPyProjectStack(Stack):

    def __init__(self, scope: Construct, construct_id: str, **kwargs) -> None:
        super().__init__(scope, construct_id, **kwargs)

        # Defines an AWS Lambda resource
        my_lambda = _lambda.Function(
            self, 'TimeHandler',
            runtime=_lambda.Runtime.PYTHON_3_9,
            code=_lambda.Code.from_asset('lambda'),
            handler='time_.handler',
        )

Save the cdk_py_project_stack.py file after editing.

5. Before deploying your modified application, inspect the changes by running the below command. cdk diff

cdk diff

Based on the result below, the code will synthesize an AWS::Lambda::Function resource and a couple of CloudFormation parameters that the toolkit will use to propagate the location of the handler code.

Review changes before deployment
Review changes before deployment

Deploy the AWS CDK Example Application

Finally, you can now deploy the application. In this example, when you deploy the application, the command uploads the lambda directory from your disk directly to the bootstrap bucket.

Run the below command to deploy the AWS CDK example application.

cdk deploy

Press Y to confirm the deployment.

Deploying the application
Deploying the application

Using your web browser, navigate to the AWS Lambda Console, and you should see the function that you created and deployed.

Viewing the Lambda event handler function in the AWS console
Viewing the Lambda event handler function in the AWS console

Testing the AWS CDK Example Application

So you’ve deployed the application and confirmed its existence in the AWS console. But does it work? To find out, you must test the application by following the below steps.

1. Click on the function name and scroll down to the Code source section.

2. Click on the Test button drop-down arrow and click Configure test event.

Select Configure test event option
Select Configure test event option

3. Enter Test as the Event name, select Amazon API Gateway AWS Proxy from the Event template list, and click on the Save button.

Set up required parameters
Set up required parameters

4. Now, click the Test button again and wait for the execution to complete. As you can see below, the function worked and returned the current date and time.

Testing the AWS CDK example application
Testing the AWS CDK example application

Cleaning Up

If at some point, the application is no longer necessary, you may need to destroy the stack. Destroying the stack means that you’re deleting the application along with all the resources that the bootstrapping created.

To destroy the stack, run the below command—Press Y at the confirmation prompt.

Destroying the stack
Destroying the stack

Conclusion

You’ve learned to wield the AWS CDK toolkit as a weapon of mass deployment. You’ve created and deployed an AWS CDK example application. Along with the application, the CDK toolkit also cloud-forms or provisions the resources that the application requires – eliminating efforts to create them separately.

What other AWS CDK examples would you be interested in trying out? Remember, you’re not limited to using Python when deploying applications with CDK!

Hate ads? Want to support the writer? Get many of our tutorials packaged as an ATA Guidebook.

Explore ATA Guidebooks

Looks like you're offline!