AWS Cloudformation Support for Direct Connect Connection

Question

Can CloudFormation provision a Direct Connect Connection? There aren't Direct Connect CloudFormation resource type(s), but I'm wondering if it can be created by using a combination of other types like a VPNGateway, VPNGatewayRoutePropagation, etc.

Answer 1

You can create a custom resource:

    MyCustomResource: 
      Type: "Custom::TestLambdaCrossStackRef"
      Properties: 
        ServiceToken:
          !Sub arn:${AWS::Partition}:lambda:${AWS::Region}:${AWS::AccountId}:function:${LambdaFunctionName}
        StackName: 
          Ref: "NetworkStackName"

Custom Resource Docs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/template-custom-resources.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-resource-cfn-customresource.html

Sample lambda function with best practices to return success or failure:

import json
import time
from botocore.vendored import requests
def lambda_handler(event, context):
    print('REQUEST BODY:n' + str(event))
    count = 1
    # count = int(event['ResourceProperties']['count'])  # Uncomment if configuring the number of retries through the CFN template
    attempts = 0
    if count <= 3:
        count = 3
    while attempts < count:
        try: # rest of your logic goes here
            if event['RequestType'] == 'Delete':
                pass
            elif event['RequestType'] == 'Create':
                pass
            elif event['RequestType'] == 'Update':
                pass
            responseStatus = 'SUCCESS'
            responseData = {'Success': 'Everything worked.'}
            break
        except:
            responseStatus = 'FAILURE'
            responseData = {'Failure': 'Something bad happened.'}
            attempts += 1
            time.sleep(3)
    sendResponse(event, context, responseStatus, responseData)
    
def sendResponse(event, context, responseStatus, responseData, reason=None, physical_resource_id=None):
    responseBody = {'Status': responseStatus,
                    'Reason': 'Details in CloudWatch Log Stream: ' + context.log_stream_name,
                    'PhysicalResourceId': physical_resource_id or context.log_stream_name,
                    'StackId': event['StackId'],
                    'RequestId': event['RequestId'],
                    'LogicalResourceId': event['LogicalResourceId'],
                    'Data': responseData}
    print('RESPONSE BODY:n' + json.dumps(responseBody))
    responseUrl = event['ResponseURL']
    json_responseBody = json.dumps(responseBody)
    headers = {
        'content-type' : '',
        'content-length' : str(len(json_responseBody))
    }
    try:
        response = requests.put(responseUrl,
                                data=json_responseBody,
                                headers=headers)
        print("Status code: " + response.reason)
    except Exception as e:
        print("send(..) failed executing requests.put(..): " + str(e))