CloudFormation registry concepts
This topic explains key concepts to help you understand and begin using the CloudFormation registry.
Extension types
The CloudFormation registry offers the following extension types:
- Hooks
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Hooks are validation checks that inspect your stacks or specific resources before CloudFormation creates, updates, or deletes them. Hooks can also be invoked during create change set operations. They provide a mechanism for enforcing organizational standards and best practices by validating resource configurations against specific requirements. If a Hook detects any configurations that don't comply with its logic, it can either issue a warning or fail the provisioning process to prevent non-compliant resources from being deployed. For more information, see the AWS CloudFormation Hooks User Guide.
For specific documentation on Guard and Lambda Hooks, see the following sections of the AWS CloudFormation Hooks User Guide:
- Modules
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Modules are reusable resource configurations that can be included across multiple CloudFormation stack templates. They simplify the the creation and maintenance of CloudFormation templates by encapsulating complex or frequently used resource configurations into reusable components. This promotes consistency and standardization across your organization's infrastructure deployments.
- Resource types
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Resource types allow you to model and automate third-party resources or custom resources that aren't natively supported by CloudFormation. By developing resource types, you can extend CloudFormation's capabilities to provision and manage resources from various third-party services.
Public extensions
Public extensions are CloudFormation extensions that are publicly published in the registry for use by all AWS accounts. These include:
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AWS extensions – Extensions published by AWS are always public, and activated by default, so you don't have to take any action before using them in your account. AWS controls the versioning of these extensions, so you are always using the latest available version.
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Third-party extensions – These extensions are made available for general use by publishers other than AWS. To use a third-party public extension, you must first activate it in your account and Region.
Activated extensions
The CloudFormation registry in your specific AWS account includes three types of activated extensions:
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AWS extensions – All AWS public extensions are automatically activated.
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Activated third-party – These are local copies of third-party public extensions that you have explicitly activated for your account and Region. When you activate a third-party public extension, CloudFormation creates a local copy in your account's registry. For more information, see Use third-party public extensions from the CloudFormation registry.
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Privately registered – These are private extensions that aren't listed in the public CloudFormation registry. These may be extensions you've created yourself or ones shared with you by your organization or other third parties. To use such a private extension in your account, you must first register it. Registering the extension uploads a copy to the CloudFormation registry in your account and activates it. For more information, see Use third-party private extensions that have been shared with you.
Using privately registered extensions and activated public extensions from third-party publishers in your account is analogous to using them in a sandbox environment. Extensions are managed with version control, so their provisioning behavior is tied to a specific version. As a result, these extensions function in the same way as public extensions, adhering to the same version-specific rules.
Note
Privately registered extensions and activated third-party public extensions
may implement event handlers that run during create, read, update, list, and
delete operations. Using these extensions in your CloudFormation stacks may incur
charges to your account, in addition to any charges for the resources created.
For more information, see AWS CloudFormation pricing
