# Delete stacks from CloudFormation StackSets
<a name="stackinstances-delete"></a>

You can delete stacks from StackSets using either the CloudFormation console or the AWS CLI. 

**Topics**
+ [Delete stacks from your StackSet (console)](#stackinstances-delete-console)
+ [Delete stacks from your StackSet (AWS CLI)](#stackinstances-delete-cli)

**Note**  
Deleting stacks from a top-level organizational unit (OU) removes that OU as a StackSet target.

## Delete stacks from your StackSet (console)
<a name="stackinstances-delete-console"></a>

**To delete stacks**

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the CloudFormation console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/).

1. On the navigation bar at the top of the screen, choose the AWS Region you created the StackSet in.

1. From the navigation pane, choose **StackSets**. On the StackSets page, select the StackSet.

1. With your StackSet selected, choose **Delete stacks from StackSet** from the **Actions** menu.

1. On the **Set deployment options** page, first choose the accounts and Regions where you want to delete the stacks.

   1. [Self-managed permissions] For **Accounts**, choose **Deploy stacks in accounts** or **Deploy stacks in organizational units**.

      If you choose **Deploy stacks in accounts**, paste your target account numbers in the **Account numbers** text box, separating multiple numbers with commas.

      If you choose **Deploy stacks in organizational units**, paste a target OU ID in the **Organization numbers** text box to target all accounts that are part of the specified organization.

   1. [Service-managed permissions] For **Organizational units (OUs)**, specify the target OU IDs. 
**Important**  
CloudFormation will delete stacks from both the specified target OUs and their child OUs.

      For **Account filter type**, you can refine which accounts will have stacks deleted by choosing one of the following options and providing account numbers. 
      + **None** (default) – Delete stacks from all accounts in the specified OUs.
      + **Intersection** – Delete stacks only from specific individual accounts within the selected OUs.
      + **Difference** – Delete stacks from all accounts in the selected OUs except for specific accounts.
      + **Union** – Delete stacks from the specified OUs plus additional individual accounts.

   1. For **Specify regions**, choose the Regions from which you want to delete stacks within the target accounts.

1. For **Deployment options**, do the following:
   + For **Maximum concurrent accounts**, specify how many accounts are processed concurrently.
   + For **Failure tolerance**, specify the maximum number of account failures allowed per Region. The operation will stop and won't proceed to other Regions once this limit is reached.
   + For **Retain stacks**, enable this option to save the stacks and their associated resources when removing them from your StackSet. The resources stay in their current state but are no longer part of the StackSet.
   + For **Region concurrency**, choose how to process Regions: **Sequential** (one Region at a time) or **Parallel** (multiple Regions concurrently).
   + For **Concurrency mode**, choose how concurrency behaves during operation execution.
     + **Strict failure tolerance** – Reduces account concurrency level when failures occur, staying within **Failure tolerance** \$11.
     + **Soft failure tolerance** – Maintains your specified concurrency level (the value of **Maximum concurrent accounts**) regardless of failures. 

1. Choose **Next**.

1. On the **Review** page, review your choices. To make changes, choose **Edit** on the related section.

1. When you are ready to remove the stacks from your StackSet, choose **Submit**.

   After stack deletion is finished, you can verify that stacks were deleted from your StackSet in the StackSet detail page, on the **Stack instances** tab.

## Delete stacks from your StackSet (AWS CLI)
<a name="stackinstances-delete-cli"></a>

**Note**  
When acting as a delegated administrator, you must include `--call-as DELEGATED_ADMIN` in the command. 

Use the **delete-stack-instances** command with your StackSet name.

In these examples, we use the `--no-retain-stacks` option because we aren't retaining any stacks. Use `--retain-stacks` instead of `--no-retain-stacks` if you want to keep the stacks and their resources. 

For `--regions`, specify the AWS Regions you want to delete stacks from, for example, `us-west-2` and `us-east-1`.

Set concurrent account processing and other preferences using the `--operation-preferences` option. These examples use count-based settings. Note that `MaxConcurrentCount` must not exceed `FailureToleranceCount` \$1 1. For percentage-based settings, use `FailureTolerancePercentage` or `MaxConcurrentPercentage` instead. 

**To delete stacks (self-managed permissions)**  
For the `--accounts` option, specify the IDs of the account to delete stacks from.

```
aws cloudformation delete-stack-instances --stack-set-name my-stackset \
  --accounts account_ID_1 account_ID_2 \
  --regions us-west-2 us-east-1 \
  --no-retain-stacks \
  --operation-preferences MaxConcurrentCount=1,FailureToleranceCount=0
```

**To delete stacks (service-managed permissions)**  
For `--deployment-targets`, specify the organization root ID or organizational unit (OU) IDs to delete stacks from.

**Important**  
CloudFormation will delete stacks from both the specified target OUs and their child OUs.

```
aws cloudformation delete-stack-instances --stack-set-name my-stackset \
  --deployment-targets OrganizationalUnitIds=ou-rcuk-1x5jlwo,ou-rcuk-slr5lh0a \ 
  --regions us-west-2 us-east-1 \
  --no-retain-stacks \
  --operation-preferences MaxConcurrentCount=1,FailureToleranceCount=0
```

For more information, see [DeleteStackInstances](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/APIReference/API_DeleteStackInstances.html) in the *AWS CloudFormation API Reference*.

Optionally, after stack deletion is finished, verify that stacks were deleted from your StackSet by running the **describe-stack-set-operation** command to show the status and results of the delete stacks operation. For `--operation-id`, use the operation ID that was returned by your **delete-stack-instances** command.

```
aws cloudformation describe-stack-set-operation --stack-set-name my-stackset \
  --operation-id ddf16f54-ad62-4d9b-b0ab-3ed8e9example
```