CodeBuild CDK Deployment Template¶

This CloudFormation template automates the deployment of AWS CDK projects for workshop environments. It provides a simplified, robust solution for bootstrapping AWS accounts, deploying CDK applications, and monitoring pipeline executions with intelligent retry handling.

Overview¶

The template creates:

• S3 bucket for configuration storage and CodePipeline source
• CodeBuild project for CDK deployment orchestration with local caching
• Lambda functions for deployment initiation and resource cleanup
• IAM roles with appropriate permissions
• Wait conditions for CloudFormation synchronization
• Intelligent pipeline monitoring with retry support

Deployment Flow¶

flowchart TD
    A[CloudFormation Stack Creation] --> B[Create S3 Bucket & IAM Roles]
    B --> C[Start Deployment Lambda]
    C --> D[CodeBuild Project Starts]
    D --> E[Clone GitHub Repository]
    E --> F[Download Configuration]
    F --> G[Setup S3 Remote]
    G --> H{Bootstrap Required?}
    H -->|Yes| I[Bootstrap CDK]
    H -->|No| J[Deploy CDK Application]
    I --> J
    J --> K[Extract Pipeline ARN]
    K --> L[Monitor Pipeline]
    L --> M{Status?}
    M -->|InProgress| N[Wait 30s]
    N --> L
    M -->|Succeeded| O[Signal SUCCESS]
    M -->|Failed| P{Retries Left?}
    P -->|Yes| Q[Wait & Retry]
    Q --> L
    P -->|No| R[Signal FAILURE]

Parameters¶

Retry Handling¶

The system automatically detects and handles retries:

• Manual Retries — User manually retries failed pipeline execution
• Automatic Retries — Pipeline configured with automatic retry policies
• Superseded Executions — New execution starts while previous is running
• Partial Failures — Individual stage failures with stage-level retries

Configuration:

• Maximum retries: 3 attempts
• Retry wait time: 60 seconds
• Overall timeout: 1 hour (3600 seconds)
• Polling interval: 30 seconds

Build Phases¶

1. Install¶

npm install -g aws-cdk
pip3 install git-remote-s3

2. Pre-Build¶

• Clone repository from GitHub
• Download and merge configuration
• Setup S3 remote for CodePipeline source
• Bootstrap CDK (with intelligent status checking)

3. Build¶

cd $WORKING_FOLDER
npm install
cdk deploy --require-approval never --outputs-file cdk-outputs.json

4. Pipeline Monitoring¶

• Execution ID tracking for retry detection
• Status-specific handling for all pipeline states
• Progress reporting every 5 minutes
• Detailed error information on failures

Outputs¶

Troubleshooting¶

aws cloudformation update-stack \
  --stack-name {StackName} \
  --use-previous-template \
  --parameters ParameterKey=pWaitForDeployment,ParameterValue=false \
  --capabilities CAPABILITY_NAMED_IAM

Debug Commands¶

# Check CodeBuild project status
aws codebuild batch-get-projects --names {StackName}-cdk-deployment

# View recent builds
aws codebuild list-builds-for-project --project-name {StackName}-cdk-deployment

# Check pipeline status
aws codepipeline get-pipeline-state --name {PipelineName}