AWS CloudFormation > Advanced CloudFormation > Drift Detection

Drift Detection

Drift Detection

AWS CloudFormation allows you to detect configuration changes in your Stack resources caused by the AWS Management Console, CLI, and SDKs. Drift is the difference between the Stack’s expected resource configuration determined by CloudFormation templates and its actual resource configuration on CloudFormation. This feature helps you better manage Stacks and ensures consistency in resource configurations. For more detailed information on Drift, refer to the AWS Blog.

In this exercise, we will create a CloudFormation Stack and then configure its resources using the AWS Management Console.

Access the interface AWS Management Console

Find CloudFormation
Select CloudFormation

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select Stack
Select Create stack
Select With new resources (standard)

Drift Detection

In the Create stack interface

Create a file my_cfn_stack.yml
Then copy and paste this code and save it:

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: "2010-09-09"
Resources: 
  InputQueue: 
    Type: "AWS::SQS::Queue"
    Properties: 
      QueueName: "DriftLab-InputQueue"
      VisibilityTimeout: 30
      RedrivePolicy: 
        deadLetterTargetArn: 
          Fn::GetAtt: 
            - "DeadLetterQueue"
            - "Arn"
        maxReceiveCount: 5
  DeadLetterQueue: 
    Type: "AWS::SQS::Queue"
    Properties: 
      QueueName: "DriftLab-ErrorQueue"

Select Template is ready
Select Upload a template file
Select Choose file
Select my_cfn_stack.yml
Select Next

Drift Detection

In the Specify stack details interface

Stack name, enter drift-lab-with-sqs
Select Next

Drift Detection

Select Next

Drift Detection

Select Submit

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select Stack details
Select the stack just created
Select Event to see the initialization events
Status changed to CREATE_COMPLETE is initialization successful

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select Stack details
Select the stack just created
Select Resources
View newly created resources

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select the stack just created
Select Stack actions
Select Detect drift

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select the stack just created
Select Stack info
See Drift status switch to IN_SYNC

Drift Detection

Access the interface AWS Management Console

Find Simple Queue Service
Select Simple Queue Service

Drift Detection

In the Amazon SQS interface

Select DriftLab-InputQueue
Select Edit

Drift Detection

In the Configuration interface

Visibility timeout, enter 50
Delivery delay, enter 120

Drift Detection

Select Save

Drift Detection

Successfully edited AWS SQS interface

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select Stack details
Select drift-lab-with-sqs
Select Stack info
Select Stack actions
Select Detect drift

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select Stack details
Select Stack info
See Drift status switch to DRIFTED

Drift Detection

In the CloudFormation interface

Select Stack details
Select Stack info
Select Stack actions
Select View drift results

Drift Detection

In the Drifts interface

View Drift status
See Resource drift status, InputQueue change Drift status to MODIFIED

Drift Detection