troposphere - library to create AWS CloudFormation descriptions

The troposphere library allows for easier creation of the AWS CloudFormation JSON by writing Python code to describe the AWS resources. Troposphere also includes some basic support for OpenStack resources via heat.

To facilitate catching CloudFormation or JSON errors early the library has property and type checking built into the classes.

troposphere can be installed using the pip distribution system for python by issuing:

$ pip install troposphere

To install troposphere with awacs (recommended soft dependency):

$ pip install troposphere[policy]

Alternatively, you can run use setup.py to install by cloning this repository and issuing:

# python setup.py install

A simple example to create an instance would look like this:

>>> from troposphere import Ref, Template
>>> import troposphere.ec2 as ec2
>>> t = Template()
>>> instance = ec2.Instance("myinstance")
>>> instance.ImageId = "ami-951945d0"
>>> instance.InstanceType = "t1.micro"
>>> t.add_resource(instance)
<troposphere.ec2.Instance object at 0x101bf3390>
>>> print(t.to_json())
{
    "Resources": {
        "myinstance": {
            "Properties": {
                "ImageId": "ami-951945d0",
                "InstanceType": "t1.micro"
            },
            "Type": "AWS::EC2::Instance"
        }
    }
}

Alternatively, parameters can be used instead of properties:

>>> instance = ec2.Instance("myinstance", ImageId="ami-951945d0", InstanceType="t1.micro")
>>> t.add_resource(instance)
<troposphere.ec2.Instance object at 0x101bf3550>

And add_resource() returns the object to make it easy to use with Ref():

>>> instance = t.add_resource(ec2.Instance("myinstance", ImageId="ami-951945d0", InstanceType="t1.micro"))
>>> Ref(instance)
<troposphere.Ref object at 0x101bf3490>

Incorrect property being set on AWS resource:

>>> import troposphere.ec2 as ec2
>>> ec2.Instance("ec2instance", image="i-XXXX")
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
AttributeError: AWS::EC2::Instance object does not support attribute image

Incorrect type for AWS resource property:

>>> ec2.Instance("ec2instance", ImageId=1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
TypeError: ImageId is <type 'int'>, expected <type 'basestring'>

Missing required property for the AWS resource:

>>> from troposphere import Template
>>> import troposphere.ec2 as ec2
>>> t = Template()
>>> t.add_resource(ec2.Instance("ec2instance", InstanceType="m3.medium"))
<troposphere.ec2.Instance object at 0x109ee2e50>
>>> print(t.to_json())
Traceback (most recent call last):
...
ValueError: Resource ImageId required in type AWS::EC2::Instance

• AWS::AutoScaling
• AWS::CloudFormation
• AWS::CloudFront
• AWS::CloudTrail
• AWS::CloudWatch
• AWS::CodeDeploy
• AWS::CodePipeline
• AWS::Config
• AWS::DirectoryService
• AWS::DynamoDB
• AWS::EC2
• AWS::ECR
• AWS::ECS
• AWS::ElastiCache
• AWS::ElasticBeanstalk
• AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing
• AWS::Elasticsearch
• AWS::IAM
• AWS::KINESIS
• AWS::KMS
• AWS::Lambda
• AWS::Logs
• AWS::OPSWORKS
• AWS::RDS
• AWS::REDSHIFT
• AWS::Route53
• AWS::S3
• AWS::SDB
• AWS::SNS
• AWS::SQS
• AWS::SSM
• AWS::WorkSpaces

• OS::Neutron::Firewall
• OS::Neutron::FirewallPolicy
• OS::Neutron::FirewallRule
• OS::Neutron::FloatingIP
• OS::Neutron::FloatingIPAssociation
• OS::Neutron::HealthMonitor
• OS::Neutron::Pool
• OS::Neutron::LoadBalancer
• OS::Neutron::Net
• OS::Neutron::PoolMember
• OS::Neutron::Port
• OS::Neutron::SecurityGroup
• OS::Nova::FloatingIP
• OS::Nova::FloatingIPAssociation
• OS::Nova::KeyPair
• OS::Nova::Server

Todo:

• Add additional validity checks

# Converted from EC2InstanceSample.template located at:
# http://aws.amazon.com/cloudformation/aws-cloudformation-templates/

from troposphere import Base64, FindInMap, GetAtt
from troposphere import Parameter, Output, Ref, Template
import troposphere.ec2 as ec2


template = Template()

keyname_param = template.add_parameter(Parameter(
    "KeyName",
    Description="Name of an existing EC2 KeyPair to enable SSH "
                "access to the instance",
    Type="String",
))

template.add_mapping('RegionMap', {
    "us-east-1":      {"AMI": "ami-7f418316"},
    "us-west-1":      {"AMI": "ami-951945d0"},
    "us-west-2":      {"AMI": "ami-16fd7026"},
    "eu-west-1":      {"AMI": "ami-24506250"},
    "sa-east-1":      {"AMI": "ami-3e3be423"},
    "ap-southeast-1": {"AMI": "ami-74dda626"},
    "ap-northeast-1": {"AMI": "ami-dcfa4edd"}
})

ec2_instance = template.add_resource(ec2.Instance(
    "Ec2Instance",
    ImageId=FindInMap("RegionMap", Ref("AWS::Region"), "AMI"),
    InstanceType="t1.micro",
    KeyName=Ref(keyname_param),
    SecurityGroups=["default"],
    UserData=Base64("80")
))

template.add_output([
    Output(
        "InstanceId",
        Description="InstanceId of the newly created EC2 instance",
        Value=Ref(ec2_instance),
    ),
    Output(
        "AZ",
        Description="Availability Zone of the newly created EC2 instance",
        Value=GetAtt(ec2_instance, "AvailabilityZone"),
    ),
    Output(
        "PublicIP",
        Description="Public IP address of the newly created EC2 instance",
        Value=GetAtt(ec2_instance, "PublicIp"),
    ),
    Output(
        "PrivateIP",
        Description="Private IP address of the newly created EC2 instance",
        Value=GetAtt(ec2_instance, "PrivateIp"),
    ),
    Output(
        "PublicDNS",
        Description="Public DNSName of the newly created EC2 instance",
        Value=GetAtt(ec2_instance, "PublicDnsName"),
    ),
    Output(
        "PrivateDNS",
        Description="Private DNSName of the newly created EC2 instance",
        Value=GetAtt(ec2_instance, "PrivateDnsName"),
    ),
])

print(template.to_json())

The original dynamodb module did not use a consistent interface with the rest of troposphere, and so is being phased out. In order to prepare for this, you'll need to make a few changes to dynamodb resources. The biggest change is that many of the dynamodb properties are now treated like regular properties in troposphere rather than as helper functions. For a full example of the changes, you can check out this diff between the DynamoDB_Table example using the old and the new modules:

# diff examples/DynamoDB_Table.py examples/DynamoDB2_Table.py
5,7c5,7
< from troposphere.dynamodb import (Key, AttributeDefinition,
<                                   ProvisionedThroughput)
< from troposphere.dynamodb import Table
---
> from troposphere.dynamodb2 import (KeySchema, AttributeDefinition,
>                                    ProvisionedThroughput)
> from troposphere.dynamodb2 import Table
58c58,61
<         AttributeDefinition(Ref(hashkeyname), Ref(hashkeytype)),
---
>         AttributeDefinition(
>             AttributeName=Ref(hashkeyname),
>             AttributeType=Ref(hashkeytype)
>         ),
61c64,67
<         Key(Ref(hashkeyname), "HASH")
---
>         KeySchema(
>             AttributeName=Ref(hashkeyname),
>             KeyType="HASH"
>         )
64,65c70,71
<         Ref(readunits),
<         Ref(writeunits)
---
>         ReadCapacityUnits=Ref(readunits),
>         WriteCapacityUnits=Ref(writeunits)

We have a google group, cloudtools-dev, where you can ask questions and engage with the troposphere community. Issues & pull requests are always welcome!

Troposphere is licensed under the BSD 2-Clause license. See LICENSE for the troposphere full license text.