AWS CloudFormation Deletion Policy

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How to Apply the DeletionPolicy

You add the DeletionPolicy attribute directly to the resource definition in your CloudFormation template.

Example 1: Retain policy for an S3 Bucket

This example ensures that if you delete the CloudFormation stack, the MyProductionBucket S3 bucket and its contents will not be deleted.

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09

Resources:

  MyProductionBucket:

    Type: AWS::S3::Bucket

    DeletionPolicy: Retain

    Properties:

      BucketName: my-critical-production-data-bucket

Example 2: Snapshot policy for an EBS Volume

In this example, when the stack is deleted, the EC2 instance will be terminated, but a final snapshot of MyDataVolume will be created before the volume itself is deleted.

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09

Resources:

  MyEC2Instance:

    Type: AWS::EC2::Instance

    Properties:

      ImageId: ami-0abcdef1234567890

      # Other instance properties...



  MyDataVolume:

    Type: AWS::EC2::Volume

    DeletionPolicy: Snapshot

    Properties:

      Size: 50

      AvailabilityZone: !GetAtt MyEC2Instance.AvailabilityZone

      # Other volume properties...

Best Practices Summary

• For Production: Always use DeletionPolicy: Retain on critical, stateful resources like databases (RDS, DynamoDB) and S3 buckets.

• For Development/Test: The default Delete policy is often acceptable for ephemeral environments where you want everything to be cleaned up automatically.

• For Data You Want to Archive: Use DeletionPolicy: Snapshot for supported resources like EBS volumes and RDS instances if you don't need the live resource but want to keep a final backup.