CDK Build once and deploy to higher environments

[iamsamuelhere]

I have a cdk stack in typescript, which contains lambda, apigateway, dynamod, I have dev, qa, stage, prod environments.

I need to build once (cdk synth) on Dev environments and deploy to other environments.(storing and reading the build files from artifact)

But the cdk synth performed on Dev has dev env specific values. Also did read on the metadata in cloudformation would fail when imported to higher env.

Seeking guidance on what's the suggested approach to do this.

[hoegertn]

Hi, I wrote a blog post some time ago about this: https://taimos.de/blog/deploying-your-cdk-app-to-different-stages-and-environments

Maybe that helps. Let me know if you have additional questions...

[iamsamuelhere]

Hi @hoegertn
Thanks this blog post it helps.
However the cdk output would still contain environment specific values right. can I have environment agnostic cfn output and then pass environment specific values during deployment time or execution time

[hoegertn]

The CDK assembly/output contains environemnt specific templates correct. But it can contain many templates, one for each environment. The idea is to specify all environments and their configuration at synth time and then for deployment pick one of the templates at a time.

[iamsamuelhere]

@hoegertn
Right, what if I can generate one environment agnostic template which is not specific to any environment.

And I decoupled the environment variables pass while I execute respective environment.

This way I don't need to store all env templates, just one template and dynamically pass environment values.

Any thoughts

[hoegertn]

This is how you would work with CloudFormation but not CDK. The premise of CDK is to configure your environments also in CDK. The capabilities of conditionally configuring resources are way bigger in CDk than what CloudFormation Parameters and Conditions offer.

[hoegertn]

There is also a brand new post about environment in CDK: https://dev.to/aws-heroes/cdk-environment-management-static-vs-dynamic-stack-creation-383l