Specifying AWS availability zone in cloudformation template?

[Manu Iyengar]

I can't seem to figure out how to explicitly specify the availability zone
in the CF properties used to create the transactor instance on AWS other
than by tweaking the generated JSON file before invoking the
create-cf-stack command. That seems like a bad option because the JSON file
is of course overwritten by the create-cf-template command. Am I missing
something obvious?

Any suggestions appreciated!

Thanks,
Manu

[Marshall Thompson]

Hi Manu,


At present the AZ can't be manually specified in the CF template.

Best,
Marshall

Post by Manu Iyengar
I can't seem to figure out how to explicitly specify the availability zone
in the CF properties used to create the transactor instance on AWS other
than by tweaking the generated JSON file before invoking the
create-cf-stack command. That seems like a bad option because the JSON file
is of course overwritten by the create-cf-template command. Am I missing
something obvious?
Any suggestions appreciated!
Thanks,
Manu

[Manu Iyengar]

Any chance the AZ will be configurable soon? We actively use AZ
partitioning for our apps and the transactor is currently the exception.

Thanks!

Post by Marshall Thompson
Hi Manu,
At present the AZ can't be manually specified in the CF template.
Best,
Marshall

Post by Manu Iyengar
I can't seem to figure out how to explicitly specify the availability
zone in the CF properties used to create the transactor instance on AWS
other than by tweaking the generated JSON file before invoking the
create-cf-stack command. That seems like a bad option because the JSON file
is of course overwritten by the create-cf-template command. Am I missing
something obvious?
Any suggestions appreciated!
Thanks,
Manu

[Adam Lane]

+1. It is extremely annoying to have all your infrastructure setup in one
zone and then the transactor (during an update, etc) starts in a different
one.

[Marshall Thompson]

Hi Adam,

Because of the way AWS handles creation of instances when an AZ has no
available instances our config defaults to the full set of AZs to allow
'round robin' and ensure an instance gets created.

If you need to limit the set of AZs to target you can edit the
cloudformation JSON directly after you run ensure-cf. You'll see the entry:

"AvailabilityZones":{"Fn::GetAZs":""}

You can alter this parameter as described here:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-properties-as-group.html#cfn-as-group-availabilityzones

Providing a list of strings indicating the zones you want the ASG to use
for your instances.

You can then use the create-stack function with the edited json as normal.

Best,
Marshall

Post by Adam Lane
+1. It is extremely annoying to have all your infrastructure setup in one
zone and then the transactor (during an update, etc) starts in a different
one.