GitHub Actions CI/CD for Lambda Functions and CloudFormation Validation

This project demonstrates a serverless CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to automate AWS Lambda deployments and validate CloudFormation templates.

1. Automatically Deploying Lambda Functions
2. Automating CloudFormation Validation for Pull Requests

Both workflows are designed to enhance DevOps practices by ensuring that infrastructure changes are consistently deployed and validated before merging.

Workflow Architecture

1. Lambda Deployment Pipeline:

   • Triggers on pushes to main branch when lambda code changes
   • Packages code into zip file
   • Updates existing Lambda function via AWS CLI

2. CloudFormation Validation Pipeline:

   • Triggers on PR events involving CloudFormation templates
   • Creates temporary test stacks
   • Comments on PR with results
   • Automatically cleans up test resources

Business Value

• Reduces deployment errors with automated validation
• Speeds up development cycle with automatic deployments
• Improves code quality through infrastructure testing before merge
• Eliminates manual AWS console work

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Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Part 1: Automatically Deploying Lambda Functions
   • Part 2: Automating CloudFormation Validation
2. Built With
3. Getting Started
   • Prerequisites
   • Installation
4. Usage
5. Contributing
6. License
7. Contact

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About The Project

This repository features two distinct GitHub Actions workflows:

Part 1: Automatically Deploying Lambda Functions

This workflow triggers on push events to the main branch. When changes are detected in the lambda/ directory, it automatically deploys the updated Lambda function to AWS. This ensures that any code changes to the Lambda function are consistently deployed without manual intervention.

Key features:

• Automated deployments on code push to the main branch.
• AWS credentials management via GitHub Secrets.
• Error handling to prevent further steps if deployment fails.

Part 2: Automating CloudFormation Validation

This workflow triggers on pull request events and handles the following tasks:

• Validates CloudFormation templates when a PR is opened or updated.
• Deploys a test CloudFormation stack to AWS for validation.
• Comments on the pull request with deployment status and details.
• Cleans up (deletes) the test stack when the PR is merged.

Key features:

• Ensures infrastructure changes are validated before merging.
• Automatically removes test stacks after merging.
• Supports multiple PR event types, including opened, updated, reopened, and closed.

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Built With

This project uses the following tools and frameworks:

• 
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Getting Started

Prerequisites

You need the following tools installed:

1. AWS CLI Install the AWS Command Line Interface by following the AWS CLI Installation Guide.

2. GitHub CLI (optional) Install GitHub CLI if you want to manage PRs from the command line:

   brew install gh

3. Basic Git and GitHub Knowledge Ensure you have a basic understanding of Git version control and GitHub repositories.

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Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/simoncheam/lambda-cicd.git
   cd lambda-cicd

2. Set Up AWS Credentials: Use the AWS CLI to configure your credentials locally:

   aws configure

3. Push to GitHub and Create a PR: Push your changes to a branch and open a pull request:

   git checkout -b feature/add-new-cloudformation-template
   git push origin feature/add-new-cloudformation-template

4. Review Workflow Execution: Go to the Actions tab in your GitHub repository to monitor workflow execution.

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Usage

Part 1: Automatically Deploying Lambda Functions

1. Set Up AWS Credentials Add AWS credentials as GitHub Secrets to securely authenticate deployments:

   • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
   • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY

2. Create a Push Workflow Add the following workflow file in .github/workflows/lambda.yml:

   name: Deploy AWS Lambda
   
   on:
     push:
       branches:
         - main
       paths:
         - 'lambda/**'
   
   jobs:
     deploy-lambda:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v2
   
         - name: Set Up Python
           uses: actions/setup-python@v2
           with:
             python-version: '3.11'
   
         - name: Install Dependencies
           run: |
             python -m pip install --upgrade pip
             pip install -r lambda/requirements.txt -t lambda/
   
         - name: Configure AWS Creds
           uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v2
           with:
             aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
             aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
             aws-region: us-east-1
   
         - name: Deploy Lambda Function
           run: |
             cd lambda/
             zip -r lambda.zip .
             aws lambda update-function-code --function-name my-test-cicd-lambda --zip-file fileb://lambda.zip

3. Trigger the Workflow Push changes to the lambda/ directory on the main branch. The workflow will automatically deploy the updated Lambda function.

4. Verify the Deployment Check the AWS Lambda Console to verify that the function was updated.

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Part 2: Automating CloudFormation Validation

1. Create a CloudFormation Template Add the following CloudFormation template in cloudformation/s3-bucket.yml:

   AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
   Description: 'S3 Bucket for our CICD PR'
   
   Parameters:
     Environment:
       Type: String
       Default: test
       AllowedValues:
         - test
         - staging
         - production
   
   Resources:
     MyS3Bucket:
       Type: AWS::S3::Bucket
       Properties:
         BucketName: !Sub '${AWS::StackName}-${Environment}-bucket-v2'
         Tags:
           - Key: Environment
             Value: !Ref Environment
           - Key: Environment
             Value: GithubActions-CFN-Validation-Logic

2. Create a PR Workflow Add the following workflow file in .github/workflows/cfn-validate-pr.yml:

   name: Validate CloudFormation on PR
   
   on:
     pull_request:
       paths:
         - 'cloudformation/**'
   
   jobs:
     validate-cfn:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v2
   
         - name: Configure AWS credentials
           uses: aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials@v1
           with:
             aws-access-key-id: ${{ secrets.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID }}
             aws-secret-access-key: ${{ secrets.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY }}
             aws-region: us-east-1
   
         - name: Validate CloudFormation template
           run: |
             aws cloudformation validate-template --template-body file://cloudformation/s3-bucket.yml

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Follow these steps to contribute:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add new feature')
4. Push to your branch (git push origin feature/new-feature)
5. Open a pull request

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License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

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Contact

Simon Cheam – LinkedIn Project Link: https://github.com/simoncheam/lambda-cicd