Configure Application Auto Scaling resources with AWS CloudFormation
This section provides AWS CloudFormation template examples for Application Auto Scaling scaling policies and scheduled actions for different AWS resources.
Important
When an Application Auto Scaling snippet is included in the template, you might need to declare a dependency on the specific scalable resource that's created through the template using theDependsOn attribute. This overrides the default parallelism and directs AWS CloudFormation to operate on resources in a specified order. Otherwise, the scaling configuration might be applied before the resource has been set up completely.
Snippet categories
- Create a scaling policy for an AppStream fleet
- Create a scaling policy for an Aurora DB cluster
- Create a scaling policy for a DynamoDB table
- Create a scaling policy for an Amazon ECS service (metrics: average CPU and memory)
- Create a scaling policy for an Amazon ECS service (metric: average request count per target)
- Create a scheduled action with a cron expression for a Lambda function
- Create a scheduled action with an at expression for a Spot Fleet
Create a scaling policy for an AppStream fleet
This snippet shows how to create a policy and apply it to an AWS::AppStream::Fleet
resource using the AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy
resource. The AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
resource declares a scalable target to which this
policy is applied. Application Auto Scaling can scale the number of fleet instances at a minimum of 1 instance and a maximum of 20.
The policy keeps the average capacity utilization of the fleet at 75 percent, with scale-out and scale-in cooldown
periods of 300 seconds (5 minutes).
It uses the Fn::Join and Ref intrinsic functions to construct the ResourceId
property
with the logical name of the AWS::AppStream::Fleet
resource that's specified in the same
template.
JSON
{ "Resources" : { "ScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : 20, "MinCapacity" : 1, "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Sub" : "arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/appstream.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_AppStreamFleet" }, "ServiceNamespace" : "appstream", "ScalableDimension" : "appstream:fleet:DesiredCapacity", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ "fleet", { "Ref" : "
logicalName
" } ] ] } } }, "ScalingPolicyAppStreamFleet" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties" : { "PolicyName" : { "Fn::Sub" : "${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-cpu75" }, "PolicyType" : "TargetTrackingScaling", "ServiceNamespace" : "appstream", "ScalableDimension" : "appstream:fleet:DesiredCapacity", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ "fleet", { "Ref" : "logicalName
" } ] ] }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration" : { "TargetValue" : 75, "PredefinedMetricSpecification" : { "PredefinedMetricType" : "AppStreamAverageCapacityUtilization" }, "ScaleInCooldown" : 300, "ScaleOutCooldown" : 300 } } } } }
YAML
--- Resources: ScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: 20 MinCapacity: 1 RoleARN: Fn::Sub: 'arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/appstream.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_AppStreamFleet' ServiceNamespace: appstream ScalableDimension: appstream:fleet:DesiredCapacity ResourceId: !Join - / - - fleet - !Ref
logicalName
ScalingPolicyAppStreamFleet: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy Properties: PolicyName: !Sub ${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-cpu75 PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling ServiceNamespace: appstream ScalableDimension: appstream:fleet:DesiredCapacity ResourceId: !Join - / - - fleet - !ReflogicalName
TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration: TargetValue: 75 PredefinedMetricSpecification: PredefinedMetricType: AppStreamAverageCapacityUtilization ScaleInCooldown: 300 ScaleOutCooldown: 300
Create a scaling policy for an Aurora DB cluster
In this snippet, you register an AWS::RDS::DBCluster
resource. The AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
resource indicates that the DB cluster should be
dynamically scaled to have from one to eight Aurora Replicas. You also apply a target tracking scaling policy to the
cluster using the AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy
resource.
In this configuration, the RDSReaderAverageCPUUtilization
predefined metric
is used to adjust an Aurora DB cluster based on an average CPU utilization of 40 percent
across all Aurora Replicas in that Aurora DB cluster. The configuration provides a scale-in
cooldown period of 10 minutes and a scale-out cooldown period of 5 minutes.
This example uses the Fn::Sub intrinsic function to construct the ResourceId
property
with the logical name of the AWS::RDS::DBCluster
resource that is specified in the same
template.
JSON
{ "Resources" : { "ScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : 8, "MinCapacity" : 1, "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Sub" : "arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/rds.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_RDSCluster" }, "ServiceNamespace" : "rds", "ScalableDimension" : "rds:cluster:ReadReplicaCount", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Sub" : "cluster:${
logicalName
}" } } }, "ScalingPolicyDBCluster" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties" : { "PolicyName" : { "Fn::Sub" : "${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-cpu40" }, "PolicyType" : "TargetTrackingScaling", "ServiceNamespace" : "rds", "ScalableDimension" : "rds:cluster:ReadReplicaCount", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Sub" : "cluster:${logicalName
}" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration" : { "TargetValue" : 40, "PredefinedMetricSpecification" : { "PredefinedMetricType" : "RDSReaderAverageCPUUtilization" }, "ScaleInCooldown" : 600, "ScaleOutCooldown" : 300 } } } } }
YAML
--- Resources: ScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: 8 MinCapacity: 1 RoleARN: Fn::Sub: 'arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/rds.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_RDSCluster' ServiceNamespace: rds ScalableDimension: rds:cluster:ReadReplicaCount ResourceId: !Sub cluster:${
logicalName
} ScalingPolicyDBCluster: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy Properties: PolicyName: !Sub ${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-cpu40 PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling ServiceNamespace: rds ScalableDimension: rds:cluster:ReadReplicaCount ResourceId: !Sub cluster:${logicalName
} TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration: TargetValue: 40 PredefinedMetricSpecification: PredefinedMetricType: RDSReaderAverageCPUUtilization ScaleInCooldown: 600 ScaleOutCooldown: 300
Create a scaling policy for a DynamoDB table
This snippet shows how to create a policy with the TargetTrackingScaling
policy type and apply
it to an AWS::DynamoDB::Table
resource using the AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy
resource. The AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
resource declares a scalable target to which this
policy is applied, with a minimum of five write capacity units and a maximum of 15. The scaling policy scales the
table's write capacity throughput to maintain the target utilization at 50 percent based on the
DynamoDBWriteCapacityUtilization
predefined metric.
It uses the Fn::Join and Ref intrinsic functions to construct the ResourceId
property
with the logical name of the AWS::DynamoDB::Table
resource that's specified in the same
template.
Note
For more information about how to create an AWS CloudFormation template for DynamoDB resources, see
the blog post How to use AWS CloudFormation to configure auto scaling for Amazon DynamoDB tables and
indexes
JSON
{ "Resources" : { "WriteCapacityScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : 15, "MinCapacity" : 5, "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Sub" : "arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/dynamodb.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_DynamoDBTable" }, "ServiceNamespace" : "dynamodb", "ScalableDimension" : "dynamodb:table:WriteCapacityUnits", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ "table", { "Ref" : "
logicalName
" } ] ] } } }, "WriteScalingPolicy" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties" : { "PolicyName" : "WriteScalingPolicy", "PolicyType" : "TargetTrackingScaling", "ScalingTargetId" : { "Ref" : "WriteCapacityScalableTarget" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration" : { "TargetValue" : 50.0, "ScaleInCooldown" : 60, "ScaleOutCooldown" : 60, "PredefinedMetricSpecification" : { "PredefinedMetricType" : "DynamoDBWriteCapacityUtilization" } } } } } }
YAML
--- Resources: WriteCapacityScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: 15 MinCapacity: 5 RoleARN: Fn::Sub: 'arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/dynamodb.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_DynamoDBTable' ServiceNamespace: dynamodb ScalableDimension: dynamodb:table:WriteCapacityUnits ResourceId: !Join - / - - table - !Ref
logicalName
WriteScalingPolicy: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy Properties: PolicyName: WriteScalingPolicy PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling ScalingTargetId: !Ref WriteCapacityScalableTarget TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration: TargetValue: 50.0 ScaleInCooldown: 60 ScaleOutCooldown: 60 PredefinedMetricSpecification: PredefinedMetricType: DynamoDBWriteCapacityUtilization
Create a scaling policy for an Amazon ECS service (metrics: average CPU and memory)
This snippet shows how to create a policy and apply it to an AWS::ECS::Service
resource using the AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy
resource. The AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
resource declares a scalable target to which this
policy is applied. Application Auto Scaling can scale the number of tasks at a minimum of 1 task and a maximum of 6.
It creates two scaling policies with the TargetTrackingScaling
policy type. The policies are
used to scale the ECS service based on the service's average CPU and memory usage. It uses the Fn::Join and Ref intrinsic functions to
construct the ResourceId
property with the logical names of the AWS::ECS::Cluster
(myContainerCluster
) and AWS::ECS::Service
(myService
) resources that are
specified in the same template.
JSON
{ "Resources" : { "ECSScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : "6", "MinCapacity" : "1", "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Sub" : "arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/ecs.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_ECSService" }, "ServiceNamespace" : "ecs", "ScalableDimension" : "ecs:service:DesiredCount", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ "service", { "Ref" : "
myContainerCluster
" }, { "Fn::GetAtt" : [ "myService
", "Name" ] } ] ] } } }, "ServiceScalingPolicyCPU" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties" : { "PolicyName" : { "Fn::Sub" : "${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-cpu70" }, "PolicyType" : "TargetTrackingScaling", "ScalingTargetId" : { "Ref" : "ECSScalableTarget" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration" : { "TargetValue" : 70.0, "ScaleInCooldown" : 180, "ScaleOutCooldown" : 60, "PredefinedMetricSpecification" : { "PredefinedMetricType" : "ECSServiceAverageCPUUtilization" } } } }, "ServiceScalingPolicyMem" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties" : { "PolicyName" : { "Fn::Sub" : "${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-mem90" }, "PolicyType" : "TargetTrackingScaling", "ScalingTargetId" : { "Ref" : "ECSScalableTarget" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration" : { "TargetValue" : 90.0, "ScaleInCooldown" : 180, "ScaleOutCooldown" : 60, "PredefinedMetricSpecification" : { "PredefinedMetricType" : "ECSServiceAverageMemoryUtilization" } } } } } }
YAML
--- Resources: ECSScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: 6 MinCapacity: 1 RoleARN: Fn::Sub: 'arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/ecs.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_ECSService' ServiceNamespace: ecs ScalableDimension: 'ecs:service:DesiredCount' ResourceId: !Join - / - - service - !Ref
myContainerCluster
- !GetAttmyService
.Name ServiceScalingPolicyCPU: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy Properties: PolicyName: !Sub ${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-cpu70 PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling ScalingTargetId: !Ref ECSScalableTarget TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration: TargetValue: 70.0 ScaleInCooldown: 180 ScaleOutCooldown: 60 PredefinedMetricSpecification: PredefinedMetricType: ECSServiceAverageCPUUtilization ServiceScalingPolicyMem: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy Properties: PolicyName: !Sub ${AWS::StackName}-target-tracking-mem90 PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling ScalingTargetId: !Ref ECSScalableTarget TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration: TargetValue: 90.0 ScaleInCooldown: 180 ScaleOutCooldown: 60 PredefinedMetricSpecification: PredefinedMetricType: ECSServiceAverageMemoryUtilization
Create a scaling policy for an Amazon ECS service (metric: average request count per target)
The following example applies a target tracking scaling policy with the
ALBRequestCountPerTarget
predefined metric to an ECS service. The policy is
used to add capacity to the ECS service when the request count per target (per minute)
exceeds the target value. Because the value of DisableScaleIn
is set to
true
, the target tracking policy won't remove capacity from the scalable
target.
It uses the Fn::Join and Fn::GetAtt intrinsic functions to construct the ResourceLabel
property with the logical names of the AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer
(myLoadBalancer
) and AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::TargetGroup
(myTargetGroup
) resources that are
specified in the same template.
The MaxCapacity
and MinCapacity
properties of the scalable
target and the TargetValue
property of the scaling policy reference parameter
values that you pass to the template when creating or updating a stack.
JSON
{ "Resources" : { "ECSScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : { "Ref" : "MaxCount" }, "MinCapacity" : { "Ref" : "MinCount" }, "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Sub" : "arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/ecs.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_ECSService" }, "ServiceNamespace" : "ecs", "ScalableDimension" : "ecs:service:DesiredCount", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ "service", { "Ref" : "
myContainerCluster
" }, { "Fn::GetAtt" : [ "myService
", "Name" ] } ] ] } } }, "ServiceScalingPolicyALB" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties" : { "PolicyName" : "alb-requests-per-target-per-minute", "PolicyType" : "TargetTrackingScaling", "ScalingTargetId" : { "Ref" : "ECSScalableTarget" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration" : { "TargetValue" : { "Ref" : "ALBPolicyTargetValue" }, "ScaleInCooldown" : 180, "ScaleOutCooldown" : 30, "DisableScaleIn" : true, "PredefinedMetricSpecification" : { "PredefinedMetricType" : "ALBRequestCountPerTarget", "ResourceLabel" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ { "Fn::GetAtt" : [ "myLoadBalancer
", "LoadBalancerFullName" ] }, { "Fn::GetAtt" : [ "myTargetGroup
", "TargetGroupFullName" ] } ] ] } } } } } } }
YAML
--- Resources: ECSScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: !Ref MaxCount MinCapacity: !Ref MinCount RoleARN: Fn::Sub: 'arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/ecs.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_ECSService' ServiceNamespace: ecs ScalableDimension: 'ecs:service:DesiredCount' ResourceId: !Join - / - - service - !Ref
myContainerCluster
- !GetAttmyService
.Name ServiceScalingPolicyALB: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy Properties: PolicyName: alb-requests-per-target-per-minute PolicyType: TargetTrackingScaling ScalingTargetId: !Ref ECSScalableTarget TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration: TargetValue: !Ref ALBPolicyTargetValue ScaleInCooldown: 180 ScaleOutCooldown: 30 DisableScaleIn: true PredefinedMetricSpecification: PredefinedMetricType: ALBRequestCountPerTarget ResourceLabel: !Join - '/' - - !GetAttmyLoadBalancer
.LoadBalancerFullName - !GetAttmyTargetGroup
.TargetGroupFullName
Create a scheduled action with a cron expression for a Lambda function
This snippet registers the provisioned concurrency for a function alias (AWS::Lambda::Alias
)
named BLUE
using the AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
resource. It also creates a scheduled action with
a recurring schedule using a cron expression. The time zone for the recurring schedule is UTC.
It uses the Fn::Join and Ref intrinsic functions in the RoleARN
property to specify the
ARN of the service-linked role. It uses the Fn::Sub intrinsic function to construct the ResourceId
property
with the logical name of the AWS::Lambda::Function
or AWS::Serverless::Function
resource that is specified in the same template.
Note
You can't allocate provisioned concurrency on an alias that points to the unpublished version
($LATEST
).
For more information about how to create an AWS CloudFormation template for Lambda resources, see
the blog post Scheduling AWS Lambda Provisioned Concurrency for recurring peak usage
JSON
{ "ScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : 250, "MinCapacity" : 0, "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Join" : [ ":", [ "arn:aws:iam:", { "Ref" : "AWS::AccountId" }, "role/aws-service-role/lambda.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_LambdaConcurrency" ] ] }, "ServiceNamespace" : "lambda", "ScalableDimension" : "lambda:function:ProvisionedConcurrency", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Sub" : "function:${
logicalName
}:BLUE" }, "ScheduledActions" : [ { "ScalableTargetAction" : { "MinCapacity" : "250" }, "ScheduledActionName" : "my-scale-out-scheduled-action", "Schedule" : "cron(0 18 * * ? *)", "EndTime" : "2022-12-31T12:00:00.000Z" } ] } } }
YAML
ScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: 250 MinCapacity: 0 RoleARN: !Join - ':' - - 'arn:aws:iam:' - !Ref 'AWS::AccountId' - role/aws-service-role/lambda.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_LambdaConcurrency ServiceNamespace: lambda ScalableDimension: lambda:function:ProvisionedConcurrency ResourceId: !Sub function:${
logicalName
}:BLUE ScheduledActions: - ScalableTargetAction: MinCapacity: 250 ScheduledActionName: my-scale-out-scheduled-action Schedule: 'cron(0 18 * * ? *)' EndTime: '2022-12-31T12:00:00.000Z'
Create a scheduled action with an at
expression for a Spot Fleet
This snippet shows how to create two scheduled actions that occur only once for an AWS::EC2::SpotFleet
resource using the AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget
resource. The time zone for each one-time
scheduled action is UTC.
It uses the Fn::Join and Ref intrinsic functions to construct the ResourceId
property
with the logical name of the AWS::EC2::SpotFleet
resource that is specified in the same
template.
Note
The Spot Fleet request must have a request type of maintain
. Automatic
scaling isn't supported for one-time requests or Spot blocks.
JSON
{ "Resources" : { "SpotFleetScalableTarget" : { "Type" : "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget", "Properties" : { "MaxCapacity" : 0, "MinCapacity" : 0, "RoleARN" : { "Fn::Sub" : "arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/ec2.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_EC2SpotFleetRequest" }, "ServiceNamespace" : "ec2", "ScalableDimension" : "ec2:spot-fleet-request:TargetCapacity", "ResourceId" : { "Fn::Join" : [ "/", [ "spot-fleet-request", { "Ref" : "
logicalName
" } ] ] }, "ScheduledActions" : [ { "ScalableTargetAction" : { "MaxCapacity" : "10", "MinCapacity" : "10" }, "ScheduledActionName" : "my-scale-out-scheduled-action", "Schedule" : "at(2022-05-20T13:00:00)" }, { "ScalableTargetAction" : { "MaxCapacity" : "0", "MinCapacity" : "0" }, "ScheduledActionName" : "my-scale-in-scheduled-action", "Schedule" : "at(2022-05-20T21:00:00)" } ] } } } }
YAML
--- Resources: SpotFleetScalableTarget: Type: AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalableTarget Properties: MaxCapacity: 0 MinCapacity: 0 RoleARN: Fn::Sub: 'arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:role/aws-service-role/ec2.application-autoscaling.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForApplicationAutoScaling_EC2SpotFleetRequest' ServiceNamespace: ec2 ScalableDimension: 'ec2:spot-fleet-request:TargetCapacity' ResourceId: !Join - / - - spot-fleet-request - !Ref
logicalName
ScheduledActions: - ScalableTargetAction: MaxCapacity: 10 MinCapacity: 10 ScheduledActionName: my-scale-out-scheduled-action Schedule: 'at(2022-05-20T13:00:00)' - ScalableTargetAction: MaxCapacity: 0 MinCapacity: 0 ScheduledActionName: my-scale-in-scheduled-action Schedule: 'at(2022-05-20T21:00:00)'