AWS CloudFormation StackSets now supports deployment ordering

AWS CloudFormation StackSets offers deployment ordering for auto-deployment mode, enabling you to define the sequence in which your stack instances automatically deploy across accounts and regions. This capability allows you to coordinate complex multi-stack deployments where foundational infrastructure must be provisioned before dependent application components. Organizations managing large-scale deployments can now ensure proper deployment ordering without manual intervention.

When creating or updating a CloudFormation StackSet, you can specify up to 10 dependencies per stack instances using the new DependsOn parameter in the AutoDeployment configuration, allowing StackSets to automatically orchestrate deployments based on your defined relationships. For example, you can make sure that your networking and security stack instance complete deployment before your application stack instances begin, preventing deployment failures due to missing dependencies. StackSets includes built-in cycle detection to prevent circular dependencies and provides error messages to help resolve configuration issues.

This feature is available in all AWS Regions where CloudFormation StackSets is available at no additional cost.

Get started by creating or updating your StackSets auto-deployement option through the CLI, SDK or the CloudFormation Console to define dependencies using stack instances ARNs. To learn more about StackSets deployment ordering, check out the detailed feature walkthrough on the AWS DevOps Blog or visit the AWS CloudFormation User Guide.