Update AWS Athena workgroup using CloudFormation template

Question

I have 2 templates those I have taken from the AWS::Athena::WorkGroup - AWS CloudFormation documentation.

The first template athena_create.yaml works as expected. The second template needs to modify the workgroup created in the first template. But I get an error:

MyCustomWorkGroup already exists in stack arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:XXX:stack/a1/7cc670a0-8d19-11ea-872c-12217e59f19f

Here is the code. create template works correctly.

athena_create.yaml

Resources:
  MyAthenaWorkGroup:
    Type: AWS::Athena::WorkGroup
    Properties:
      Name: MyCustomWorkGroup
      Description: My WorkGroup
      State: ENABLED
      Tags:
        - Key: "key1"
          Value: "value1"
        - Key: "key2"
          Value: "value2"
      WorkGroupConfiguration:
        BytesScannedCutoffPerQuery: 200000000
        EnforceWorkGroupConfiguration: false
        PublishCloudWatchMetricsEnabled: false
        RequesterPaysEnabled: true
        ResultConfiguration:
          OutputLocation: s3://path/to/my/bucket/

athena_update.yaml

Resources:
  MyAthenaWorkGroup:
    Type: AWS::Athena::WorkGroup
    Properties:
      Name: MyCustomWorkGroup
      Description: My WorkGroup Updated
      State: DISABLED
      Tags:
        - Key: "key1"
          Value: "value1"
        - Key: "key2"
          Value: "value2"
      WorkGroupConfigurationUpdates:
        BytesScannedCutoffPerQuery: 10000000
        EnforceWorkGroupConfiguration: true
        PublishCloudWatchMetricsEnabled: true
        RequesterPaysEnabled: false
        ResultConfigurationUpdates:
          EncryptionConfiguration:
            EncryptionOption: SSE_S3
          OutputLocation: s3://path/to/my/bucket/updated/

The update template mentioned above does not work as expected.

I guess you are deploying them as two separate templates? In that case you can't do this because the two templates create two WorkGroups of same Name: MyCustomWorkGroup . — Marcin
You create the stack using first template. Then once done, you go to the stack and click update. This will updated the orginal stack, instead of creating new one. — Marcin
Thanks. Got it. Is there any way to update default workgroup using cloudformation? — shantanuo
If you don't mind I will make an answer for future reference. Unfortunate not that familiar with Athena. Just new why CloudFormation was giving your problems. — Marcin

Marcin Marcin · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-03T09:57:02

The reason for the error is that the two templates were used to create two independent stacks. This didn't work because they two Athena WorkGroups of same Name: MyCustomWorkGroup.

The correct way to perform create and update the MyCustomWorkGroup is as follows:

Create a stack using athena_create.yaml file.
Once the stack is created, use its Update option to upload athena_update.yaml which is going to update the stack.

Update AWS Athena workgroup using CloudFormation template

1 Answers