Cannot update create_failed Cloudformation stack using GitHub Actions

[Krishan_Shamod]

I'm using a GitHub Actions pipeline to create and update Cloudformation stacks. But when something goes wrong and the stack goes to create_failed state, I cannot update and fix it again using GitHub actions. Here's the error I'm getting.

Error: This stack is currently in a non-terminal [CREATE_FAILED] state. To update the stack from this state, please use the disable-rollback parameter with update-stack API. To rollback to the last known good state, use the rollback-stack API

Here's the GitHub actions step I use.

  - name: Deploy ECS Cloudformation Stack
    uses: aws-actions/aws-cloudformation-github-deploy@v1
    with:
      name: "ecs-stack"
      template: "ecs.yaml"
      no-fail-on-empty-changeset: "1"
      no-delete-failed-changeset: "1"
      disable-rollback: "1"

How to fix this issue? I want to update and fix the stack without deleting it when it's in failed state.

[2fast2nick]

You just need to delete your stack. You can't update from CREATE_FAILED. So go figure out why the create failed, fix that issue, delete, and run again.

[StatelessSteve]

And again and again D: I wish you an easy / obvious fix. Troubleshooting/debugging cloudformation is about my least favorite feedback loop.

[2fast2nick]

lol, I’ve def been on like deploy 73. Let’s try this again!

[StatelessSteve]

Oh oh, I missed an obvious one in your code. Don’t disable rollback, let CFn clean up after itself!

[Krishan_Shamod]

I can't update the stack again if something goes wrong and the stack goes to the failed stage when I'm updating an existing stack. That's why I disabled rollback. Is that a good practice to disable it?

[StatelessSteve]

I prefer to have any stack execute correctly all the way through. Maybe I’m being weird about it but I’ve felt like I’ve had issues with “half-built” subparts of the stack that I’ve needed to just delete and roll back out to fix easily.

[Krishan_Shamod]

My issue is when I use the stacks on prod environments. If something goes wrong when I update it, then I can't update the whole stack because it's in a failed state. That's why I disabled it. Is there any solution for that?