aws_cloud9_alpha: Give user ability to specify image ID, and make default to use recommended Amazon Linux 2

[sean-beath]

Describe the feature

Implement a way for users to change the default image ID for their Cloud9 instance.
Further, default the image ID to be Amazon Linux 2 (amazonlinux-2-x86_64) aligning to recommendation from AWS.

This would allow a user to implement the following to specify Amazon Linux 2 as their EC2 image:

cloud9_env = cloud9.Ec2Environment(self, "Cloud9Env",
            vpc=self.vpc,
            subnet_selection=ec2.SubnetSelection(
                        subnet_type=ec2.SubnetType.PUBLIC
            ),
            image_id="amazonlinux-2-x86_64"
)

Use Case

I am not currently able to deploy a Cloud9 environment using the recommended image from AWS.

Proposed Solution

No response

Other Information

No response

Acknowledgements

• I may be able to implement this feature request
• This feature might incur a breaking change

CDK version used

2.25.0a0

Environment details (OS name and version, etc.)

MacOS Big Sur 11.6.5

[corymhall]

@sean-beath I agree this should be a feature!

This issue has been classified as p2. That means a workaround is available or it is deemed a nice-to-have feature. Given the amount of work there is to do and the relative priority of this issue, the CDK team is unlikely to address it. That does not mean the issue will never be fixed! If someone from the community submits a PR to fix this issue, and the PR is small and straightforward enough, and meets the quality bars to be reviewed and merged with little effort we will accept that PR. PRs that do not build or need complex or multiple rounds of reviews are unlikely to be merged and will be closed to keep our backlog manageable.

In the mean time, remember that you can always use the escape hatch (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cfn_layer.html) mechanism to have fine control over the CloudFormation output you want. We will keep the issue open for discoverability, to collect upvotes, and to facilitate discussion around this topic.

We use +1s on this issue to help prioritize our work, and are happy to re-evaluate the prioritization of this issue based on community feedback. You can reach out to the cdk.dev community on Slack (https://cdk.dev/) to solicit support for reprioritization.

[jumic]

@corymhall
I've created a pull request to support parameter imageId.

Should we also change the default value to Amazon Linux 2 as requested? If yes, can we skip the feature flag because cloud9 is an experimental module?

Without feature flag, we could just add this line to change the default behaviour.

imageId: props.imageId ? props.imageId : 'amazonlinux-2-x86_64',

I found this note in the Cloud9 API documentation:

From July 1, 2022, the parameter for Amazon Linux will no longer be available when you specify an AMI for your instance. Amazon Linux 2 will then become the default AMI, which is used to launch your instance if no parameter is explicity defined.

Will the default value be also changed to Amazon Linux 2 in CloudFormation? In this case, we could close this issue after merging the PR.

[sean-beath]

@corymhall
I created a different pull request incorporating comments from @jumic's PR.

The build is failing as this is a breaking change by making the imageId a mandatory field.

Apologies for the duplicate PR but I wanted to use this for my own learning so hopefully I can keep contributing. Please let me know if there is something I have missed.

[github-actions]

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