Support cdk deploy stack update without change set - speed up deployments

[ottokruse]

It would be great if there was an option for cdk deploy to do a direct CloudFormation deployment and not use a change set.

I was using serverless framework this morning and was amazed by how fast deployments were. For a second I thought AWS had implemented a general performance boost to CloudFormation :D But it turn out serverless is quicker in deploying than I was used to with CDK because serverless framework does not use change sets. That makes a ton of difference in deployment speed.

For most projects I am on we do not review change sets anyway (reviews are done as part of PR's and within the deployment pipeline).

Proposed Solution

Add a flag e.g. --no-changeset to cdk deploy command.

If specified, upon deployment a change set will not be created. If the stack exists, the stack is updated without change set.

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

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This is a 🚀 Feature Request

[mikestopcontinues]

It's been a while. Any thoughs @shivlaks ?

[rix0rrr]

Not possible. We use a number of CFN features that require a change set.

[egglestonbd]

I understand --no-execute accomplishes the same thing.

[kichik]

#22079 resolved this. If you're here from Google like me, this is how:

cdk deploy --method direct

Or:

export CDK_METHOD=direct
cdk deploy

[ottokruse]

Thanks for the heads up !