How do I identify resources for CloudFormation to skip for the continue-update-rollback AWS CLI command?

Resolution

Note: If you receive errors when you run AWS CLI commands, then see Troubleshooting errors for the AWS CLI. Also, make sure that you're using the most recent AWS CLI version.

To identify resources to skip from the root stack, complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS CloudFormation console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Stacks.
3. On the Stacks page, select the stack name.
   Note: If your stack name has the NESTED label, then choose Stack info, and then select the ID for the root stack.
4. Make sure that the status of the root stack is UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED.
   Note: If only a nested stack is in UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state, then contact AWS Support to unblock your stack.
5. Choose the Events tab, and then locate the most recent UPDATE_ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS event.
6. Note the resources with the UPDATE_FAILED status that are between the UPDATE_ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS event and the UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED event.
   Note: If no resources are between the two events, then you can't skip resources even when their status is UPDATE_FAILED.

If the nested stack status isn't DELETE_COMPLETE, DELETE_IN_PROGRESS, or DELETE_FAILED states, then you must identify the failed resources directly from the nested stack.

To identify resources to skip from a nested stack, complete the following steps:

1. Open the AWS CloudFormation console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Stacks.
3. Choose the logical ID of the failed nested stack, and then choose the Events tab.
4. On the Stacks page, select the stack name.
5. Make sure that the status of the root stack is UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED.
   Note: If a nested stack is in UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state and the root stack isn't in UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state, then contact AWS Support to unblock your stack.

Note: If you don't identify the correct resources to skip when you run a continue-update-rollback CLI command, then you might receive one of the following error messages:

"Only the resources in UPDATE_FAILED state are allowed to be skipped"

-or-

"Nested stack resources can only be skipped when their embedded stack statuses are one of [DELETE_COMPLETE, DELETE_IN_PROGRESS, DELETE_FAILED]"

Related information

How can I get my CloudFormation stack to update if it's stuck in the UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state?

Continue rolling back an update