AWS CloudFormation stack stuck in the state UPDATE_ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS

Question

I wanted to update my stack. The stack failed with error Function not found: arn:aws:lambda.... And stack in status UPDATE_ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS more than 5 hours. How do I stop this process?

Answer 1

If you deleted the function outside of CloudFormation, then you can manually create a new function of the same name. This sometimes helps.

You can also wait till the rollback timeouts. And it usually does after a while, but the time varies.

Another reason why it gets stuck in this state could be due to nested stacks:

• Nested Stacks are Stuck in UPDATE_COMPLETE_CLEANUP_IN_PROGRESS, UPDATE_ROLLBACK_COMPLETE_CLEANUP_IN_PROGRESS, or UPDATE_ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS

In this case a recommended option is indeed to contact support:

To fix the stack, contact AWS customer support.

Recent AWS blog post also describes the issue and possible solutions:

• Why is my AWS CloudFormation stack stuck in the state CREATE_IN_PROGRESS, UPDATE_IN_PROGRESS, UPDATE_ROLLBACK_IN_PROGRESS, or DELETE_IN_PROGRESS?

Regarding the time to wait, the timeout varies:

In most situations, you must wait for your AWS CloudFormation stack to time out. The timeout length varies, and is based on the individual resource stabilization requirements that AWS CloudFormation waits for to reach the desired state.