How to specify lambda function and IAM role name in cloudformation template

Question

here is my template

{  
   "AWSTemplateFormatVersion":"2010-09-09",
   "Resources":{  
      "lambdafunction":{  
         "Type":"AWS::Lambda::Function",
         "Properties":{  
            "Handler":"index.handler",
            "Role":{  
               "Fn::GetAtt":[  
                  "RootRole",
                  "Arn"
               ]
            },
            "Code":{  
               "S3Bucket":"{s3_bucket_name}",
               "S3Key":"lambda-zip"
            },
            "Runtime":"java8",
            "Timeout":"25"
         }
      },
      "RootRole":{  
         "Type":"AWS::IAM::Role",
         "Properties":{  
            "AssumeRolePolicyDocument":{  
               "Version":"2012-10-17",
               "Statement":[  
                  {  
                     "Effect":"Allow",
                     "Principal":{  
                        "Service":[  
                           "ec2.amazonaws.com"
                        ]
                     },
                     "Action":[  
                        "sts:AssumeRole"
                     ]
                  }
               ]
            },
            "Path":"/",
            "Policies":[  
               {  
                  "PolicyName":"root",
                  "PolicyDocument":{  
                     "Version":"2012-10-17",
                     "Statement":[  
                        {  
                           "Effect":"Allow",
                           "Action":"*",
                           "Resource":"*"
                        }
                     ]
                  }
               }
            ]
         }
      }
   }
}

The name of the lambda function after the stack creation is lambda-lambdafunction-18SJKJ5Q40AKZ The name of IAM role is lambda-RootRole-12S8E9CA0EOVM

The template does not seem to have a way to define the lambda function name http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-resource-lambda-function.html. And I am not sure why random characters are appended at the end.

Answer 1

Update: both AWS::IAM::Role and AWS::Lambda::Function now support custom names.

By default, CloudFormation generates a unique ID for resource names. This makes sense because it allows you to re-use the template again and again.

Some resource types, but not all, support custom names. Examples that do support custom names are AWS::DynamoDB::Table ('TableName') and AWS::S3::Bucket ('BucketName').

For more info, and a complete list of resources that support custom names, see here.