From Dockerfile to AWS Elastic Beanstalk: A Real-World Deployment Case Study

Imagine you have developed a React application using Vite, containerized it using Docker, and successfully pushed your Docker image to Docker Hub.

Now, the next objective is to deploy that application on AWS.

Naturally, you start exploring AWS Elastic Beanstalk.

The idea sounds straightforward:

• Upload your application.
• Let AWS provision the infrastructure.
• Deploy your application.
• Access it through an environment URL.

Let's walk through the entire implementation.

1. Understanding the Architecture

Before starting the deployment, it is important to understand what Elastic Beanstalk actually does.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering that simplifies application deployment and infrastructure management.

Instead of manually creating and configuring every AWS resource, Elastic Beanstalk can provision and manage resources such as:

• Amazon EC2
• Elastic Load Balancing
• Auto Scaling Groups
• Amazon CloudWatch
• Security Groups

Important components of Elastic Beanstalk

Component	Explanation
Application	Logical container for your application versions and environments
Application Version	A specific version of your application code
Environment	The infrastructure where your application runs
Environment Tier	Determines whether the app serves web requests or runs background jobs
Platform	Runtime and OS configuration, such as Node.js on Amazon Linux
Configuration	Settings for instances, scaling, networking, and deployment

For this implementation, the architecture looks like this:

Application Deployment Flow

Developer Machine → Application ZIP → AWS Elastic Beanstalk → EC2 Instance → Docker Container → React Application

Elastic Beanstalk manages much of the infrastructure provisioning, while Docker handles application containerization.

2. Preparing the Application

The application was developed using React and Vite.

Before deploying it, I prepared the Docker configuration.

Project Structure

The project contained the following files:

my-react-app/
│
├── Dockerfile
├── nginx.conf
├── .dockerignore
├── package.json
├── package-lock.json
├── index.html
├── vite.config.js
├── eslint.config.js
│
├── public/
├── src/
└── README.md

3. Create an Elastic Beanstalk Application

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console.
2. Search for Elastic Beanstalk.
3. Select the AWS Region: Asia Pacific (Mumbai) – ap-south-1.
4. Click Create application.

Configure the application:

Click Next or proceed to environment creation.

An Elastic Beanstalk Application is a logical container that holds application versions and environments.

4. Create the Environment

Select Create a new environment.

Configure the environment:

Parameter	Value
Environment name	react-docker-env
Domain	Auto-generated or custom
Platform	Docker
Platform branch	Select the available supported Docker platform
Platform version	Select the recommended version

The Web Server Environment is suitable for applications that receive HTTP/HTTPS requests from users.

5. Configure the Platform

Under the Platform section:

1. Select Docker.
2. Select the recommended platform branch.
3. Select the platform version.

Elastic Beanstalk will use the selected Docker platform to run your containerized application.

For this implementation, we will deploy a pre-built weather-app using local zip file upload or we can use pre-buil docker Hub image using Dockerrun.aws.json.

6. Configure Application Code

Under the Application Code section:

Select:

Upload your code

Provide the following details:

Parameter	Value
Source	Local file
Application version	weather-app
Source bundle	ZIP file containing Dockerrun.aws.json

The ZIP structure should be:

deployment.zip
└── Dockerrun.aws.json || Dockerfile

The JSON file should contain your Docker Hub image reference:

{
  "AWSEBDockerrunVersion": "1",
  "Image": {
    "Name": "omkarsharma2821/weather-app:latest",
    "Update": "true"
  },
  "Ports": [
    {
      "ContainerPort": "80"
    }
  ]
}

Replace the image name with your actual Docker Hub image.

7. Configure Service Access and IAM Roles

IAM roles are important because Elastic Beanstalk requires permissions to manage AWS resources and EC2 instances.

Configure the following:

Parameter	Configuration
Service role	aws-elasticbeanstalk-service-role
EC2 instance profile	aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role
EC2 key pair	Select an existing key pair if SSH access is required

The role names above are examples; your account may use different names.

Service Role

The Elastic Beanstalk service role allows the Elastic Beanstalk service to perform management operations on your behalf.

For example:

• Monitor environment health.
• Manage environment resources.
• Perform environment updates.

EC2 Instance Profile

The EC2 instance profile provides permissions to the EC2 instances running your application.

For example:

• Retrieve application deployment bundles from S3.
• Publish logs and metrics to CloudWatch.
• Access AWS resources when required.

For a public Docker Hub image, Docker Hub authentication is not required.

For a private image, configure registry authentication securely.

8. Configure Infrastructure

Under the Infrastructure section, configure the underlying compute and networking resources.

For a learning environment, you can start with a Single Instance environment to reduce costs.

Parameter	Suggested Configuration
Environment type	Single instance
Instance type	t3.micro (if available and suitable)
EC2 architecture	Select compatible architecture
Root volume	Default configuration
EC2 security group	Elastic Beanstalk-created security group
EC2 key pair	Optional
VPC	Default VPC for a basic lab
Subnet	Select an appropriate subnet

Important

For a Single Instance environment, Elastic Beanstalk generally runs the application on one EC2 instance without a load balancer.

For a highly available production environment, select a Load Balanced environment and configure multiple instances across Availability Zones.

9. Configure Networking

Under the networking configuration:

Parameter	Suggested Configuration
VPC	Default VPC or custom VPC
Public IP address	Enabled for a basic public single-instance lab
Subnets	Select appropriate subnets
Security Group	Allow required application traffic

For a public web application:

• Allow HTTP on port 80.
• Allow HTTPS on port 443 if HTTPS is configured.
• Restrict SSH access to trusted IP addresses if SSH is enabled.

Do not expose unnecessary ports such as Docker's internal management ports.

10. Configure Additional Services

Review the Services section and configure the required settings.

Monitoring

Enable application and environment monitoring.

Elastic Beanstalk integrates with Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring environment health and metrics.

Managed Updates

Configure managed platform updates according to your maintenance requirements.

Logs

Enable log streaming or log retention where required.

Notifications

Configure notifications for environment events if needed.

Understand the Provisioning Process

During environment creation, Elastic Beanstalk may perform the following operations:

1. Create the environment.
2. Create or configure IAM-related resources.
3. Create security groups.
4. Launch EC2 instances.
5. Configure the Docker runtime.
6. Retrieve the application deployment bundle.
7. Pull the Docker image from Docker Hub.
8. Start the Docker container.
9. Configure application health monitoring.

The exact resources depend on your environment configuration.

Verify the Deployment

Once the environment is created:

1. Open the Elastic Beanstalk environment dashboard.
2. Check the environment health status.
3. Locate the environment URL.
4. Open the URL in your browser.
5. Verify that your React application is running.

You can also connect to the underlying EC2 instance and inspect the running container:

docker ps

View container logs:

docker logs CONTAINER_ID

Common deployment errors:

Error	Possible Cause	Resolution
Dockerfile missing	Incorrect ZIP structure	Place Dockerfile at ZIP root
Dockerrun.aws.json missing	Incorrect source bundle	Include the JSON file at ZIP root
Docker image pull failed	Incorrect Docker Hub image name	Verify the image reference
Application unavailable	Container port mismatch	Verify container port configuration
Environment health degraded	Application startup or health-check issue	Inspect application logs
IAM permission denied	Missing IAM permissions	Review service role and instance profile

---

✍️ Author: Omkar Sharma

📬 Feel free to connect on LinkedIn or explore more on GitHub