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Aisalkyn Aidarova
Aisalkyn Aidarova

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AWS ECS Lab

#aws #docker #serverless #tutorial

Deploy Nginx Container Using Amazon ECS (Fargate)

Objective

In this lab we will deploy a Docker container to Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) using AWS Fargate and access it from a web browser.

What is Amazon ECS

Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) is a container orchestration service that allows you to run and scale Docker containers on AWS.

It manages:

  • container deployment
  • scaling
  • networking
  • load balancing
  • monitoring

ECS can run containers using two compute options:

Option Description
Fargate Serverless containers (AWS manages servers)
EC2 You manage EC2 instances

In this lab we use:

AWS Fargate
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because AWS manages the infrastructure.

Architecture of This Lab 

Internet
   ↓
Public IP
   ↓
ECS Service
   ↓
Fargate Task
   ↓
Docker Container (nginx)
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Components used:

  • ECS Cluster
  • Task Definition
  • ECS Service
  • Fargate Compute
  • Docker Container

Step 1 — Open ECS

  1. Log in to AWS Console
  2. In the search bar type: 
ECS
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  1. Open: 
Elastic Container Service
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Step 2 — Create ECS Cluster

Clusters are logical groups where containers run.

Go to:

Clusters
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Click:

Create Cluster
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Fill the configuration:

Cluster name

jump-ecs-cluster
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Infrastructure

Fargate only
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Click:

Create
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AWS will create the cluster.

Step 3 — Create Task Definition

A Task Definition is a blueprint that tells ECS:

  • what container image to run
  • how much CPU and memory to use
  • what ports to open

Go to:

Task definitions
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Click:

Create new task definition
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Configure the following.

Task Definition Configuration

Task definition family

jump-nginx-task
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Launch type

AWS Fargate
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Operating system

Linux / X86_64
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Network mode

awsvpc
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Task Size

Set the resources for the container.

CPU

0.25 vCPU
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Memory

0.5 GB
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Task Execution Role

Click:

Create default role
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AWS will create:

ecsTaskExecutionRole
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This role allows ECS to:

  • pull container images
  • send logs to CloudWatch

Step 4 — Add Container

Scroll to Container configuration.

Container name

nginx-container
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Image URI

nginx
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This pulls the public Docker image.

Port Mapping

Add port mapping.

Container port

80
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Protocol

TCP
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Step 5 — Enable Logging

Enable log collection.

Destination

CloudWatch
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Step 6 — Create Task Definition

Click:

Create
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The task definition is now saved.

Important:

A task definition does NOT run a container.

It is only a template.

Step 7 — Create ECS Service

Now we run the container.

Go to:

Clusters
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Open your cluster.

jump-ecs-cluster
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Click:

Create Service
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Service Configuration

Launch type

FARGATE
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Task definition

jump-nginx-task
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Service name

nginx-service
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Desired tasks

1
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Step 8 — Configure Networking

Select:

VPC

Default VPC
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Subnets

Public subnets
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Enable:

Auto assign public IP
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Security Group rule:

HTTP
Port 80
Source 0.0.0.0/0
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Step 9 — Deploy Service

Click:

Create Service
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AWS will now:

  • pull nginx image
  • start the container
  • attach networking
  • assign public IP

Deployment takes about 30–60 seconds.

Step 10 — Find Public IP

Go to:

Cluster
→ Service
→ Tasks
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Click the Task ID.

Scroll to Networking.

You will see:

Public IP
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Example:

18.188.200.132
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Step 11 — Open in Browser

Open your browser and type:

http://PUBLIC-IP
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Example:

http://18.188.200.132
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You should see:

Welcome to nginx
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This means the container is working.

What We Built

We deployed a Docker container using ECS.

Final architecture:

Internet
   ↓
Public IP
   ↓
ECS Service
   ↓
Fargate Task
   ↓
nginx container
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Important DevOps Notes

In production environments we usually use:

Internet
   ↓
Application Load Balancer
   ↓
ECS Service
   ↓
Multiple Fargate Tasks
   ↓
Containers
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Advantages:

  • high availability
  • auto scaling
  • zero downtime deployments
  • DNS instead of IP

Key ECS Components

Component Purpose
Cluster logical environment for containers
Task Definition container blueprint
Task running container
Service keeps tasks running
Fargate serverless container compute

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