Sports API Management System

Project Description

This project demonstrates building a containerized api management system for querying sports data. It uses Amazon ECS for running containers, Amazon API Gateway for exposing REST Endpoints and an external Sports API for real-time sports data. The project showcases advanced cloud computing practices, including API management, container orchestration, and secure AWS integrations.

Project Architecture

Project Setup

• Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/ifeanyiro9/containerized-sports-api.git
cd containerized-sports-api

-Create an ECR Repository
aws ecr create-repository --repository-name sports-api --region us-east-1

• Authenticate, Build, and Push Docker Image

aws ecr get-login-password --region us-east-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

docker build --platform linux/amd64 -t sports-api .
docker tag sports-api:latest <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports-api:sports-api-latest
docker push <AWS_ACCOUNT_ID>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports-api:sports-api-latest

• Set Up an ECS Cluster with Fargate

  • Create an ECS Cluster:
  • Navigate to the ECS Console → Clusters → Create Cluster.
  • Name the cluster (e.g., sports-api-cluster).
  • Choose Fargate as the infrastructure type, then create the cluster.

• Create a Task Definition:

• Go to Task Definitions → Create New Task Definition.

  • Name the task definition (e.g., sports-api-task).
  • Choose Fargate as the infrastructure type.
  • Add the container:
  • Name: sports-api-container
  • Image URI: .dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports-api:sports-api-latest
  • Container Port: 8080
  • Environment Variables:
    • Key: SPORTS_API_KEY
    • Value:
  • Save and create the task definition.

• Deploy the Service with an Application Load Balancer (ALB):

  • Go to Clusters → Select Cluster → Service → Create Service.
  • Configuration:
  • Capacity Provider: Fargate
  • Task Definition: sports-api-task
  • Service Name: sports-api-service
  • Desired Tasks: 2
  • Networking:
    • Create a new security group allowing TCP traffic.
    • Type: All TCP, Source: Anywhere
  • Load Balancer:
    • Select Application Load Balancer (ALB).
    • ALB Configuration:
    • Create a new ALB named sports-api-alb.
    • Health Check Path: /sports
  • Create the service.

• Test the ALB:

  • Retrieve the ALB DNS name (e.g., sports-api-alb-.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com).
  • Verify the API is accessible by visiting http://sports-api-alb-.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sports.

• Configure API Gateway

  • Create a REST API:
  • Navigate to API Gateway Console → Create API → REST API.
  • Name the API (e.g., Sports API Gateway).
  • Set Up Integration:
  • Create a resource /sports.
  • Create a GET method and choose HTTP Proxy as the integration type.
  • Enter the ALB DNS name followed by /sports.
  • Deploy the API: -Deploy the API to a stage (e.g., prod) and note the endpoint URL.

• Test the System

  • Use a browser or curl to test: curl https://<api-gateway-id>.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/prod/sports

Conclusion

This project demonstrates how to build a scalable, containerized sports data API management system using modern AWS services such as ECS with Fargate, API Gateway, and CloudWatch. By integrating these services, we achieved a reliable and secure infrastructure for hosting and managing APIs, while also adhering to best practices like containerization and least privilege IAM policies. Future enhancements like caching with ElastiCache, user-specific data storage with DynamoDB, and implementing CI/CD pipelines can further optimize the system for performance and maintainability. This documentation serves as a comprehensive guide to replicate, deploy, and extend the system, empowering developers to leverage AWS for similar use cases.