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Shubham Singh
Shubham Singh

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Docker & AWS Integration

#docker #aws #cicd

🚀 Docker and AWS Integration: A Developer’s Complete Guide

Docker has revolutionized the way we build, ship, and run applications. Combine that with AWS, and you get a powerful, scalable infrastructure for deploying modern applications.

This guide explores how to integrate Docker with AWS, focusing on ECR (Elastic Container Registry), ECS (Elastic Container Service), and EC2—with real-world use cases and commands.

🧱 Why Docker + AWS?

  • Docker makes applications portable.
  • AWS gives scalable infrastructure.

Together, they allow you to build microservices, deploy quickly, and manage infrastructure easily.

⚙️ Prerequisites

  • Docker installed locally
  • AWS CLI configured (aws configure)
  • Basic knowledge of EC2, ECS, IAM, and VPC

🐳 Step 1: Dockerize Your Application

Let’s take a basic Python Flask app:

app.py:

from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def hello():
    return "Hello from Docker on AWS!"
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Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.9-slim

WORKDIR /app

COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

COPY . .

CMD ["python", "app.py"]
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requirements.txt:

flask
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Build the Docker image:

docker build -t flask-aws-app .
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📦 Step 2: Push Docker Image to AWS ECR

✅ Create an ECR Repository 

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name flask-aws-app
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✅ Authenticate Docker with ECR 

aws ecr get-login-password | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com
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✅ Tag & Push Image to ECR 

docker tag flask-aws-app:latest <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/flask-aws-app

docker push <your-account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/flask-aws-app
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Now your image is stored in AWS.

🚀 Step 3: Deploy Docker Image with ECS (Fargate)

Amazon ECS is a container orchestration service. Use it to run your containerized app on AWS without managing servers.

🧭 Setup ECS with Fargate (Simplified via Console or CLI)

  1. Create a cluster (Fargate type)
  2. Create a Task Definition
  • Use ECR image URI

  • Assign memory/CPU

    1. Create Service

  • Attach to VPC and subnets

  • Use a Load Balancer (optional)

    1. Run the Service

✅ Now your container is running in ECS.

🖥️ Alternative: Run Docker on EC2

You can manually deploy Docker containers on EC2 instances.

Step-by-step: 

# SSH into EC2
ssh ec2-user@<ec2-instance-ip>

# Install Docker
sudo yum update -y
sudo yum install docker -y
sudo service docker start
sudo usermod -a -G docker ec2-user

# Pull and run image from ECR
$(aws ecr get-login --no-include-email)
docker pull <account-id>.dkr.ecr.<region>.amazonaws.com/flask-aws-app
docker run -d -p 80:5000 flask-aws-app
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You now have Docker running on an EC2 instance.

🔄 Bonus: Automate with CI/CD (GitHub Actions + ECR + ECS)

.github/workflows/deploy.yml:

name: Deploy to AWS ECS

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Set up Docker
        uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v1

      - name: Log in to Amazon ECR
        uses: aws-actions/amazon-ecr-login@v1

      - name: Build, tag, and push image to ECR
        run: |
          docker build -t flask-aws-app .
          docker tag flask-aws-app:latest ${{ secrets.ECR_REPOSITORY }}
          docker push ${{ secrets.ECR_REPOSITORY }}

      - name: Deploy to ECS
        uses: aws-actions/amazon-ecs-deploy-task-definition@v1
        with:
          task-definition: ecs-task.json
          service: my-service
          cluster: my-cluster
          wait-for-service-stability: true
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Use GitHub Secrets to store ECR and AWS credentials.

🧠 Real-World Use Cases

  • Microservices: Deploy isolated services on ECS or EC2
  • Serverless Containers: Use Fargate for true serverless infra
  • CI/CD Pipelines: Build images and push on every commit
  • Scaling: Use auto-scaling policies in ECS to grow traffic

🛡️ Tips and Best Practices

  • Use ECR Lifecycle Policies to clean up old images.
  • Define resource limits in ECS Task Definitions.
  • Enable CloudWatch Logs for your containers.
  • Use IAM roles for tasks to give least-privilege access.
  • Use Load Balancer for zero-downtime deployments.

📚 Summary

Feature ECR ECS EC2 with Docker
Stores Images ✅ ❌ ❌
Orchestrates ❌ ✅ ❌
Full control ❌ Partial ✅
Managed Infra ✅ ✅ ❌

✅ Conclusion

Docker + AWS is the go-to combination for building and scaling modern applications. Whether you're deploying a microservice or a full stack system, you can containerize locally and deploy globally using AWS.

Try both ECS and EC2 methods and explore what works best for your architecture. Keep it containerized, scalable, and cloud-ready!

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