AWS — ECS

What is ECS?

Managed container orchestration service for Docker containers.

Create cluster

aws ecs create-cluster --cluster-name my-cluster

Register task definition

{
  "family": "my-task",
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "my-container",
      "image": "nginx:latest",
      "cpu": 256,
      "memory": 512,
      "portMappings": [
        {"containerPort": 80, "hostPort": 80}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json file://task.json

Run task

aws ecs run-task \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --task-definition my-task:1

Create service

aws ecs create-service \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --service-name my-service \
  --task-definition my-task:1 \
  --desired-count 2 \
  --launch-type FARGATE \
  --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet-xxx],securityGroups=[sg-xxx]}"

Fargate vs EC2

Feature	Fargate	EC2
Serverless	Yes	No
Instance mgmt	AWS	You
Pricing	Per task	Per instance
Flexibility	Limited	Full

Scaling

aws ecs update-service \
  --cluster my-cluster \
  --service my-service \
  --desired-count 4

Auto scaling

aws application-autoscaling register-scalable-target \
  --service-namespace ecs \
  --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount \
  --resource-id service/my-cluster/my-service \
  --min-capacity 2 \
  --max-capacity 10

Best practices

1. Use Fargate for simplicity
2. Set up auto scaling
3. Use task roles for permissions
4. Monitor with CloudWatch

Mini Practice

1. Create a cluster
2. Deploy a task definition
3. Create a service
4. Set up auto scaling

Up Next

Continue with EKS - Kubernetes Service.