JSPM

AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS) Construct Library

This package contains constructs for working with AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS). The simplest example of using this library looks like this:

// Create an ECS cluster
const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', {
  vpc,
});

// Add capacity to it
cluster.addDefaultAutoScalingGroupCapacity({
  instanceType: new ec2.InstanceType("t2.xlarge"),
  instanceCount: 3,
});

// Instantiate ECS Service with an automatic load balancer
const ecsService = new ecs.LoadBalancedEc2Service(this, 'Service', {
  cluster,
  memoryLimitMiB: 512,
  image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromDockerHub("amazon/amazon-ecs-sample"),
});

Fargate vs ECS

There are two sets of constructs in this library; one to run tasks on ECS and one to run Tasks on Fargate.

• Use the Ec2TaskDefinition and Ec2Service constructs to run tasks on EC2 instances running in your account.
• Use the FargateTaskDefinition and FargateService constructs to run tasks on instances that are managed for you by AWS.

Here are the main differences:

• EC2: instances are under your control. Complete control of task to host allocation. Required to specify at least a memory reseration or limit for every container. Can use Host, Bridge and AwsVpc networking modes. Can attach Classic Load Balancer. Can share volumes between container and host.
• Fargate: tasks run on AWS-managed instances, AWS manages task to host allocation for you. Requires specification of memory and cpu sizes at the taskdefinition level. Only supports AwsVpc networking modes and Application/Network Load Balancers. Only the AWS log driver is supported. Many host features are not supported such as adding kernel capabilities and mounting host devices/volumes inside the container.

For more information on EC2 vs Fargate and networking see the AWS Documentation: AWS Fargate and Task Networking.

Clusters

A Cluster defines the infrastructure to run your tasks on. You can run many tasks on a single cluster.

To create a cluster that can run Fargate tasks, go:

const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', {
  vpc: vpc
});

If you wish to use tasks with EC2 launch-type, you also have to add capacity to your cluster in order for tasks to be scheduled on your instances. Typically, you will add an AutoScalingGroup with instances running the latest ECS-optimized AMI to the cluster. There is a method to build and add such an AutoScalingGroup automatically, or you can supply a customized AutoScalingGroup that you construct yourself. It's possible to add multiple AutoScalingGroups with various instance types if you want to.

Creating an ECS cluster and adding capacity to it looks like this:

const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', {
  vpc: vpc
});

// Either add default capacity
cluster.addDefaultAutoScalingGroupCapacity({
  instanceType: new ec2.InstanceType("t2.xlarge"),
  instanceCount: 3,
});

// Or add customized capacity. Be sure to start the ECS-optimized AMI.
const autoScalingGroup = new autoscaling.AutoScalingGroup(this, 'ASG', {
  vpc,
  instanceType: new ec2.InstanceType('t2.xlarge'),
  machineImage: new EcsOptimizedAmi(),
  desiredCapacity: 3,
  // ... other options here ...
});

cluster.addAutoScalingGroupCapacity(autoScalingGroup);

Task definitions

A Task Definition describes what a single copy of a Task should look like. A task definition has one or more containers; typically, it has one main container (the default container is the first one that's added to the task definition, and it will be marked essential) and optionally some supporting containers which are used to support the main container, doings things like upload logs or metrics to monitoring services.

To run a task or service with EC2 launch type, use the Ec2TaskDefinition. For Fargate tasks/services, use the FargateTaskDefinition. These classes provide a simplified API that only contain properties relevant for that specific launch type.

For a FargateTaskDefinition, specify the task size (memoryMiB and cpu):

const fargateTaskDefinition = new ecs.FargateTaskDefinition(this, 'TaskDef', {
  memoryMiB: '512'
  cpu: 256,
});

To add containers to a Task Definition, call addContainer():

const container = fargateTaskDefinition.addContainer(this, {
  // Use an image from DockerHub
  image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromDockerHub("amazon/amazon-ecs-sample"),
  // ... other options here ...
});

For a Ec2TaskDefinition:

const ec2TaskDefinition = new ecs.Ec2TaskDefinition(this, 'TaskDef', {
  networkMode: bridge
});

const container = ec2TaskDefinition.addContainer(this, {
  // Use an image from DockerHub
  image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromDockerHub("amazon/amazon-ecs-sample"),
  memoryLimitMiB: 1024
  // ... other options here ...
});

You can specify container properties when you add them to the task definition, or with various methods, e.g.:

container.addPortMappings({
  containerPort: 3000
})

If you wish to use a TaskDefinition that can be used with either EC2 or Fargate launch types, there is also the TaskDefinition construct.

When creating a Task Definition you have to specify what kind of tasks you intend to run: EC2, Fargate, or both:

const taskDefinition = new ecs.TaskDefinition(this, 'TaskDef', {
  memoryMiB: '512'
  cpu: 256,
  networkMode: 'awsvpc',
  compatibility: ecs.Compatibility.Ec2AndFargate,
});

Images

Images supply the software that runs inside the container. Images can be obtained from either DockerHub or from ECR repositories:

• ecs.ContainerImage.fromDockerHub(imageName): use a publicly available image from DockerHub.
• ecs.ContaienrImage.fromEcrRepository(repo, tag): use the given ECR repository as the image to start.
• ecs.ContainerImage.fromAsset(this, 'Image', { directory: './image' }): build and upload an image directly from a Dockerfile in your source directory.

Service

A Service instantiates a TaskDefinition on a Cluster a given number of times, optionally associating them with a load balancer. Tasks that fail will automatically be restarted.

const taskDefinition;

const service = new ecs.FargateService(this, 'Service', {
  cluster,
  taskDefinition,
  desiredCount: 5
});

Include a load balancer

Services are load balancing targets and can be directly attached to load balancers:

const service = new ecs.FargateService(this, 'Service', { /* ... */ });

const lb = new elbv2.ApplicationLoadBalancer(this, 'LB', { vpc, internetFacing: true });
const listener = lb.addListener('Listener', { port: 80 });
listener.addTargets('ECS', {
  port: 80,
  targets: [service]
});

There are two higher-level constructs available which include a load balancer for you:

• LoadBalancedFargateService
• LoadBalancedEc2Service

Task AutoScaling

You can configure the task count of a service to match demand. Task AutoScaling is configured by calling autoScaleTaskCount():

const scaling = service.autoScaleTaskCount({ maxCapacity: 10 });
scaling.scaleOnCpuUtilization('CpuScaling', {
  targetUtilizationPercent: 50
});

Task AutoScaling is powered by Application AutoScaling. Refer to that for more information.

Instance AutoScaling

If you're running on Fargate, AWS will manage the physical machines that your containers are running on for you. If you're running an ECS cluster however, your EC2 instances might fill up as your number of Tasks goes up.

To avoid placement errors, you will want to configure AutoScaling for your EC2 instance group so that your instance count scales with demand.

Roadmap

• Instance AutoScaling
• Service Discovery Integration
• Private registry authentication