AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition - Amazon CloudFormation
SyntaxPropertiesReturn valuesExamples
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AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition

The details of a task definition which describes the container and volume definitions of an Amazon Elastic Container Service task. You can specify which Docker images to use, the required resources, and other configurations related to launching the task definition through an Amazon ECS service or task.

Syntax

To declare this entity in your Amazon CloudFormation template, use the following syntax:

JSON

{
  "Type" : "AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition",
  "Properties" : {
      "ContainerDefinitions" : [ ContainerDefinition, ... ],
      "Cpu" : String,
      "EphemeralStorage" : EphemeralStorage,
      "ExecutionRoleArn" : String,
      "Family" : String,
      "InferenceAccelerators" : [ InferenceAccelerator, ... ],
      "IpcMode" : String,
      "Memory" : String,
      "NetworkMode" : String,
      "PidMode" : String,
      "PlacementConstraints" : [ TaskDefinitionPlacementConstraint, ... ],
      "ProxyConfiguration" : ProxyConfiguration,
      "RequiresCompatibilities" : [ String, ... ],
      "RuntimePlatform" : RuntimePlatform,
      "Tags" : [ Tag, ... ],
      "TaskRoleArn" : String,
      "Volumes" : [ Volume, ... ]
    }
}

Properties

ContainerDefinitions

A list of container definitions in JSON format that describe the different containers that make up your task. For more information about container definition parameters and defaults, see Amazon ECS Task Definitions in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

Required: No

Type: List of ContainerDefinition

Update requires: Replacement

Cpu

The number of cpu units used by the task. If you use the EC2 launch type, this field is optional. Any value can be used. If you use the Fargate launch type, this field is required. You must use one of the following values. The value that you choose determines your range of valid values for the memory parameter.

The CPU units cannot be less than 1 vCPU when you use Windows containers on Fargate.

  • 256 (.25 vCPU) - Available memory values: 512 (0.5 GB), 1024 (1 GB), 2048 (2 GB)

  • 512 (.5 vCPU) - Available memory values: 1024 (1 GB), 2048 (2 GB), 3072 (3 GB), 4096 (4 GB)

  • 1024 (1 vCPU) - Available memory values: 2048 (2 GB), 3072 (3 GB), 4096 (4 GB), 5120 (5 GB), 6144 (6 GB), 7168 (7 GB), 8192 (8 GB)

  • 2048 (2 vCPU) - Available memory values: 4096 (4 GB) and 16384 (16 GB) in increments of 1024 (1 GB)

  • 4096 (4 vCPU) - Available memory values: 8192 (8 GB) and 30720 (30 GB) in increments of 1024 (1 GB)

  • 8192 (8 vCPU) - Available memory values: 16 GB and 60 GB in 4 GB increments

    This option requires Linux platform 1.4.0 or later.

  • 16384 (16vCPU) - Available memory values: 32GB and 120 GB in 8 GB increments

    This option requires Linux platform 1.4.0 or later.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

EphemeralStorage

The ephemeral storage settings to use for tasks run with the task definition.

Required: No

Type: EphemeralStorage

Update requires: Replacement

ExecutionRoleArn

The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the task execution role that grants the Amazon ECS container agent permission to make Amazon API calls on your behalf. The task execution IAM role is required depending on the requirements of your task. For more information, see Amazon ECS task execution IAM role in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

Family

The name of a family that this task definition is registered to. Up to 255 letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, hyphens, and underscores are allowed.

A family groups multiple versions of a task definition. Amazon ECS gives the first task definition that you registered to a family a revision number of 1. Amazon ECS gives sequential revision numbers to each task definition that you add.

Note

To use revision numbers when you update a task definition, specify this property. If you don't specify a value, Amazon CloudFormation generates a new task definition each time that you update it.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

InferenceAccelerators

The Elastic Inference accelerators to use for the containers in the task.

Required: No

Type: List of InferenceAccelerator

Update requires: Replacement

IpcMode

The IPC resource namespace to use for the containers in the task. The valid values are host, task, or none. If host is specified, then all containers within the tasks that specified the host IPC mode on the same container instance share the same IPC resources with the host Amazon EC2 instance. If task is specified, all containers within the specified task share the same IPC resources. If none is specified, then IPC resources within the containers of a task are private and not shared with other containers in a task or on the container instance. If no value is specified, then the IPC resource namespace sharing depends on the Docker daemon setting on the container instance. For more information, see IPC settings in the Docker run reference.

If the host IPC mode is used, be aware that there is a heightened risk of undesired IPC namespace expose. For more information, see Docker security.

If you are setting namespaced kernel parameters using systemControls for the containers in the task, the following will apply to your IPC resource namespace. For more information, see System Controls in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

  • For tasks that use the host IPC mode, IPC namespace related systemControls are not supported.

  • For tasks that use the task IPC mode, IPC namespace related systemControls will apply to all containers within a task.

Note

This parameter is not supported for Windows containers or tasks run on Amazon Fargate.

Required: No

Type: String

Allowed values: host | none | task

Update requires: Replacement

Memory

The amount (in MiB) of memory used by the task.

If your tasks runs on Amazon EC2 instances, you must specify either a task-level memory value or a container-level memory value. This field is optional and any value can be used. If a task-level memory value is specified, the container-level memory value is optional. For more information regarding container-level memory and memory reservation, see ContainerDefinition.

If your tasks runs on Amazon Fargate, this field is required. You must use one of the following values. The value you choose determines your range of valid values for the cpu parameter.

  • 512 (0.5 GB), 1024 (1 GB), 2048 (2 GB) - Available cpu values: 256 (.25 vCPU)

  • 1024 (1 GB), 2048 (2 GB), 3072 (3 GB), 4096 (4 GB) - Available cpu values: 512 (.5 vCPU)

  • 2048 (2 GB), 3072 (3 GB), 4096 (4 GB), 5120 (5 GB), 6144 (6 GB), 7168 (7 GB), 8192 (8 GB) - Available cpu values: 1024 (1 vCPU)

  • Between 4096 (4 GB) and 16384 (16 GB) in increments of 1024 (1 GB) - Available cpu values: 2048 (2 vCPU)

  • Between 8192 (8 GB) and 30720 (30 GB) in increments of 1024 (1 GB) - Available cpu values: 4096 (4 vCPU)

  • Between 16 GB and 60 GB in 4 GB increments - Available cpu values: 8192 (8 vCPU)

    This option requires Linux platform 1.4.0 or later.

  • Between 32GB and 120 GB in 8 GB increments - Available cpu values: 16384 (16 vCPU)

    This option requires Linux platform 1.4.0 or later.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

NetworkMode

The Docker networking mode to use for the containers in the task. The valid values are none, bridge, awsvpc, and host. If no network mode is specified, the default is bridge.

For Amazon ECS tasks on Fargate, the awsvpc network mode is required. For Amazon ECS tasks on Amazon EC2 Linux instances, any network mode can be used. For Amazon ECS tasks on Amazon EC2 Windows instances, <default> or awsvpc can be used. If the network mode is set to none, you cannot specify port mappings in your container definitions, and the tasks containers do not have external connectivity. The host and awsvpc network modes offer the highest networking performance for containers because they use the EC2 network stack instead of the virtualized network stack provided by the bridge mode.

With the host and awsvpc network modes, exposed container ports are mapped directly to the corresponding host port (for the host network mode) or the attached elastic network interface port (for the awsvpc network mode), so you cannot take advantage of dynamic host port mappings.

Important

When using the host network mode, you should not run containers using the root user (UID 0). It is considered best practice to use a non-root user.

If the network mode is awsvpc, the task is allocated an elastic network interface, and you must specify a NetworkConfiguration value when you create a service or run a task with the task definition. For more information, see Task Networking in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

If the network mode is host, you cannot run multiple instantiations of the same task on a single container instance when port mappings are used.

For more information, see Network settings in the Docker run reference.

Required: No

Type: String

Allowed values: awsvpc | bridge | host | none

Update requires: Replacement

PidMode

The process namespace to use for the containers in the task. The valid values are host or task. If host is specified, then all containers within the tasks that specified the host PID mode on the same container instance share the same process namespace with the host Amazon EC2 instance. If task is specified, all containers within the specified task share the same process namespace. If no value is specified, the default is a private namespace. For more information, see PID settings in the Docker run reference.

If the host PID mode is used, be aware that there is a heightened risk of undesired process namespace expose. For more information, see Docker security.

Note

This parameter is not supported for Windows containers or tasks run on Amazon Fargate.

Required: No

Type: String

Allowed values: host | task

Update requires: Replacement

PlacementConstraints

An array of placement constraint objects to use for tasks.

Note

This parameter isn't supported for tasks run on Amazon Fargate.

Required: No

Type: List of TaskDefinitionPlacementConstraint

Update requires: Replacement

ProxyConfiguration

The configuration details for the App Mesh proxy.

Your Amazon ECS container instances require at least version 1.26.0 of the container agent and at least version 1.26.0-1 of the ecs-init package to use a proxy configuration. If your container instances are launched from the Amazon ECS optimized AMI version 20190301 or later, they contain the required versions of the container agent and ecs-init. For more information, see Amazon ECS-optimized Linux AMI in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

Required: No

Type: ProxyConfiguration

Update requires: Replacement

RequiresCompatibilities

The task launch types the task definition was validated against. For more information, see Amazon ECS launch types in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

Required: No

Type: List of String

Update requires: Replacement

RuntimePlatform

The operating system that your tasks definitions run on. A platform family is specified only for tasks using the Fargate launch type.

When you specify a task definition in a service, this value must match the runtimePlatform value of the service.

Required: No

Type: RuntimePlatform

Update requires: Replacement

Tags

The metadata that you apply to the task definition to help you categorize and organize them. Each tag consists of a key and an optional value. You define both of them.

The following basic restrictions apply to tags:

  • Maximum number of tags per resource - 50

  • For each resource, each tag key must be unique, and each tag key can have only one value.

  • Maximum key length - 128 Unicode characters in UTF-8

  • Maximum value length - 256 Unicode characters in UTF-8

  • If your tagging schema is used across multiple services and resources, remember that other services may have restrictions on allowed characters. Generally allowed characters are: letters, numbers, and spaces representable in UTF-8, and the following characters: + - = . _ : / @.

  • Tag keys and values are case-sensitive.

  • Do not use aws:, AWS:, or any upper or lowercase combination of such as a prefix for either keys or values as it is reserved for Amazon use. You cannot edit or delete tag keys or values with this prefix. Tags with this prefix do not count against your tags per resource limit.

Required: No

Type: List of Tag

Maximum: 50

Update requires: No interruption

TaskRoleArn

The short name or full Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the Amazon Identity and Access Management role that grants containers in the task permission to call Amazon APIs on your behalf. For more information, see Amazon ECS Task Role in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

IAM roles for tasks on Windows require that the -EnableTaskIAMRole option is set when you launch the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows AMI. Your containers must also run some configuration code to use the feature. For more information, see Windows IAM roles for tasks in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

Volumes

The list of data volume definitions for the task. For more information, see Using data volumes in tasks in the Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide.

Note

The host and sourcePath parameters aren't supported for tasks run on Amazon Fargate.

Required: No

Type: List of Volume

Update requires: Replacement

Return values

Ref

When you pass the logical ID of this resource to the intrinsic Ref function, Ref returns the Amazon Resource Name (ARN).

In the following example, the Ref function returns the ARN of the MyTaskDefinition task definition, such as arn:aws:ecs:us-west-2:123456789012:task-definition/TaskDefinitionFamily:1.

{ "Ref": "MyTaskDefinition" }

For more information about using the Ref function, see Ref.

Examples

Create an Amazon ECS task definition

The following example defines an Amazon ECS task definition, which includes two container definitions and one volume definition.

JSON

"taskdefinition": {
  "Type": "AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition",
  "Properties" : {
    "ContainerDefinitions" : [
    {
      "Name": {"Ref": "AppName"},
      "MountPoints": [
        {
          "SourceVolume": "my-vol",
          "ContainerPath": "/var/www/my-vol"
        }
      ],
      "Image":"amazon/amazon-ecs-sample",
      "Cpu": 256,
      "PortMappings":[
        {
          "ContainerPort": {"Ref":"AppContainerPort"},
          "HostPort": {"Ref":"AppHostPort"}
        }
      ],
      "EntryPoint": [
        "/usr/sbin/apache2",
        "-D",
        "FOREGROUND"
      ],
      "Memory": 512,
      "Essential": true
    },
    {
      "Name": "busybox",
      "Image": "busybox",
      "Cpu": 256,
      "EntryPoint": [
        "sh",
        "-c"
      ],
      "Memory": 512,
      "Command": [
        "/bin/sh -c \"while true; do /bin/date > /var/www/my-vol/date; sleep 1; done\""
      ],
      "Essential" : false,
      "VolumesFrom": [
        {
          "SourceContainer": {"Ref":"AppName"}
        }
      ]
    }],
    "Volumes": [
    {
      "Host": {
        "SourcePath": "/var/lib/docker/vfs/dir/"
      },
      "Name": "my-vol"
    }]
  }
}

YAML

taskdefinition: 
  Type: AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition
  Properties: 
    ContainerDefinitions: 
      - 
        Name: 
          Ref: "AppName"
        MountPoints: 
          - 
            SourceVolume: "my-vol"
            ContainerPath: "/var/www/my-vol"
        Image: "amazon/amazon-ecs-sample"
        Cpu: 256
        PortMappings: 
          - 
            ContainerPort: 
              Ref: "AppContainerPort"
            HostPort: 
              Ref: "AppHostPort"
        EntryPoint: 
          - "/usr/sbin/apache2"
          - "-D"
          - "FOREGROUND"
        Memory: 512
        Essential: true
      - 
        Name: "busybox"
        Image: "busybox"
        Cpu: 256
        EntryPoint: 
          - "sh"
          - "-c"
        Memory: 512
        Command: 
          - "/bin/sh -c \"while true; do /bin/date > /var/www/my-vol/date; sleep 1; done\""
        Essential: false
        VolumesFrom: 
          - 
            SourceContainer: 
              Ref: "AppName"
    Volumes: 
      - 
        Host: 
          SourcePath: "/var/lib/docker/vfs/dir/"
        Name: "my-vol"

Create an Amazon ECS task definition

The following example defines an Amazon ECS task definition that specifies EC2 as required compatibilities.

JSON

{
    "AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09",
    "Resources": {
        "taskdefinition": {
            "Type": "AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition",
            "Properties": {
                "RequiresCompatibilities": [
                    "EC2"
                ],
                "ContainerDefinitions": [
                    {
                        "Name": "my-app",
                        "MountPoints": [
                            {
                                "SourceVolume": "my-vol",
                                "ContainerPath": "/var/www/my-vol"
                            }
                        ],
                        "Image": "amazon/amazon-ecs-sample",
                        "Cpu": 256,
                        "EntryPoint": [
                            "/usr/sbin/apache2",
                            "-D",
                            "FOREGROUND"
                        ],
                        "Memory": 512,
                        "Essential": true
                    },
                    {
                        "Name": "busybox",
                        "Image": "busybox",
                        "Cpu": 256,
                        "EntryPoint": [
                            "sh",
                            "-c"
                        ],
                        "Memory": 512,
                        "Command": [
                            "/bin/sh -c \"while true; do /bin/date > /var/www/my-vol/date; sleep 1; done\""
                        ],
                        "Essential": false,
                        "DependsOn": [
                            {
                                "ContainerName": "my-app",
                                "Condition": "START"
                            }
                        ],
                        "VolumesFrom": [
                            {
                                "SourceContainer": "my-app"
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ],
                "Volumes": [
                    {
                        "Host": {
                            "SourcePath": "/var/lib/docker/vfs/dir/"
                        },
                        "Name": "my-vol"
                    }
                ]
            }
        }
    }
}

YAML

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Resources:
  taskdefinition: 
    Type: AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition
    Properties: 
      RequiresCompatibilities:
        - "EC2"
      ContainerDefinitions: 
        - 
          Name: "my-app"
          MountPoints: 
            - 
              SourceVolume: "my-vol"
              ContainerPath: "/var/www/my-vol"
          Image: "amazon/amazon-ecs-sample"
          Cpu: 256
          EntryPoint: 
            - "/usr/sbin/apache2"
            - "-D"
            - "FOREGROUND"
          Memory: 512
          Essential: true
        - 
          Name: "busybox"
          Image: "busybox"
          Cpu: 256
          EntryPoint: 
            - "sh"
            - "-c"
          Memory: 512
          Command: 
            - "/bin/sh -c \"while true; do /bin/date > /var/www/my-vol/date; sleep 1; done\""
          Essential: false
          DependsOn:
            - ContainerName: my-app
              Condition: START
          VolumesFrom: 
            - 
              SourceContainer: "my-app"
      Volumes: 
        - 
          Host: 
            SourcePath: "/var/lib/docker/vfs/dir/"
          Name: "my-vol"

Create an Amazon ECS task definition

The following is an example task definition using the Linux containers on Fargate launch type that sets up a web server:

JSON

{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09",
  "Description": "Create a task definition for a web server.",
  "Resources": {
    "ECSTaskDefinition": {
      "Type": "AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition",
      "Properties": {
        "ContainerDefinitions": [
          {
            "Name": "first-run-task",
            "Image": "httpd:2.4",
            "Essential": true,
            "PortMappings": [
              {
                "ContainerPort": 80,
                "Protocol": "tcp"
              }
            ],
            "Environment": [
              {
                "Name": "entryPoint",
                "Value": "sh, -c"
              },
              {
                "Name": "command",
                "Value": "/bin/sh -c \\\"echo '<html> <head> <title>Amazon ECS Sample App</title> <style>body {margin-top: 40px; background-color: #333;} </style> </head><body> <div style=color:white;text-align:center> <h1>Amazon ECS Sample App</h1> <h2>Congratulations!</h2> <p>Your application is now running on a container in Amazon ECS.</p> </div></body></html>' >  /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/index.html && httpd-foreground\\\""
              }
            ],
            "EnvironmentFiles": []
          }
        ],
        "Family": "first-run-task",
        "Cpu": "1 vCPU",
        "Memory": "3 GB"
      }
    }
  },
  "Outputs": {
    "ECSTaskDefinition": {
      "Description": "The created Taskdefinition.",
      "Value": {
        "Ref": "ECSTaskDefinition"
      }
    }
  }
}

YAML

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Create a task definition for a web server.
Resources:
  ECSTaskDefinition:
    Type: 'AWS::ECS::TaskDefinition'
    Properties:
      ContainerDefinitions:
        - Name: first-run-task
          Image: 'httpd:2.4'
          Essential: true
          PortMappings:
            - ContainerPort: 80
              Protocol: tcp
          Environment:
            - Name: entryPoint
              Value: 'sh, -c'
            - Name: command
              Value: >-
                /bin/sh -c \"echo '<html> <head> <title>Amazon ECS Sample
                App</title> <style>body {margin-top: 40px; background-color:
                #333;} </style> </head><body> <div
                style=color:white;text-align:center> <h1>Amazon ECS Sample
                App</h1> <h2>Congratulations!</h2> <p>Your application is now
                running on a container in Amazon ECS.</p> </div></body></html>'
                >  /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/index.html && httpd-foreground\"
          EnvironmentFiles: []
      Family: first-run-task
      Cpu: 1 vCPU
      Memory: 3 GB
Outputs:
  ECSTaskDefinition:
    Description: The created Taskdefinition.
    Value: !Ref ECSTaskDefinition