Creating an Amazon ECS Linux task for the Fargate launch type with the Amazon CLI
The following steps help you set up a cluster, register a task definition, run a Linux task, and perform other common scenarios in Amazon ECS with the Amazon CLI. Use the latest version of the Amazon CLI. For more information on how to upgrade to the latest version, see Installing the Amazon Command Line Interface.
Topics
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that the following prerequisites have been completed.
-
The latest version of the Amazon CLI is installed and configured. For more information about installing or upgrading your Amazon CLI, see Installing the Amazon Command Line Interface.
-
The steps in Set up to use Amazon ECS have been completed.
-
Your Amazon user has the required permissions specified in the AmazonECS_FullAccess IAM policy example.
-
You have a VPC and security group created to use. This tutorial uses a container image hosted on Amazon ECR Public so your task must have internet access. To give your task a route to the internet, use one of the following options.
-
Use a private subnet with a NAT gateway that has an elastic IP address.
-
Use a public subnet and assign a public IP address to the task.
For more information, see Create a virtual private cloud.
For information about security groups and rules, see, Default security groups for your VPCs and Example rules in the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud User Guide.
-
-
If you follow this tutorial using a private subnet, you can use Amazon ECS Exec to directly interact with your container and test the deployment. You will need to create a task IAM role to use ECS Exec. For more information on the task IAM role and other prerequisites, see Using Amazon ECS Exec for debugging.
-
(Optional) Amazon CloudShell is a tool that gives customers a command line without needing to create their own EC2 instance. For more information, see What is Amazon CloudShell? in the Amazon CloudShell User Guide.
Step 1: Create a Cluster
By default, your account receives a default
cluster.
Note
The benefit of using the default
cluster that is provided for you is
that you don't have to specify the --cluster
option in the subsequent
commands. If you do create your own, non-default, cluster, you must specify
cluster_name
--cluster
for each command
that you intend to use with that cluster.cluster_name
Create your own cluster with a unique name with the following command:
aws ecs create-cluster --cluster-name
fargate-cluster
Output:
{
"cluster": {
"status": "ACTIVE",
"defaultCapacityProviderStrategy": [],
"statistics": [],
"capacityProviders": [],
"tags": [],
"clusterName": "fargate-cluster",
"settings": [
{
"name": "containerInsights",
"value": "disabled"
}
],
"registeredContainerInstancesCount": 0,
"pendingTasksCount": 0,
"runningTasksCount": 0,
"activeServicesCount": 0,
"clusterArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:cluster/fargate-cluster
"
}
}
Step 2: Register a Linux Task Definition
Before you can run a task on your ECS cluster, you must register a task definition.
Task definitions are lists of containers grouped together. The following example is a
simple task definition that creates a PHP web app using the httpd container image hosted
on Docker Hub. For more information about the available task definition parameters, see
Amazon ECS task definitions. For this
tutorial, the taskRoleArn
is only needed if you are deploying the task in a
private subnet and wish to test the deployment. Replace the taskRoleArn
with the IAM task role you created to use ECS Exec as mentioned in Prerequisites.
{ "family": "sample-fargate", "networkMode": "awsvpc",
"taskRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::aws_account_id:role/execCommandRole",
"containerDefinitions": [ { "name": "fargate-app", "image": "public.ecr.aws/docker/library/httpd:latest", "portMappings": [ { "containerPort": 80, "hostPort": 80, "protocol": "tcp" } ], "essential": true, "entryPoint": [ "sh", "-c" ], "command": [ "/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\"" ] } ], "requiresCompatibilities": [ "FARGATE" ], "cpu": "256", "memory": "512" }
Save the task definition JSON as a file and pass it with the
option. --cli-input-json
file://path_to_file.json
To use a JSON file for container definitions:
aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json
file://$HOME/tasks/fargate-task.json
The register-task-definition command returns a description of the task definition after it completes its registration.
Step 3: List Task Definitions
You can list the task definitions for your account at any time with the
list-task-definitions command. The output of this command shows
the family
and revision
values that you can use together when
calling run-task or start-task.
aws ecs list-task-definitions
Output:
{
"taskDefinitionArns": [
"arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:task-definition/sample-fargate:1"
]
}
Step 4: Create a Service
After you have registered a task for your account, you can create a service for the
registered task in your cluster. For this example, you create a service with one
instance of the sample-fargate:1
task definition running in your cluster.
The task requires a route to the internet, so there are two ways you can achieve this.
One way is to use a private subnet configured with a NAT gateway with an elastic IP
address in a public subnet. Another way is to use a public subnet and assign a public IP
address to your task. We provide both examples below.
Example using a private subnet. The enable-execute-command
option is
needed to use Amazon ECS Exec.
aws ecs create-service --cluster
fargate-cluster
--service-namefargate-service
--task-definitionsample-fargate:1
--desired-count1
--launch-type "FARGATE" --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet-abcd1234
],securityGroups=[sg-abcd1234
]}" --enable-execute-command
Example using a public subnet.
aws ecs create-service --cluster
fargate-cluster
--service-namefargate-service
--task-definitionsample-fargate:1
--desired-count1
--launch-type "FARGATE" --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet-abcd1234
],securityGroups=[sg-abcd1234
],assignPublicIp=ENABLED
}"
The create-service command returns a description of the task definition after it completes its registration.
Step 5: List Services
List the services for your cluster. You should see the service that you created in the previous section. You can take the service name or the full ARN that is returned from this command and use it to describe the service later.
aws ecs list-services --cluster
fargate-cluster
Output:
{
"serviceArns": [
"arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:service/fargate-cluster/fargate-service"
]
}
Step 6: Describe the Running Service
Describe the service using the service name retrieved earlier to get more information about the task.
aws ecs describe-services --cluster
fargate-cluster
--servicesfargate-service
If successful, this will return a description of the service failures and services.
For example, in the services
section, you will find information on
deployments, such as the status of the tasks as running or pending. You may also find
information on the task definition, the network configuration and time-stamped events.
In the failures section, you will find information on failures, if any, associated with
the call. For troubleshooting, see Service Event Messages. For more information about the service description,
see Describe Services.
{ "services": [ { "networkConfiguration": { "awsvpcConfiguration": { "subnets": [ "
subnet-abcd1234
" ], "securityGroups": [ "sg-abcd1234
" ], "assignPublicIp": "ENABLED" } }, "launchType": "FARGATE", "enableECSManagedTags": false, "loadBalancers": [], "deploymentController": { "type": "ECS" }, "desiredCount": 1, "clusterArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:cluster/fargate-cluster", "serviceArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:service/fargate-service", "deploymentConfiguration": { "maximumPercent": 200, "minimumHealthyPercent": 100 }, "createdAt": 1692283199.771, "schedulingStrategy": "REPLICA", "placementConstraints": [], "deployments": [ { "status": "PRIMARY", "networkConfiguration": { "awsvpcConfiguration": { "subnets": [ "subnet-abcd1234
" ], "securityGroups": [ "sg-abcd1234
" ], "assignPublicIp": "ENABLED" } }, "pendingCount": 0, "launchType": "FARGATE", "createdAt": 1692283199.771, "desiredCount": 1, "taskDefinition": "arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:task-definition/sample-fargate:1", "updatedAt": 1692283199.771, "platformVersion": "1.4.0", "id": "ecs-svc/9223370526043414679", "runningCount": 0 } ], "serviceName": "fargate-service", "events": [ { "message": "(service fargate-service) has started 2 tasks: (task 53c0de40-ea3b-489f-a352-623bf1235f08) (task d0aec985-901b-488f-9fb4-61b991b332a3).", "id": "92b8443e-67fb-4886-880c-07e73383ea83", "createdAt": 1510811841.408 }, { "message": "(service fargate-service) has started 2 tasks: (task b4911bee-7203-4113-99d4-e89ba457c626) (task cc5853e3-6e2d-4678-8312-74f8a7d76474).", "id": "d85c6ec6-a693-43b3-904a-a997e1fc844d", "createdAt": 1510811601.938 }, { "message": "(service fargate-service) has started 2 tasks: (task cba86182-52bf-42d7-9df8-b744699e6cfc) (task f4c1ad74-a5c6-4620-90cf-2aff118df5fc).", "id": "095703e1-0ca3-4379-a7c8-c0f1b8b95ace", "createdAt": 1510811364.691 } ], "runningCount": 0, "status": "ACTIVE", "serviceRegistries": [], "pendingCount": 0, "createdBy": "arn:aws:iam::aws_account_id
:user/user_name
", "platformVersion": "LATEST", "placementStrategy": [], "propagateTags": "NONE", "roleArn": "arn:aws:iam::aws_account_id
:role/aws-service-role/ecs.amazonaws.com/AWSServiceRoleForECS", "taskDefinition": "arn:aws:ecs:region
:aws_account_id
:task-definition/sample-fargate:1" } ], "failures": [] }
Step 7: Test
Testing task deployed using public subnet
Describe the task in the service so that you can get the Elastic Network Interface (ENI) for the task.
First, get the task ARN.
aws ecs list-tasks --cluster
fargate-cluster
--servicefargate-service
The output contains the task ARN.
{
"taskArns": [
"arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task/fargate-service/EXAMPLE
]
}
Describe the task and locate the ENI ID. Use the task ARN for the
tasks
parameter.
aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster
fargate-cluster
--tasksarn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task/service/EXAMPLE
The attachment information is listed in the output.
{
"tasks": [
{
"attachments": [
{
"id": "d9e7735a-16aa-4128-bc7a-b2d5115029e9",
"type": "ElasticNetworkInterface",
"status": "ATTACHED",
"details": [
{
"name": "subnetId",
"value": "subnetabcd1234"
},
{
"name": "networkInterfaceId",
"value": "eni-0fa40520aeEXAMPLE"
},
]
}
…
}
Describe the ENI to get the public IP address.
aws ec2 describe-network-interfaces --network-interface-id
eni-0fa40520aeEXAMPLE
The public IP address is in the output.
{
"NetworkInterfaces": [
{
"Association": {
"IpOwnerId": "amazon",
"PublicDnsName": "ec2-34-229-42-222.compute-1.amazonaws.com",
"PublicIp": "198.51.100.2"
},
…
}
Enter the public IP address in your web browser and you should see a webpage that displays the Amazon ECS sample application.
Testing task deployed using private subnet
Describe the task and locate managedAgents
to verify that the
ExecuteCommandAgent
is running. Note the
privateIPv4Address
for later use.
aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster
fargate-cluster
--tasksarn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task/fargate-service/EXAMPLE
The managed agent information is listed in the output.
{
"tasks": [
{
"attachments": [
{
"id": "d9e7735a-16aa-4128-bc7a-b2d5115029e9",
"type": "ElasticNetworkInterface",
"status": "ATTACHED",
"details": [
{
"name": "subnetId",
"value": "subnetabcd1234"
},
{
"name": "networkInterfaceId",
"value": "eni-0fa40520aeEXAMPLE"
},
{
"name": "privateIPv4Address",
"value": "10.0.143.156
"
}
]
}
],
...
"containers": [
{
...
"managedAgents": [
{
"lastStartedAt": "2023-08-01T16:10:13.002000+00:00",
"name": "ExecuteCommandAgent",
"lastStatus": "RUNNING"
}
],
...
}
After verifying that the ExecuteCommandAgent
is running, you can
run the following command to run an interactive shell on the container in the task.
aws ecs execute-command --cluster
fargate-cluster
\ --taskarn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task/fargate-service/EXAMPLE
\ --containerfargate-app
\ --interactive \ --command "/bin/sh"
After the interactive shell is running, run the following commands to install cURL.
apt update
apt install curl
After installing cURL, run the following command using the private IP address you obtained earlier.
curl
10.0.143.156
You should see the HTML equivalent of the Amazon ECS sample application webpage.
<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>
Step 8: Clean Up
When you are finished with this tutorial, you should clean up the associated resources to avoid incurring charges for unused resources.
Delete the service.
aws ecs delete-service --cluster
fargate-cluster
--servicefargate-service
--force
Delete the cluster.
aws ecs delete-cluster --cluster
fargate-cluster