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Learn how to create a task for Amazon ECS Managed Instances with the Amazon CLI

The following steps help you set up a cluster, create a capacity provider, register a task definition, run a Linux task, and perform other common scenarios in Amazon ECS with Amazon ECS Managed Instances using the Amazon CLI. Use the latest version of the Amazon CLI. For more information on how to upgrade to the latest version, see Installing or updating to the latest version of the Amazon CLI.

Prerequisites

Complete the following before you start the tutorial:

Step 1: Create a cluster

By default, your account receives a default cluster.

Create your own cluster with a unique name with the following command:

aws ecs create-cluster --cluster-name managed-instances-cluster

Output:

{
    "cluster": {
        "status": "ACTIVE", 
        "defaultCapacityProviderStrategy": [], 
        "statistics": [], 
        "capacityProviders": [], 
        "tags": [], 
        "clusterName": "managed-instances-cluster", 
        "settings": [
            {
                "name": "containerInsights", 
                "value": "disabled"
            }
        ], 
        "registeredContainerInstancesCount": 0, 
        "pendingTasksCount": 0, 
        "runningTasksCount": 0, 
        "activeServicesCount": 0, 
        "clusterArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:cluster/managed-instances-cluster"
    }
}

Step 2: Create a Amazon ECS Managed Instances capacity provider

Before you can run tasks using Amazon ECS Managed Instances, you must create a capacity provider that defines the infrastructure configuration. The capacity provider specifies the IAM roles, network configuration, and other settings for your managed instances.

Create a JSON file with your capacity provider configuration. Replace the placeholder values with your actual resource identifiers:

{
    "name": "managed-instances-cp",
    "cluster": "managed-instances-cluster",
    "managedInstancesProvider": {
        "infrastructureRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::aws_account_id:role/AmazonECSManagedInstancesInfrastructureRole",
        "instanceLaunchTemplate": {
            "ec2InstanceProfileArn": "arn:aws:iam::aws_account_id:instance-profile/AmazonECSManagedInstancesInstanceProfile",
            "networkConfiguration": {
                "subnets": [
                    "subnet-abcdef01234567890",
                    "subnet-1234567890abcdef0"
                ],
                "securityGroups": [
                    "sg-0123456789abcdef0"
                ]
            },
            "storageConfiguration": {
                "storageSizeGiB": 100
            },
            "monitoring": "basic"
        }
    }
}

Save this configuration as managed-instances-cp.json and create the capacity provider:

aws ecs create-capacity-provider --cli-input-json file://managed-instances-cp.json

The command returns a description of the capacity provider after it completes its creation.

Step 3: Configure the cluster's default capacity provider strategy

Update the cluster to use the Amazon ECS Managed Instances capacity provider as the default capacity provider strategy. This allows tasks and services to automatically use Amazon ECS Managed Instances without explicitly specifying the capacity provider.

Create a JSON file with the cluster capacity provider configuration:

{
    "cluster": "managed-instances-cluster",
    "capacityProviders": [
        "managed-instances-cp"
    ],
    "defaultCapacityProviderStrategy": [
        {
            "capacityProvider": "managed-instances-cp",
            "weight": 1
        }
    ]
}

Save this configuration as cluster-cp-strategy.json and update the cluster:

aws ecs put-cluster-capacity-providers --cli-input-json file://cluster-cp-strategy.json

Step 4: Register a Linux task definition

Before you can run a task on your 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 definition parameters for Fargate.

{
    "family": "sample-managed-instances",
    "networkMode": "awsvpc",
    "containerDefinitions": [
        {
            "name": "managed-instances-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 using Amazon ECS Managed Instances.</p></div></body></html>' >  /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/index.html && httpd-foreground\""
            ]
        }
    ],
    "requiresCompatibilities": [
        "MANAGED_INSTANCES"
    ],
    "cpu": "256",
    "memory": "512"
}

Save the task definition JSON as a file and pass it with the --cli-input-json file://path_to_file.json option.

To use a JSON file for container definitions:

aws ecs register-task-definition --cli-input-json file://$HOME/tasks/managed-instances-task.json

The register-task-definition command returns a description of the task definition after it completes its registration.

Step 5: 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-managed-instances:1"
    ]
}

Step 6: 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-managed-instances: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:

aws ecs create-service --cluster managed-instances-cluster --service-name managed-instances-service --task-definition sample-managed-instances:1 --desired-count 1 --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet-abcd1234],securityGroups=[sg-abcd1234]}"

Example using a public subnet:

aws ecs create-service --cluster managed-instances-cluster --service-name managed-instances-service --task-definition sample-managed-instances:1 --desired-count 1 --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet-abcd1234],securityGroups=[sg-abcd1234],assignPublicIp=ENABLED}"

The create-service command returns a description of the service after it completes its creation.

Step 7: 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 managed-instances-cluster

Output:

{
    "serviceArns": [
        "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:service/managed-instances-cluster/managed-instances-service"
    ]
}

Step 8: 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 managed-instances-cluster --services managed-instances-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.

The output will show that the service is using the Amazon ECS Managed Instances capacity provider:

{
    "services": [
        {
            "capacityProviderStrategy": [
                {
                    "capacityProvider": "managed-instances-cp",
                    "weight": 1,
                    "base": 0
                }
            ],
            "networkConfiguration": {
                "awsvpcConfiguration": {
                    "subnets": [
                        "subnet-abcd1234"
                    ], 
                    "securityGroups": [
                        "sg-abcd1234"
                    ], 
                    "assignPublicIp": "ENABLED"
                }
            }, 
            "enableECSManagedTags": false, 
            "loadBalancers": [], 
            "deploymentController": {
                "type": "ECS"
            }, 
            "desiredCount": 1, 
            "clusterArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:cluster/managed-instances-cluster", 
            "serviceArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:service/managed-instances-service", 
            "serviceName": "managed-instances-service",
            "taskDefinition": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:task-definition/sample-managed-instances:1"
        }
    ], 
    "failures": []
}

Step 9: Test

To test your deployment, you need to find the public IP address of the managed instance running your task.

Testing task deployed using public subnet

First, get the task ARN from your service:

aws ecs list-tasks --cluster managed-instances-cluster --service managed-instances-service

The output contains the task ARN:

{
    "taskArns": [
        "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:task/managed-instances-cluster/EXAMPLE"
    ]
}

Describe the task to get the container instance ARN. Use the task ARN for the tasks parameter:

aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster managed-instances-cluster --tasks arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:task/managed-instances-cluster/EXAMPLE

The output shows the task is running on Amazon ECS Managed Instances and includes the container instance ARN:

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "launchType": "MANAGED_INSTANCES",
            "capacityProviderName": "managed-instances-cp",
            "containerInstanceArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:container-instance/managed-instances-cluster/CONTAINER_INSTANCE_ID",
            "taskArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:task/managed-instances-cluster/EXAMPLE",
            "taskDefinitionArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:task-definition/sample-managed-instances:1"
        }
    ]
}

Describe the container instance to get the EC2 instance ID:

aws ecs describe-container-instances --cluster managed-instances-cluster --container-instances CONTAINER_INSTANCE_ID

The output includes the EC2 instance ID:

{
    "containerInstances": [
        {
            "ec2InstanceId": "i-1234567890abcdef0",
            "capacityProviderName": "managed-instances-cp",
            "containerInstanceArn": "arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:container-instance/managed-instances-cluster/CONTAINER_INSTANCE_ID"
        }
    ]
}

Describe the EC2 instance to get the public IP address:

aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0

The public IP address is in the output:

{
    "Reservations": [
        {
            "Instances": [
                {
                    "PublicIpAddress": "198.51.100.2",
                    "InstanceId": "i-1234567890abcdef0"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Enter the public IP address in your web browser and you should see a webpage that displays the Amazon ECS sample application running on Amazon ECS Managed Instances.

Testing task deployed using private subnet

For tasks deployed in private subnets, you can use Amazon ECS Exec to connect to the container and test the deployment from within the instance. Follow the same steps as above to get the task ARN, then use ECS Exec:

aws ecs execute-command --cluster managed-instances-cluster \
    --task arn:aws:ecs:region:aws_account_id:task/managed-instances-cluster/EXAMPLE \
    --container managed-instances-app \
    --interactive \
    --command "/bin/sh"

After the interactive shell is running, you can test the web server:

curl localhost

You should see the HTML equivalent of the Amazon ECS sample application webpage.

Step 10: 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 managed-instances-cluster --service managed-instances-service --force

Wait for the service to be deleted and all tasks to stop, then delete the capacity provider:

aws ecs delete-capacity-provider --capacity-provider managed-instances-cp

Delete the cluster:

aws ecs delete-cluster --cluster managed-instances-cluster