Troubleshooting Amazon ECS deployment strategy updates - Amazon Elastic Container Service
Multiple service revisions or tasks setsMismatch between the deployment failure detection type and deployment controllerMismatch between Service Connect and the deployment controllerMismatch between controller type and scheduling strategyRevert a deployment controller update
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Troubleshooting Amazon ECS deployment strategy updates

This section provides solutions for common issues you might encounter when migrating deployment strategies.

Multiple service revisions or tasks sets

The following issues relate to having multiple service revisions for a deployment.

Multiple task sets when updating ECS deployment controller

Error message: Updating the deployment controller is not supported when there are multiple tasksets in the service. Please ensure your service has only one taskset and try again.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to change the deployment controller type of a service with multiple active task sets. To resolve this issue for the CODE_DEPLOY or EXTERNAL deployment controller:

  1. Check current task sets:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].taskSets"

  2. Wait for any in-progress deployments to complete.

  3. Force a new deployment to clean up task sets:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --force-new-deployment

  4. If necessary, delete extra task sets manually:

    aws ecs delete-task-set --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --task-set task-set-id

  5. After only one task set remains, retry updating the deployment controller.

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

Missing primary task set when updating ECS deployment controller

Error message: Updating the deployment controller requires a primary taskset in the service. Please ensure your service has a primary taskset and try again.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to change the deployment controller type of a service that doesn't have a primary task set. To resolve this issue:

  1. Verify the service status and task sets. ). If a task set exists in the service, it should be marked as ACTIVE. 

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].taskSets[*].[status,id]

    If there are no task sets in the ACTIVE state, migrate the deployment. For more information, see Migration approaches.

  2. If the service has no running tasks, deploy at least one task by updating the service:

    aws ecs update-service-primary-task-set --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --primary-task-set your-taskset-id

    This will mark the (previously ACTIVE) task set in the service as PRIMARY status.

  3. Wait for the task to reach a stable running state. You can check the status with:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].deployments"

  4. After the service has a primary task set with running tasks, retry updating the deployment controller.

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

Mismatch between the deployment failure detection type and deployment controller

The following issues relate to a mismatch between the deployment failure detection type and deployment controller.

Deployment circuit breaker with non-ECS controller

Error message: Deployment circuit breaker feature is only supported with ECS deployment controller. Update to ECS deployment controller and try again.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to enable the deployment circuit breaker feature on a service that is not using the ECS deployment controller. The deployment circuit breaker is only compatible with the ECSdeployment controller.

  1. Check your service's current deployment controller:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].deploymentController"

  2. Update your service to use the ECS deployment controller:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-controller type=ECS

  3. After the service is using the ECS deployment controller, enable the deployment circuit breaker:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-configuration "deploymentCircuitBreaker={enable=true,rollback=true}"

For more information, see How the Amazon ECS deployment circuit breaker detects failures.

Alarm-based rollback with non-ECS controller

Error message: Alarm based rollback feature is only supported with ECS deployment controller. Update to ECS deployment controller and try again.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to configure alarm-based rollback on a service that is not using the ECS deployment controller. The alarm-based rollback feature is only compatible with the ECS deployment controller.

  1. Check your service's current deployment controller:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].deploymentController"

  2. Update your service to use the ECS deployment controller:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-controller type=ECS

  3. After the service is using the ECS deployment controller, configure alarm-based rollback:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --deployment-configuration "alarms={alarmNames=[your-alarm-name],enable=true,rollback=true}"

For more information, see How CloudWatch alarms detect Amazon ECS deployment failures.

Mismatch between Service Connect and the deployment controller

The following issues relate to a mismatch between Service Connect and the deployment controller.

EXTERNAL controller with Service Connect

Error message: The EXTERNAL deployment controller type is not supported for services using Service Connect.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to use the EXTERNAL deployment controller with an service that has Service Connect enabled. The EXTERNAL controller is not compatible with Service Connect.

  1. Check if your service has Service Connect enabled:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].serviceConnectConfiguration"

  2. If you need to use the EXTERNAL deployment controller, disable Service Connect by updating your service:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --service-connect-configuration "{}"

  3. Alternatively, if you must use Service Connect, use the ECS deployment controller instead:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-controller type=ECS

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

Service Connect with non-ECS controller

Error message: Service Connect feature is only supported with ECS (rolling update) deployment controller. Update to ECS deployment controller and try again.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to enable Service Connect on a that is not using the ECS deployment controller. The Service Connect feature is only compatible with the ECS deployment controller.

  1. Check your service's current deployment controller:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].deploymentController"

  2. Update your service to use the ECS deployment controller:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-controller type=ECS

  3. Once the service is using the ECS deployment controller, enable Service Connect:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --service-connect-configuration "enabled=true,namespace=your-namespace"

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

Mismatch between controller type and scheduling strategy

The following issues relate to a mismatch between controller type and scheduling strategy.

CODE_DEPLOY controller with DAEMON scheduling strategy

Error message: The CODE_DEPLOY deployment controller type is not supported for services using the DAEMON scheduling strategy.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to use the CODE_DEPLOY deployment controller with a service that uses the DAEMON scheduling strategy. The CODE_DEPLOY controller is only compatible with the REPLICA scheduling strategy.

  1. Check your service's current scheduling strategy:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].schedulingStrategy"

  2. If you need blue/green deployments, change your service to use the REPLICA scheduling strategy:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --scheduling-strategy REPLICA

  3. Alternatively, if you must use the DAEMON scheduling strategy, use the ECS deployment controller instead:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-controller type=ECS

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

EXTERNAL controller with DAEMON scheduling strategy

Error message: The EXTERNAL deployment controller type is not supported for services using the DAEMON scheduling strategy.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to use the EXTERNAL deployment controller with an ECS service that uses the DAEMON scheduling strategy. The EXTERNAL controller is only compatible with the REPLICA scheduling strategy.

  1. Check your service's current scheduling strategy:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].schedulingStrategy"

  2. If you need to use the EXTERNAL deployment controller, change your service to use the REPLICA scheduling strategy:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --scheduling-strategy REPLICA

  3. Alternatively, if you must use the DAEMON scheduling strategy, use the ECS deployment controller instead:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --deployment-controller type=ECS

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

Service registries with external launch type

Error message: Service registries are not supported for external launch type.

Solution: This error occurs when attempting to configure service discovery (service registries) for a service that uses the EXTERNAL launch type. Service discovery is not compatible with the EXTERNAL launch type.

  1. Check your service's current launch type:

    aws ecs describe-services --cluster your-cluster-name --services your-service-name --query "services[0].launchType"

  2. If you need service discovery, change your service to use either the EC2 or FARGATE launch type:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --launch-type FARGATE

  3. Alternatively, if you must use the EXTERNAL launch type, remove the service registry configuration:

    aws ecs update-service --cluster your-cluster-name --service your-service-name --service-registries "[]"

For more information, see Amazon ECS service deployment controllers and strategies.

Revert a deployment controller update

If you decide that you want to return to the previous deployment controller, you can do one of the following:

  • If you used Amazon CloudFormation, you can use the previous template to create a new stack. For more information, see Create a stack from in the Amazon CloudFormation User Guide.

  • If you used the Amazon ECS console, or the Amazon CLI, you can update the service. For more information, see Updating an Amazon ECS service.

    If you use the update-service command, use the --deployment-controller option and set it to the previous deployment controller.