# Starting the Amazon AppConfig agent for Amazon ECS integration


The Amazon AppConfig Agent sidecar container is automatically available in your Amazon ECS environment. To use it, you must start it, as described in the following procedure.

**To start Amazon ECS (console)**

1. Open the console at [https://console.amazonaws.cn/ecs/v2](https://console.amazonaws.cn/ecs/v2).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Task definitions**.

1. Choose the task definition for your application, and then select the latest revision.

1. Choose **Create new revision**, **Create new revision**.

1. Choose **Add more containers**.

1. For** Name**, enter a unique name for the Amazon AppConfig Agent container.

1. For **Image URI**, enter: **public.ecr.aws/aws-appconfig/aws-appconfig-agent:2.x**

1. For **Essential container**, choose **Yes**.

1. In the **Port mappings** section, choose **Add port mapping**.

1. For **Container port**, enter **2772**.
**Note**  
Amazon AppConfig Agent runs on port 2772, by default. You can specify a different port.

1. Choose **Create**. Amazon ECS creates a new container revision and displays the details.

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Clusters**, and then choose your application cluster in the list.

1. On the **Services** tab, select the service for your application.

1. Choose **Update**.

1. Under **Deployment configuration**, for **Revision**, choose the latest revision.

1. Choose **Update**. Amazon ECS deploys the latest task definition.

1. After the deployment finishes, you can verify that Amazon AppConfig Agent is running on the **Configuration and tasks** tab. On the **Tasks** tab, choose the running task.

1. In the **Containers** section, verify that the Amazon AppConfig Agent container is listed.

1. To verify that Amazon AppConfig Agent started, choose the **Logs** tab. Locate a statement like the following for the Amazon AppConfig Agent container: `[appconfig agent] 1970/01/01 00:00:00 INFO serving on localhost:2772`

**Note**  
Note the following information.  
Amazon AppConfig Agent is a long-running process. As a best practice for Amazon ECS containers, configure health checks for your containers, specifically setting the container dependency to the HEALTHY condition. For more information, see [ContainerDependency](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/AmazonECS/latest/APIReference/API_ContainerDependency.html) in the *Amazon Elastic Container Service API Reference*.
You can adjust the default behavior of Amazon AppConfig Agent by entering or changing environment variables. For information about the available environment variables, see [(Optional) Using environment variables to configure Amazon AppConfig Agent for Amazon ECS and Amazon EKS](appconfig-integration-containers-agent-configuring.md). For information about how to change environment variables in Amazon ECS, see [Passing environment variables to a container](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/taskdef-envfiles.html) in the *Amazon Elastic Container Service Developer Guide*.