QuickStart: Deploy a Python application to Elastic Beanstalk

This QuickStart tutorial walks you through the process of creating a Python application and deploying it to an Amazon Elastic Beanstalk environment.

Your Amazon account

If you're not already an Amazon customer, you need to create an Amazon account. Signing up enables you to access Elastic Beanstalk and other Amazon services that you need.

If you already have an Amazon account, you can move on to Prerequisites.

Prerequisites

To follow the procedures in this guide, you will need a command line terminal or shell to run commands. Commands are shown in listings preceded by a prompt symbol ($) and the name of the current directory, when appropriate.

~/eb-project$ this is a command
this is output

On Linux and macOS, you can use your preferred shell and package manager. On Windows you can install the Windows Subsystem for Linux to get a Windows-integrated version of Ubuntu and Bash.

EB CLI

This tutorial uses the Elastic Beanstalk Command Line Interface (EB CLI). For details on installing and configuring the EB CLI, see Install EB CLI with setup script (recommended) and Configure the EB CLI.

Python and Flask framework

Confirm that you have a working Python version with pip installed by running the following commands.

~$ python3 --version
Python 3.N.N
>~$ python3 -m pip --version
pip X.Y.Z from ... (python 3.N.N)

If any of the previous commands return “Python was not found", run the following commands that use python instead of python3. The setup of aliases and symbolic links can vary by operating system and individual customizations, so the python3 command may not function on your machine.

~$ python --version
Python 3.N.N
>~$ python -m pip --version
pip X.Y.Z from ... (python 3.N.N)

If you don't have Python installed on your local machine, you can download it from the Python downloads page on the Python website. For a list of Python language versions supported by Elastic Beanstalk, see Supported Python platforms in the Amazon Elastic Beanstalk Platforms guide. The Python downloads website provides a link to the Python Developer's Guide, where you'll find installation and setup instructions.

If your output indicates that you have a supported version of Python, but not pip, see the Installation page on the pip.pypa.io website. It provides guidance to install pip within a Python environment that doesn’t have it.

Confirm if Flask is installed by running the following command:

~$ pip list | grep Flask

If Flask is not installed, you can install it with the following command:

~$ pip install Flask

Step 1: Create a Python application

Create a project directory.

~$ mkdir eb-python
~$ cd eb-python

Create a sample "Hello Elastic Beanstalk!" Python application that you'll deploy using Elastic Beanstalk.

Create a text file named application.py in the directory you just created with the following contents.

from flask import Flask
application = Flask(__name__)

@application.route('/')
def hello_elastic_beanstalk():
        return 'Hello Elastic Beanstalk!'

Create a text file named requirements.txt with the following line. This file contains the required pip packages for the application to run.

Flask

Step 2: Run your application locally

Run the following command to run your application locally.

~/eb-python$ export FLASK_APP=application.py && flask run --port 5000

You should see output similar to the following

Serving Flask app 'application.py'
Debug mode: off
WARNING: This is a development server. Do not use it in a production deployment. Use a production WSGI server instead.
Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000
Press CTRL+C to quit
127.0.0.1 - - [01/Jan/1970 00:00:00] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 -

Navigate to http://localhost:5000 in your web browser. The web browser should display “Hello Elastic Beanstalk!”.

Step 3: Deploy your Python application with the EB CLI

Run the following commands to create an Elastic Beanstalk environment for this application.

Step 4: Run your application on Elastic Beanstalk

When the process to create your environment completes, open your website with eb open.

~/eb-python$ eb open

Congratulations! You've deployed a Python application with Elastic Beanstalk! This opens a browser window using the domain name created for your application.

Step 5: Clean up

You can terminate your environment when you finish working with your application. Elastic Beanstalk terminates all Amazon resources associated with your environment.

To terminate your Elastic Beanstalk environment with the EB CLI run the following command.

~/eb-python$ eb terminate

Amazon resources for your application

You just created a single instance application. It serves as a straightforward sample application with a single EC2 instance, so it doesn't require load balancing or auto scaling. For single instance applications Elastic Beanstalk creates the following Amazon resources:

Elastic Beanstalk manages all of these resources. When you terminate your environment, Elastic Beanstalk terminates all the resources that it contains.

Next steps

After you have an environment running an application, you can deploy a new version of the application or a different application at any time. Deploying a new application version is very quick because it doesn't require provisioning or restarting EC2 instances. You can also explore your new environment using the Elastic Beanstalk console. For detailed steps, see Explore your environment in the Getting started chapter of this guide.

After you deploy a sample application or two and are ready to start developing and running Python applications locally, see Setting up your Python development environment for Elastic Beanstalk.

Deploy with the Elastic Beanstalk console

You can also use the Elastic Beanstalk console to launch the sample application. For detailed steps, see Create an example application in the Getting started chapter of this guide.