Deploy a container instance in AWS

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a highly scalable, fast, container management service that makes it easy to run, stop, and manage your containers. You can host your containers on a serverless infrastructure that is managed by Amazon ECS by launching your services or tasks on AWS Fargate. For more information on Fargate, see AWS Fargate for Amazon ECS.

Step 1: Sign in to AWS account

Sign in to the AWS portal.

If you do not have an AWS account, then register for a new AWS account.

Step 2: Create a virtual private cloud

You can use Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to launch AWS resources into a virtual network that you've defined. We strongly suggest that you launch your container instances in a VPC.

If you have a default VPC, you can skip this section and move to the next task, Create a security group. To determine whether you have a default VPC, see Supported Platforms in the Amazon EC2 Console in the Amazon EC2 User Guide. Otherwise, you can create a nondefault VPC in your account using the steps below.

For information about how to create a VPC, see Create a VPC only in the Amazon VPC User Guide, and use the following table to determine what options to select.

OptionValue
Resources to createVPC only
NameOptionally provide a name for your VPC
IPv4 CIDR blockIPv4 CIDR manual input
The CIDR block size must have a size between /16 and /28
IPv6 CIDR blockNo IPv6 CIDR block
TenancyDefault

For more information about Amazon VPC, see What is Amazon VPC? in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Step 3: Create a security group

Security groups act as a firewall for associated container instances, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic at the container instance level. You can add rules to a security group that enable you to connect to your container instance from your IP address using SSH. You can also add rules that allow inbound and outbound HTTP and HTTPS access from anywhere. Add any rules to open ports that are required by your tasks. Container instances require external network access to communicate with the Amazon ECS service endpoint.

For information about how to create a security group, see Create a security group in the Amazon EC2 User Guide and use the following table to determine what options to select.

OptionValue
RegionThe same Region in which you created your key pair
NameA name that is easy for you to remember, such as ecs-instances-default-cluster
VPCThe default VPC (marked with "(default)"
Note
If your account supports Amazon EC2 Classic, select the VPC that you created in the previous task

Step 4: Create a ECS Cluster

On the AWS portal homepage, search "ECS" in the search box and select "Elastic Container Service". Or open the console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecs/v2.

Search ECS

Select "Create cluster".

Create cluster

Enter the "Cluster name". Select only "AWS Fargate (serverless)" in Infrastructure section.

Create cluster values

Leave the other values as their defaults, the select Create.

Step 5: Create a Task definitions

After cluster created, select Task definitions.

Create task definition

Select Create new task definition, then select Create new task definition.

Create new task definition

On the Task definition configuration section, enter the value for Task definition family.

Task definition configuration section

On the Infrastructure requirements section, enter the following values for Launch type, CPU, Memory, Task role, and Task execution role.

  • Lanuch type: Only AWS Fargate
  • CPU: 1 vCPU
  • Memory: 2 GB
  • Task role: ecsTaskExecutionRole
  • Task execution role: ecsTaskExecutionRole

Infrastructure requirements

On the Container - 1 section, enter the following values for Name, Image URI, Container port, Port name, and Environment variables.

  • Name: mycontainer
  • Image URI: ironsoftwareofficial/ironsecuredoc for latest or specify by tag ironsoftwareofficial/ironsecuredoc:2024.7.1
  • Container port: 8080
  • Port name: 8080
  • Add Environment variables:
    • ENVIRONMENT: Production
    • HTTP_PORTS: 8080
    • IronSecureDoc_LicenseKey: YOUR-LICENSE-KEY

For IronSecureDoc_LicenseKey we don't recommended adding directly into Environment variables for security. We recommended to retrieve environment file from an encrypted Amazon S3 bucket, see Pass sensitive data to an Amazon ECS container.

Container section

Leave the other values as their defaults, the select Create.

Step 6: Create a Service

Go back to Clusters page > Select your cluster (IronSecureDoc).

Select your cluster

Select tab service > then select Create.

Create service

On Environment section, enter the following values for Compute options, and Launch type.

  • Compute options: Select Launch type
  • Launch type: Select FARGATE

Service environment

On Deployment configuration section, enter the following values for Application type, Family, Revision, Service name, and Desired tasks.

  • Application type: Select Service
  • Task definition:
    • Family: Select created task definition ironsecuredoc
    • Revision: Select task definition revision 1 (LATEST)
  • Service name: myservice
  • Desired tasks: 1

Service deployment configuration

Please note that for networking you may need to create VPC, and Security group if they are not exists.

Leave the other values as their defaults, the select Create.

When deployment starts, a notification appears that indicates the deployment is in progress. Another notification is displayed when the service has been deployed.

View your service > then open task.

Open created task

In Task Configuration you can use Public IP to run curl command to check the API is working correctly which should return pong.

curl http://18.118.166.206:8080/v1/document-services/ping

Public IP

Congratulations! By configuring just a few settings, you've deployed a publicly accessible application in Amazon Elastic Container Service.