This library provides a high level, extensible pattern for constructing services deployed using Amazon ECS.
The Service construct provided by this module can be extended with optional ServiceExtension classes that add supplemental ECS features including:
- AWS X-Ray for tracing your application
- Amazon CloudWatch Agent for capturing per task stats
- AWS AppMesh for adding your application to a service mesh
- Application Load Balancer, for exposing your service to the public
- AWS FireLens, for filtering and routing application logs
- Injecter Extension, for allowing your service connect to other AWS services by granting permission and injecting environment variables
- Queue Extension, for allowing your service to consume messages from an SQS Queue which can be populated by one or more SNS Topics that it is subscribed to
- Community Extensions, providing support for advanced use cases
The ServiceExtension class is an abstract class which you can also implement in
order to build your own custom service extensions for modifying your service, or
attaching your own custom resources or sidecars.
import { AppMeshExtension, CloudwatchAgentExtension, Container, Environment, FireLensExtension, HttpLoadBalancerExtension, Service, ServiceDescription, XRayExtension } from 'ecs-service-builder';
// Create an environment to deploy a service in.
const environment = new Environment(stack, 'production');
// Build out the service description
const nameDescription = new ServiceDescription();
nameDescription.add(new Container({
cpu: 1024,
memoryMiB: 2048,
trafficPort: 80,
image: ContainerImage.fromRegistry('nathanpeck/name'),
environment: {
PORT: '80',
},
}));
nameDescription.add(new AppMeshExtension({ mesh }));
nameDescription.add(new FireLensExtension());
nameDescription.add(new XRayExtension());
nameDescription.add(new CloudwatchAgentExtension());
nameDescription.add(new HttpLoadBalancerExtension());
// Implement the service description as a real service inside
// an environment.
const nameService = new Service(stack, 'name', {
environment: environment,
serviceDescription: nameDescription,
});An Environment is a place to deploy your services. You can have multiple environments
on a single AWS account. For example, you could create a test environment as well
as a production environment so you have a place to verify that your application
works as intended before you deploy it to a live environment.
Each environment is isolated from other environments. In other words, when you create an environment, by default the construct supplies its own VPC, ECS Cluster, and any other required resources for the environment:
const environment = new Environment(stack, 'production');However, you can also choose to build an environment out of a pre-existing VPC or ECS Cluster:
const vpc = new ec2.Vpc(stack, 'VPC');
const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(stack, 'Cluster', { vpc });
const environment = new Environment(stack, 'production', {
vpc,
cluster,
});The ServiceDescription defines what application you want the service to run and
what optional extensions you want to add to the service. The most basic form of a ServiceDescription looks like this:
const nameDescription = new ServiceDescription();
nameDescription.add(new Container({
cpu: 1024,
memoryMiB: 2048,
trafficPort: 80,
image: ContainerImage.fromRegistry('nathanpeck/name'),
environment: {
PORT: '80',
},
}));Every ServiceDescription requires at minimum that you add a Container extension
which defines the main application (essential) container to run for the service.
After that, you can optionally enable additional features for the service using the ServiceDescription.add() method:
nameDescription.add(new AppMeshExtension({ mesh }));
nameDescription.add(new FireLensExtension());
nameDescription.add(new XRayExtension());
nameDescription.add(new CloudwatchAgentExtension());
nameDescription.add(new HttpLoadBalancerExtension());
nameDescription.add(new AssignPublicIpExtension());Once the service description is defined, you can launch it as a service:
const nameService = new Service(stack, 'name', {
environment: environment,
serviceDescription: nameDescription,
});At this point, all the service resources will be created. This includes the ECS Task Definition, Service, as well as any other attached resources, such as App Mesh Virtual Node or an Application Load Balancer.
Sometimes the taskRole should be defined outside of the service so that you can create strict resource policies (ie. S3 bucket policies) that are restricted to a given taskRole:
const taskRole = new iam.Role(stack, 'CustomTaskRole', {
assumedBy: new iam.ServicePrincipal('ecs-tasks.amazonaws.com'),
});
// Use taskRole in any CDK resource policies
// new s3.BucketPolicy(this, 'BucketPolicy, {});
const nameService = new Service(stack, 'name', {
environment: environment,
serviceDescription: nameDescription,
taskRole,
});In addition to using the default service extensions that come with this module, you
can choose to implement your own custom service extensions. The ServiceExtension
class is an abstract class you can implement yourself. The following example
implements a custom service extension that could be added to a service in order to
autoscale it based on CPU:
export class MyCustomAutoscaling extends ServiceExtension {
constructor() {
super('my-custom-autoscaling');
}
// This function modifies properties of the service prior
// to construct creation.
public modifyServiceProps(props: ServiceBuild) {
return {
...props,
// Initially launch 10 copies of the service
desiredCount: 10
} as ServiceBuild;
}
// This hook utilizes the resulting service construct
// once it is created
public useService(service: ecs.Ec2Service | ecs.FargateService) {
const scalingTarget = service.autoScaleTaskCount({
minCapacity: 5, // Min 5 tasks
maxCapacity: 20 // Max 20 tasks
});
scalingTarget.scaleOnCpuUtilization('TargetCpuUtilization50', {
targetUtilizationPercent: 50,
scaleInCooldown: cdk.Duration.seconds(60),
scaleOutCooldown: cdk.Duration.seconds(60),
});
}
}This ServiceExtension can now be reused and added to any number of different
service descriptions. This allows you to develop reusable bits of configuration,
attach them to many different services, and centrally manage them. Updating the
ServiceExtension in one place would update all services that use it, instead of
requiring decentralized updates to many different services.
Every ServiceExtension can implement the following hooks to modify the properties
of constructs, or make use of the resulting constructs:
addHooks()- This hook is called after all the extensions are added to a ServiceDescription, but before any of the other extension hooks have been run. It gives each extension a chance to do some inspection of the overall ServiceDescription and see what other extensions have been added. Some extensions may want to register hooks on the other extensions to modify them. For example, the Firelens extension wants to be able to modify the settings of the application container to route logs through Firelens.modifyTaskDefinitionProps()- This is hook is passed the proposed ecs.TaskDefinitionProps for a TaskDefinition that is about to be created. This allows the extension to make modifications to the task definition props before the TaskDefinition is created. For example, the App Mesh extension modifies the proxy settings for the task.useTaskDefinition()- After the TaskDefinition is created, this hook is passed the actual TaskDefinition construct that was created. This allows the extension to add containers to the task, modify the task definition's IAM role, etc.resolveContainerDependencies()- Once all extensions have added their containers, each extension is given a chance to modify its container'sdependsOnsettings. Extensions need to check and see what other extensions were enabled and decide whether their container needs to wait on another container to start first.modifyServiceProps()- Before an Ec2Service or FargateService is created, this hook is passed a draft version of the service props to change. Each extension adds its own modifications to the service properties. For example, the App Mesh extension needs to modify the service settings to enable CloudMap service discovery.useService()- After the service is created, this hook is given a chance to utilize that service. This is used by extensions like the load balancer or App Mesh extension, which create and link other AWS resources to the ECS extension.connectToService()- This hook is called when a user wants to connect one service to another service. It allows an extension to implement logic about how to allow connections from one service to another. For example, the App Mesh extension implements this method in order to easily connect one service mesh service to another, which allows the service's Envoy proxy sidecars to route traffic to each other.
One of the hooks that a ServiceExtension can implement is a hook for connection
logic. This is utilized when connecting one service to another service, e.g.
connecting a user facing web service with a backend API. Usage looks like this:
const frontend = new Service(stack, 'frontend', {
environment,
serviceDescription: frontendDescription
});
const backend = new Service(stack, 'backend', {
environment,
serviceDescription: backendDescription
});
frontend.connectTo(backend);The address that a service will use to talk to another service depends on the
type of ingress that has been created by the extension that did the connecting.
For example, if an App Mesh extension has been used, then the service is accessible
at a DNS address of <service name>.<environment name>. For example:
const environment = new Environment(stack, 'production');
// Define the frontend tier
const frontendDescription = new ServiceDescription();
frontendDescription.add(new Container({
cpu: 1024,
memoryMiB: 2048,
trafficPort: 80,
image: ContainerImage.fromRegistry('my-frontend-service'),
environment: {
BACKEND_URL: 'http://backend.production'
},
}));
const frontend = new Service(stack, 'frontend', {
environment,
serviceDescription: frontendDescription
});
// Define the backend tier
const backendDescription = new ServiceDescription();
backendDescription.add(new Container({
cpu: 1024,
memoryMiB: 2048,
trafficPort: 80,
image: ContainerImage.fromRegistry('my-backend-service'),
environment: {
FRONTEND_URL: 'http://frontend.production'
},
}));
const backend = new Service(stack, 'backend', {
environment,
serviceDescription: backendDescription
});
// Connect the two tiers to each other
frontend.connectTo(backend);The above code uses the well-known service discovery name for each service, and passes it as an environment variable to the container so that the container knows what address to use when communicating to the other service.
To create an environment with a pre-existing cluster, you must import the cluster first, then use Environment.fromEnvironmentAttributes(). When a cluster is imported into an environment, the cluster is treated as immutable. As a result, no extension may modify the cluster to change a setting.
const cluster = ecs.Cluster.fromClusterAttributes(stack, 'Cluster', {
...
});
const environment = Environment.fromEnvironmentAttributes(stack, 'Environment', {
capacityType: EnvironmentCapacityType.EC2, // or `FARGATE`
cluster,
});This service extension accepts a list of Injectable resources. It grants access to these resources and adds the necessary environment variables to the tasks that are part of the service.
For example, an InjectableTopic is an SNS Topic that grants permission to the task role and adds the topic ARN as an environment variable to the task definition.
You can use this extension to set up publishing permissions for SNS Topics.
nameDescription.add(new InjecterExtension({
injectables: [new InjectableTopic({
// SNS Topic the service will publish to
topic: new sns.Topic(stack, 'my-topic'),
})],
}));This service extension creates a default SQS Queue eventsQueue for the service (if not provided) and optionally also accepts list of ISubscribable objects that the eventsQueue can subscribe to. The service extension creates the subscriptions and sets up permissions for the service to consume messages from the SQS Queue.
You can use this extension to set up SNS Topic subscriptions for the eventsQueue. To do this, create a new object of type TopicSubscription for every SNS Topic you want the eventsQueue to subscribe to and provide it as input to the service extension.
const myServiceDescription = nameDescription.add(new QueueExtension({
// Provide list of topic subscriptions that you want the `eventsQueue` to subscribe to
subscriptions: [new TopicSubscription({
topic: new sns.Topic(stack, 'my-topic'),
}],
}));
// To access the `eventsQueue` for the service, use the `eventsQueue` getter for the extension
const myQueueExtension = myServiceDescription.extensions.queue as QueueExtension;
const myEventsQueue = myQueueExtension.eventsQueue;For setting up a topic-specific queue subscription, you can provide a custom queue in the TopicSubscription object along with the SNS Topic. The extension will set up a topic subscription for the provided queue instead of the default eventsQueue of the service.
nameDescription.add(new QueueExtension({
queue: myEventsQueue,
subscriptions: [new TopicSubscription({
topic: new sns.Topic(stack, 'my-topic'),
// `myTopicQueue` will subscribe to the `my-topic` instead of `eventsQueue`
queue: myTopicQueue,
}],
}));The Publish/Subscribe Service Pattern is used for implementing asynchronous communication between services. It involves 'publisher' services emitting events to SNS Topics, which are passed to subscribed SQS queues and then consumed by 'worker' services.
The following example adds the InjecterExtension to a Publisher Service which can publish events to an SNS Topic and adds the QueueExtension to a Worker Service which can poll its eventsQueue to consume messages populated by the topic.
const environment = new Environment(stack, 'production');
const pubServiceDescription = new ServiceDescription();
pubServiceDescription.add(new Container({
cpu: 256,
memoryMiB: 512,
trafficPort: 80,
image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromRegistry('sns-publish'),
}));
const myTopic = new sns.Topic(stack, 'myTopic');
// Add the `InjecterExtension` to the service description to allow publishing events to `myTopic`
pubServiceDescription.add(new InjecterExtension({
injectables: [new InjectableTopic({
topic: myTopic,
}],
}));
// Create the `Publisher` Service
new Service(stack, 'Publisher', {
environment: environment,
serviceDescription: pubServiceDescription,
});
const subServiceDescription = new ServiceDescription();
subServiceDescription.add(new Container({
cpu: 256,
memoryMiB: 512,
trafficPort: 80,
image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromRegistry('sqs-reader'),
}));
// Add the `QueueExtension` to the service description to subscribe to `myTopic`
subServiceDescription.add(new QueueExtension({
subscriptions: [new TopicSubscription({
topic: myTopic,
}],
}));
// Create the `Worker` Service
new Service(stack, 'Worker', {
environment: environment,
serviceDescription: subServiceDescription,
});We encourage the development of Community Service Extensions that support advanced features. Here are some useful extensions that we have reviewed:
- ListenerRulesExtension for more precise control over Application Load Balancer rules
Please submit a pull request so that we can review your service extension and list it here.