I have a release of my project. I build a docker image and deploy it on an ec2 instance.
Later, when I have a new release, I would like update the docker on ec2 remotely (without accessing the machine, just executing some service).
Is there a way how to do it without ECS and ElasticBeanstalk?
If it's not possible can I somehow re-run the cfn-init script?
My Research
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-ec2-run-command-remote-instance-management-at-scale/
You can manage your instances remotely (i.e. make changes without manually SSHing into the instance and typing commands) by using any of the many system management services out there. AWS offers Simple Systems Manager (SSM) of which the Run Command you linked is part. AWS also offers the OpsWorks service which uses Chef. You also have other products like Ansible and SaltStack, and you can optionally integrate the use of those services with the AWS SSM service.
Related
I have my app developed in Cloud9, and I would like to use the terminal with GIT commands to deploy my app to a EC2 instance. The objective is to make the app run in the EC2 instance.
Is it necessary to deploy the app to a EC2 instance, or is it already in a EC2 instance and I just have to open the URL of the app?
My cloud9 environment is in a region and my EC2 Instance is in another region (I'm telling this just in case it changes something in the process).
I already did it to Heroku, but I can't see how does it work to a EC2 instance.
Thank you very much !
If you want to deploy your app to an EC2 instance from the Cloud9 console, you have a couple of options. Please note, you only need to use one of these options, not all of them. I would generally recommend option #1 for your case based on your original question.
Use AWS amplify instead of EC2 (Amplify is Amazon's version of Heroku)
Use the AWS CDK client, and specifically, you'll want to look at Instance and either utilize userData or CodeBuild to build your app and deploy to EC2.
Use the AWS client to deploy Cloudformation templates (this is the lower-level version of option #2 and will require more boilerplate)
Connect your Git repository to AWS CodePipeline and run a CI/CD flow to deploy it to EC2 on every commit to the main/master branch (this is fairly complicated)
The most important thing to understand is that Cloud9 is simply an IDE (integrated development environment) that is deployed to an EC2 instance that is managed by AWS (not you). Cloud9 is not a tool for actually deploying code (you'll need to use one of the options I mentioned above for that).
I've got development and production instances in EC2. I've been updating my app in Visual Studio 2019 and redeploying it to the dev instance, then creating an AMI of that instance and using that image to update the production instance(s).
Suddenly my app no longer updates when I deploy to the dev instance. The logs all show the update was applied, but when I look at the files on the server they have not changed for days. I suspect I may be using AMIs incorrectly, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
How do I get my updates to show again?
You are facing the issue because creating an AMI from running environment isn't the right approach since EB runs several scripts under the hood to attach instances to that particular environment.
Note: Custom AMIs are ideal only when you're installing a lot of dependencies or software that you want to be baked into your AMI so subsequent deployments go through quick. Here's the documentation that walks you through the steps, and here's the summary of the steps:
The best approach would be to launch a stand alone EC2 using an EB
AMI as base (ideally an AMI with HVM virtualization).
Connect to the instance with SSH or RDP.
Perform any customizations you want.
(Windows platforms) Run the EC2Config service Sysprep. For
information about EC2Config, see Configuring a Windows Instance Using
the EC2Config Service. Ensure that Sysprep is configured to generate
a random password that can be retrieved from the AWS Management
Console.
In the Amazon EC2 console, stop the EC2 instance. Then on the
Instance Actions menu, choose Create Image (EBS AMI).
Is there any way to install exe/MSI agents in AWS EC2 instances in an automated way?? In specific, I am looking for a counterpart of Azure's Custom Script Extension. [Free of cost]
Scenario:
I want to install BigFix and Datadog agents on 1000 Ec2 instances, this is a one time job, so I am not looking for any solution that involves Chef / Puppet, etc.,
Yes, you can pass a script to the instance that will be executed on the first boot (but not thereafter). It is often referred to as a User Data script.
See:
Running Commands on Your Windows Instance at Launch - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
Running Commands on Your Linux Instance at Launch - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
If you wish to install after the instance has started, use the AWS Systems Manager Run Command.
In the context of AWS:
AMI is used to package software and can be deployed on EC2.
Docker can also be used to package software and can also be deployed to EC2.
What's the difference between both and how do I choose between them?
An AMI is an image. This is a whole machine that you can start new instances from. A docker container is more lightweight and portable. A docker container should be transportable between providers while an AMI is not (easily).
AMI's are VM images basically.
Docker containers are packaged mini-images that run on some VM in an isolated environment.
Eventhough this doesn't answer the question directly, but gives some background on how they are used.
One approach is you launch EC2 instances with Amazon AMI's (or can be any AMI) then run docker containers (with all dependencies) on top of it. With this approach, the docker image gets bloated over time and there is a container drift over time. Also time taken for the application to be up and running is more as the Ec2 has to be booted and docker has to bring up your app server.
Another approach is "Immutable Ec2 instances". With this approach, you use Amazon AMI as base and install all the dependencies ( use shell scripts or Ansible) and bake them in the AMI. We use Hashicorp Packer which is an amazing tool. Here the time taken for the application to be up and running is greatly reduced as all the dependencies ( java8 , tomcat, war file etc) are already installed in the AMI.
For production use case, use Packer to create AMI and use Terraform to launch cloud resources to use this AMI. Tie all this together in Jenkins pipeline.
This link has details about differences between Docker and AMI:-
https://forums.docker.com/t/how-would-you-differentiate-between-docker-vs-ec2-image/1235/2
We are trying to automate running of multiple powershell scripts in AWS EC2 instance. Any suggestion how this can be done. These execution has to be sequential.
In order to configure state on a fresh EC2 instance, you can use 'User Data' in order to:
a. Fully provision and configure state using powershell, see:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-instance-metadata.html#instancedata-add-user-data
b. Install an agent for a configuration management tool such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible (as mentioned in the comment above). An example of provisioning stock Window's AMI's can be followed here: http://blog.rolpdog.com/2015/09/manage-stock-windows-amis-with-ansible.html
If you wish to trigger scripts on an existing Amazon EC2 instance (or a whole fleet of instances), also consider Running PowerShell Commands or Scripts with Amazon EC2 Run Command.