I have a very specific requirement for which I'm trying to use Elastic Beanstalk where I do not require an internet facing web server. The actual requirement is a little involved but boils down to needing a continuously running EC2 server which every 15mins uses wget or curl to pull a fairly large file from a private URL (other options have been looked at but for reasons outside my control this is the only way) where the transfer takes about 360s thus precluding the use of a CloudWatch-triggered Lambda function.
Since I don't want the hassle of managing the EC2 instance myself, I was looking at Elastic Beanstalk as a nice managed solution. I have proven my solution works as required on Beanstalk (where I have configured a cron job in .ebextensions/ to invoke a small shell script to wget the file and then upload it to a S3 bucket). It doesn't need Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, Docker or any of the other platform options offered by Beanstalk, but Beanstalk is perfect for my particular use case.
The only thing is, it seems I get an Apache web server running on the EC2 whether I like it or not. What are my options here for configuring Beanstalk so that no Apache process is started?
Related
So I’ve just finished working on my first big personal project, bought a domain name, created an AWS account, watched a lot of AWS tutorials, but I still can’t figure out how to host my web app on AWS. The whole AWS thing is a mystery to me. No tutorial online seems to teach exactly what I need.
What I’m trying to do is this:
Host my dynamic web app on a secure https connection.
Host the web app using the personalized domain name I purchased.
Link my git repo to AWS so I can easily commit and push changes when needed.
Please assist me by pointing me to a resource that can help me achieve the above 3 tasks.
For now, the web app is still hosted on Heroku’s free service; feel free to take a look at the application, and provide some feedback if you can.
Link to web app:my web app
You mentioned - The web app is still hosted on Heroku’s free service
So, if you want the same thing in AWS, use Elastic Beanstalk.
First Question: How to host my web app on AWS?
There can be multiple options to host your web app:-
S3 Bucket to host your website. How to Host in S3
Elastic Beanstalk. Link
ECS - using containers
Single EC2 Server to host your website.
EKS - Kubernetes
By the way, there are many couples of things which you need to take care of before starting.
Second Question, Host the web app using the personalized domain name I purchased.
If you have used S3, the hosted URL will be in HTTP and you can create a route entry in your purchased domain settings. If it is AWS, create a new record in Route53.
If you host your website on EC2, you will get Public IP Address. Make a route entry with that Public IP.
If you have used ECS or EKS, you might require to use the Load Balancer and then you will have the Load Balancer DNS. Make a route entry with your Load Balancer DNS. Then again question will arise which kind of Load Balancer you want to use. [Like Application, Classic or Network Load Balancer]
If you use Elastic Beanstalk. It's a managed service, when you host you will directly get an endpoint. Make a route entry with that endpoint.
Third, Link my git repo to AWS so I can easily commit and push changes when needed.
For this, you have to use Code Build and connect Github as a Source while creating Code Build Project. Link
For CI-CD, there are multiple things again.
As Heroku’s is a PaaS, which provides you the platform and but when it comes to AWS, it is an IaaS. So you get the infrastructure and when you get the provisioned infrastructure, there are so many things which you need to take care of like you have to think like an Architect. Prepare the architecture and then proceed. It requires knowledge of other things also networking, security etc.
To answer your question, the best way to host a web app in AWS is Elastic Beanstalk
But what is AWS Elastic Beanstalk and what does it do?
AWS Elastic Beanstalk encompasses processes and operations connected with the deployment of web apps into the cloud environment, as well as their scaling.
Elastic Beanstalk automates the deployment by putting forward the required capacity, balancing the load, autoscaling, and monitoring software efficiency and performance. All that is left for a developer to do is to apply the code. In these conditions, the application owner has overall control over the capacity that AWS provides for the software and can access it at any time.
So this is the best way to deploy the app and let’s follow the steps.
Open the Elastic Beanstalk console and find the management page of your environment.
Select “Upload and Deploy”.
Select “Choose File” and choose the source bundle with the dialog box.
Deploy and select the URL to open the new website.
You can use CodeDeploy to connect your Github and deploy your code
Conclusion
I have taken a simplistic approach and told you exactly what you need to do the required task without going into the hus and fuss of AWS. Saying that there is still a lot that can be done to bring the real value of your application in terms of balancing the load, scaling or improving the performance.
What are the exact differences between EC2, Beanstalk and LightSail in AWS?
What are good real time scenarios in which I should use these services?
They are all based on EC2, the compute service from AWS allowing you to create EC2 instances (virtual machines in the cloud).
Lightsail is packaged in a similar way than Virtual Private Server, making it easy for anyone to start with their own server. It has a simplified management console and many options are tuned with default values that maximize availability and security.
Elastic Beanstalk is a service for application developers that provisions an EC2 instance and a load balancer automatically. It creates the EC2 instance, it installs an execution environment on these machines and will deploy your application for you (Elastic Beanstalk support Java, Node, Python, Docker and many others)
Behind the scenes, Elastic Beanstalk creates regular EC2 instances that you will see in your AWS Console.
And EC2 is the bare service that allows the other to be possible. If you choose to create an EC2 instance, you will have to choose your operating system, manage your ssh key, install your application runtime and configure security settings by yourself. You have full control of that virtual machine.
In simple terms:
EC2 - virtual host or an image. which you can use it to install apps and have a machine to do whatever you like.
Lightsail - is similar but more user friendly management option and good for small applications.
Beanstalk - an orchestration tool, which does all the work to create an EC2, install application, software and give you freedom from manual tasks in creating an environment.
More details at - https://stackshare.io/stackups/amazon-ec2-vs-amazon-lightsail-vs-aws-elastic-beanstalk
I don't know if my scenario is typical in any way, but here are the differences that were critical for me. I'm happier EC2 than EB:
EC2:
just a remote linux machine with shell (command line) access
tracable application-level errors, easy to see what is wrong with your application
you can use AWS web console panel or AWS command line tool to manage
you will need repeated steps if you want to reproduce same environment
some effort to get proper shell access (eg fix security rule to your IP only)
no load balancer provided by default
Elastic Beanstalk
a service that creates a EC2 instance with a programming language of your choice (eg Python, PHP, etc)
runs one application on that machine (for python - application.py)
upload applications as .zip file, extra effort needed to use your git source
need to get used to environment vs applications mental model
application level errors hidden deep in the server logs, logs downloaded in separate menu
can be managed by web console, but also needs another CLI tool in addition to AWS CLI (you end up installing two CLI tools)
provides load balancer and other server-level services, takes away the manual setup part
great for scaling stable appications, not so much for trial-and-see experimentaion
probably more expensive than just an EC2 instance
Amazon EC2 is a virtual host, in other words, it is a server where you can SSH configure your application, install dependencies and so on, like in your local machine. EC2 has a dozen of AMI (Amazon Machine Image: it is some kind of operating system of your EC2 server, for instance, you can have EC2 running on Linux based OS or in windows OS). To summarize, it is a great idea if you need a machine in your hands.
Amazon Lightsail is a simple tool that you can deploy and manage application with small management of servers. You can find it very practical if your application is small, For instance, it will perfectly fit your application if you use Wordpress or other CMS.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk is an orchestration tool. You can manage your application within that service, it is more elevated then AWS Light Sail.
If you still do not understand the differences, you can take a look at each service overview.
There is also an answer in Quora
I have spent only 10 mins on these technologies but here is my first take.
EC2 - a baremetal service. It gives you a server with an OS. That is it. There is nothing else installed on it. So if you need a webserver (nginx) or python, you'll need to do it yourself.
Beanstalk - helps you deploy your applications. Say you have a python/flask application which you want to run on a server. Traditionally you'll have to build the app, move the deployable package to another machine where a web server should be installed, then move the package into some directory in the web server. Beanstalk does all this for you automatically.
LightSail - I haven't tried it but it seem to be an even simpler option to create a server with pre-installed os/software.
In summary, these seem to make application deployment more easier by pre-configuring the server/EC2s with the required software packages and security policies (eg. port nos. etc.).
I am not an expert so I could be wrong.
I am trying to set up an Amazon Server to host a dynamic website I'm currently creating. I have the domain bought on GoDaddy.com, and I believe that what I've done so far has linked the domain to my Amazon account.
I followed this tutorial : http://www.mycowsworld.com/blog/2013/07/29/setting-up-a-godaddy-domain-name-with-amazon-web-services/
In short, this walked me through setting up and Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) and Amazon Route 53. I then configured the DNS Servers, and my website now launches properly on the domain.
I'm not sure on the next step from here, but I would like to set up:
-A database server
-Anything else that might be necessary to run a dynamic website.
I am very new to hosting websites, and semi-new to web development in general, so the more in depth the better.
Thanks a lot
You have two options on AWS. Run an EC2 server and setup your application or continue to use the AWS managed services like S3.
Flask apps can be hosted on Elastic Beanstalk and
your database can be hosted on RDS (Relational Database Service). Then the two can be integrated.
Otherwise, spin up your own t2.micro instance in EC2. Log in via ssh and set up the database server and application like you have locally. This server could also host the (currently S3 hosted) static files too.
I have no idea what your requirements are, personally I would start with setting up the EC2 instance and go from there as integrating AWS services is without knowing what you need is probably not the easiest first step.
Heroku might be another option. They host their services on AWS and give you an end to end solution for deploying and running your python code without getting your hands dirty setting up servers.
I'm deploying my app via Elastic Beanstalk, which creates and Elastic load balancer and puts all my instances behind it (3 or more).
Is there a way to contact each of these instances directly? I want to trigger a specific command on each instances (git pull command to synchronize with the latest code in my remote repo).
I have the list of IP address and public DNS of the instances from PHP SDK but since the firewalls rules restricts the source of IP address to the elastic load balancer IP on port 80, I can't seem to access them directly.
Is there a way around it?
P.S. The SSH port seems to open for all traffic, but how can I create a trigger with that? I'm hoping to create a PHP script to automate this with a webhook on the remote repo.
I highly suggest you use the EB CLI with git integration for all deployments, no matter how small. It is great because you can map a git branch to an environment with eb use YOUR_ENV then when you run eb deploy with that branch checked out it will deploy to that environment.
There is a lot of work involved in ensuring multiple servers pull the correct code and everything is working as expected. What if a server is in the processes of spinning up but is not ready for SSH so your script skips it and it does not get the new code?
Also, what happens when a new server spins up but it is using the old application because that's what is in EB? You could have your kickstart do a git pull but then what happens when you are not ready to push, a new server starts and is alone with the new code?
I could probably find 5 more edge cases without breaking a sweat. Look into eb deploy, you will be happy you did.
You need to setup a CI (or make a simple web service) and create a webhook in your repository. Your CI need to get all instances under your Elastic Beanstalk environment and then call git pull via SSH.
Or, just create a cron job in your all instances via .ebxensions script.
I thought it's not a good practice in Elastic Beanstalk to run git pull in order to synchronize your app with your git repo. Because, it misused the Application Version semantic meaning. Sometimes, you can't determine which app version are in your instances from Application Version. It's better to create a new Application Version in Elastic Beanstalk to deploy a new app version.
If you host your repo in Github, you can take a look into CodeDeploy.
The documentation only refers to web applications. Do I use the Elastic Beanstalk for my website or is it strictly for web apps? I've launched an EC2 instance that is not connected to the Elastic Beanstalk, however the default instance is running in the Elastic Beanstalk environment.
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/Welcome.html
Elastic Beanstalk can be used for several type of applications:
Web App. Websites are included in "Web App" but it could be just a simple REST Api used by a mobile app and it would work as well.
Worker Application. Typically an application that would get message from a queue like SQS.
Elastic Beanstalk is a tool to help deployment of an entire infrastructure, from installing a webserver to deploy the code of the application and applying custom installation script. If you have a website using any technology supported by Elastic Beanstalk (Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, and .NET) , I would definitely suggest that you use it as it is very simple to use and gives you a lot of advantages over a single ec2 instance.
You can read documentation for workers application here : http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/using-features-managing-env-tiers.html
And I would suggest that you read the FAQ for more details:
http://aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/faqs/
As an example, in my company we set up beanstalk for more than 15 websites: internal Backend tool in PHP, workers to send sms or emails, website with thousands of simultaneous users. One of the important point to mention is to be able to have a new website infrastructure up in about 20 minutes (new server with all configuration and code deployed).
Hope this helped you to understand Elastic Beanstalk. Don't hesitate to ask some more question and check Stackoverflow, there is a lot of information about it.