ECS Manual Deployment Guide - AWS Console

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Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      Internet Users                          │
└────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │ HTTP Port 80
                         ▼
        ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
        │  Application Load Balancer (ALB)   │
        │  music-app-alb                     │
        └────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                    Port 5000
                         ▼
        ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
        │   Target Group (music-app-tg)      │
        │   Health Check: /login             │
        └────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                    Routes to
                         ▼
        ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
        │  ECS Service (music-app-service)   │
        │  Desired Count: 1 task             │
        └────────────────────────────────────┘
                         │
                   Runs tasks from
                         ▼
        ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
        │   Task Definition (music-app-task) │
        │   CPU: 256, Memory: 512            │
        │   Image: ECR music-app:latest      │
        └────────────────────────────────────┘
                    ┌─────────────────────────────┐
                    │  Uses Docker Image from ECR │
                    │  music-app:latest           │
                    └─────────────────────────────┘

        ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
        │           Application Dependencies              │
        ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
        │ • DynamoDB: Login & Music tables (data)         │
        │ • S3: music-catalog-s4084267 (album images)     │
        │ • CloudWatch Logs: /ecs/music-app (logging)     │
        │ • IAM Role: LabRole (task permissions)          │
        └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Resources Summary

Step-by-Step Manual Deployment via AWS Console

Phase 1: Preparation & Data Storage

Step 1: Create DynamoDB Tables

Table 1: Login Table

1. Go to DynamoDB Console → Create Table
2. Table name: Login
3. Partition key: email (String)
4. Billing mode: Pay-per-request
5. Add Global Secondary Index:
   • Index name: UsernameIndex
   • Partition key: username (String)
   • Projection: All
6. Click Create Table

Table 2: Music Table

1. Go to DynamoDB Console → Create Table
2. Table name: Music
3. Partition key: artist (String)
4. Sort key: song_key (String)
5. Billing mode: Pay-per-request
6. Add Local Secondary Index:
   • Index name: ArtistYearIndex
   • Sort key: year (String)
   • Projection: All
7. Add Global Secondary Indexes:
   • Index 1: Name AlbumIndex, Partition: album, Sort: song_key, Project All
   • Index 2: Name TitleIndex, Partition: title, Sort: artist, Project All
8. Click Create Table

Step 2: Create S3 Bucket

1. Go to S3 Console → Create Bucket
2. Bucket name: music-catalog-s4084267
3. Region: us-east-1
4. Keep all default settings
5. Click Create Bucket

Step 3: Create CloudWatch Log Group

1. Go to CloudWatch Console → Log Groups → Create Log Group
2. Log group name: /ecs/music-app
3. Retention: Never expire (or your preference)
4. Click Create

Phase 2: Container Registry

Step 4: Create ECR Repository

1. Go to ECR Console → Create Repository
2. Repository name: music-app
3. Image tag mutability: Mutable
4. Click Create Repository
5. You'll see the repository URI: <account-id>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/music-app

Note: You need to build and push the Docker image locally:

# From project root
docker build -t music-app:latest -f backend/deployment/ecs/Dockerfile .
aws ecr get-login-password --region us-east-1 | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <account-id>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
docker tag music-app:latest <account-id>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/music-app:latest
docker push <account-id>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/music-app:latest

Phase 3: Networking & Security

Step 5: Get Default VPC Information

1. Go to VPC Console → Your VPCs
2. Find the Default VPC (or your preferred VPC)
3. Note the VPC ID: vpc-xxxxxxxx
4. Go to Subnets, filter by your VPC
5. Note at least 2 public subnet IDs: subnet-xxxxxxxx

Step 6: Create Security Group

1. Go to EC2 Console → Security Groups → Create Security Group
2. Security group name: music-app-ecs-sg
3. Description: ECS ALB + task security group for music-app
4. VPC: Select your default VPC
5. Inbound Rules:
   • Rule 1: Type: HTTP, Protocol: TCP, Port: 80, Source: 0.0.0.0/0
   • Rule 2: Type: Custom TCP, Protocol: TCP, Port: 5000, Source: 0.0.0.0/0
6. Click Create Security Group

Phase 4: Load Balancing

Step 7: Create Application Load Balancer

1. Go to EC2 Console → Load Balancers → Create Load Balancer
2. Choose Application Load Balancer → Create
3. Name: music-app-alb
4. Scheme: Internet-facing
5. IP address type: IPv4
6. VPC: Select your default VPC
7. Availability Zones: Select at least 2 public subnets
8. Security Groups: Select music-app-ecs-sg
9. Click Next → Configure Routing

Step 8: Create Target Group

1. Target type: IP
2. Name: music-app-tg
3. Protocol: HTTP
4. Port: 5000
5. VPC: Your default VPC
6. Configure Health Checks:
   • Protocol: HTTP
   • Path: /login
   • Port: 5000
   • Interval: 15 seconds
   • Healthy threshold: 5
   • Unhealthy threshold: 2
7. Click Next → Register Targets (leave empty for now)
8. Click Create

Step 9: Complete ALB Setup

1. Back on the ALB creation page, select the newly created target group music-app-tg
2. Click Create Load Balancer
3. Wait for status to be Active
4. Note the DNS name: music-app-alb-xxxxxxxx.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com

Phase 5: Container Orchestration

Step 10: Create ECS Cluster

1. Go to ECS Console → Clusters → Create Cluster
2. Cluster configuration:
   • Cluster name: music-app-cluster
   • Infrastructure: AWS Fargate (serverless)
3. Click Create

Step 11: Create ECS Task Definition

1. Go to ECS Console → Task Definitions → Create New Task Definition
2. Task definition family: music-app-task
3. Launch type: AWS Fargate
4. Operating system: Linux
5. CPU: 256 (.25 vCPU)
6. Memory: 512 MB
7. Task role: Select LabRole
8. Task execution role: Select ecsTaskExecutionRole (if available) or create one with AmazonECSTaskExecutionRolePolicy

Container Settings:

1. Click Add Container
2. Container name: music-app
3. Image URI: <account-id>.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/music-app:latest
4. Container port: 5000
5. Environment variables:
   • FLASK_SECRET_KEY: dev-secret-key
   • AWS_REGION: us-east-1
   • S3_BUCKET_NAME: music-catalog-s4084267
6. Log configuration:
   • Log driver: awslogs
   • Log group: /ecs/music-app
   • Log stream prefix: music-app
   • Region: us-east-1
7. Click Add
8. Click Create

Step 12: Create ECS Service

1. Go to ECS Console → Clusters → music-app-cluster
2. Click Create Service
3. Launch type: Fargate
4. Task definition: music-app-task
5. Revision: Latest
6. Service name: music-app-service
7. Desired count: 1
8. Click Next Step

Network Configuration:

1. VPC: Your default VPC
2. Subnets: Select 2 public subnets
3. Security groups: Select music-app-ecs-sg
4. Assign public IP: ENABLED
5. Click Next Step

Load Balancing:

1. Load balancer type: Application Load Balancer
2. Load balancer name: music-app-alb
3. Container to load balance: music-app
4. Container port: 5000
5. Target group name: music-app-tg
6. Click Next Step → Next Step → Create Service

Phase 6: IAM Permissions (Pre-requisite)

Note: Ensure LabRole or your task role has these permissions:

1. Go to IAM Console → Roles → Select your task role
2. Add inline policy:

   {
     "Version": "2012-10-17",
     "Statement": [
       {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": [
           "dynamodb:BatchGetItem",
           "dynamodb:GetItem",
           "dynamodb:PutItem",
           "dynamodb:Query",
           "dynamodb:Scan",
           "dynamodb:UpdateItem"
         ],
         "Resource": [
           "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:*:table/Login",
           "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:*:table/Music"
         ]
       },
       {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject", "s3:ListBucket"],
         "Resource": [
           "arn:aws:s3:::music-catalog-s4084267",
           "arn:aws:s3:::music-catalog-s4084267/*"
         ]
       },
       {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Action": ["logs:CreateLogStream", "logs:PutLogEvents"],
         "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:us-east-1:*:log-group:/ecs/music-app:*"
       }
     ]
   }
   

Step 13: Verify Deployment

1. Go to ECS Console → Clusters → music-app-cluster → Services → music-app-service
2. Check Tasks tab - wait until at least one task reaches RUNNING status
3. Go to Target Groups in EC2 Console → music-app-tg → Target health
4. Wait until target shows healthy
5. Open browser and visit: http://music-app-alb-xxxxxxxx.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com
6. You should see the login page

Troubleshooting

Estimated Costs (AWS Free Tier)

• ECS Fargate: 1 task × 512 MB × ~24 hours = Free tier eligible
• ALB: ~$16/month (not free tier)
• DynamoDB: Pay-per-request = minimal cost
• S3: <1GB storage = minimal cost
• CloudWatch Logs: First 5GB/month free

Approximate total if using Free Tier: $16/month for ALB