Containers on AWS Overview: ECS | EKS | Fargate | ECR
Summary
TLDRThis video provides a high-level overview of container services on AWS, discussing ECS (Elastic Container Service), EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service), EC2, AWS Fargate, and ECR (Elastic Container Registry). It explores how each service manages containerized applications, comparing ECS and EKS in terms of flexibility, orchestration, and scalability. It also covers AWS Fargate’s serverless infrastructure management and how ECR integrates with other AWS services. The video is designed to help users choose the right AWS container service based on their application requirements and infrastructure needs.
Takeaways
- 🚢 AWS offers multiple container services depending on application requirements, including ECS, EKS, EC2, Fargate, and ECR.
- 📦 ECS (Elastic Container Service) is a container orchestration service that manages the lifecycle of containers, including scheduling, restarting, and load balancing.
- 🔄 EC2 instances with Docker installed can host containers, but require manual management of infrastructure, including operating systems and resource allocation.
- ⚙️ Fargate provides a serverless way to run containers on AWS, automatically provisioning the necessary infrastructure for each container and scaling resources as needed.
- 💸 Fargate offers a cost-efficient option since users only pay for the resources consumed by the containers, unlike EC2 where you pay for the entire server.
- 🔧 EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) allows users to run Kubernetes clusters on AWS, giving them the flexibility to manage infrastructure with Kubernetes tools and easily migrate clusters to other platforms if necessary.
- ☁️ ECS is ideal for simpler applications, while EKS is more suitable for complex applications that require Kubernetes and its ecosystem of plugins and tools.
- 🌍 AWS services, including CloudWatch, ELB, IAM, and VPC, integrate well with ECS, EKS, and Fargate, providing robust options for monitoring, networking, and permissions.
- 🔑 ECR (Elastic Container Registry) is a container image repository that integrates with AWS services, making it easier to manage Docker images and automate deployment workflows.
- 🚀 AWS infrastructure management with ECS, EKS, Fargate, and ECR simplifies the deployment and scaling of containerized applications, with various options depending on the level of control and automation needed.
Q & A
What is Amazon ECS, and how does it help manage containers?
-Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) is a container orchestration service that manages the lifecycle of containers, including scheduling, load balancing, and restarting them. It helps manage container clusters by automating processes and reducing manual efforts when dealing with large numbers of containers.
What are the advantages of using AWS Fargate compared to EC2 instances in ECS?
-AWS Fargate is a serverless way to run containers without provisioning or managing EC2 instances. It automatically provisions server resources based on container needs and scales on demand, reducing costs by only charging for the resources used. Unlike EC2, where you manage the servers, Fargate handles the infrastructure, simplifying operations.
How does Kubernetes differ from ECS in terms of portability and ecosystem tools?
-Kubernetes (EKS) is an open-source container orchestration tool that can be used across multiple platforms, not just AWS, making it more portable than ECS. EKS allows users to access Kubernetes' wide range of plugins and tools, such as Helm, while ECS is more tightly integrated with AWS-specific services and does not offer the same portability.
What role does ECR play in AWS container services?
-ECR (Elastic Container Registry) is a container image repository service that integrates with other AWS services like ECS and EKS. It serves as a private registry for Docker images and simplifies the process of pushing, pulling, and managing container images. It also offers features like automated image updates within AWS container clusters.
What is the difference between fully managed and semi-managed EC2 instances in EKS?
-Fully managed EC2 instances are managed entirely by AWS, where AWS handles the provisioning and management of the worker nodes. In semi-managed EC2 instances, users still need to manage the operating system, runtime, and scaling configurations. Node groups help simplify some management tasks, but auto-scaling and other configurations remain the user's responsibility.
How does Fargate work with Kubernetes (EKS) compared to ECS?
-Fargate can be used with both ECS and EKS to eliminate the need to manage EC2 instances. In both services, Fargate automatically provisions resources for each container. For EKS, it allows for fully managed Kubernetes worker nodes, offering the same benefits of not having to manage infrastructure as it does with ECS.
When should you choose ECS over EKS for container orchestration on AWS?
-ECS is best suited for less complex containerized applications that don't require the full feature set of Kubernetes. It offers deep integration with AWS services and is generally easier to set up for simpler tasks. EKS is ideal when you need portability, are already using Kubernetes, or require the advanced features of the Kubernetes ecosystem.
What are the cost differences between using EC2 and Fargate for container hosting?
-With EC2, you pay for the entire server, even if you are not fully utilizing it. With Fargate, you only pay for the CPU, memory, and storage resources that your containers consume, making it a more cost-efficient option when scaling or handling dynamic workloads.
What are the main benefits of using AWS Fargate for containerized applications?
-Fargate simplifies operations by automating the provisioning and scaling of resources needed to run containers, allowing developers to focus on their applications rather than managing infrastructure. It ensures that you only pay for the resources consumed, and it scales automatically to match container demand.
How does ECS handle container scheduling and resource management?
-In ECS, the control plane manages container scheduling and ensures that containers are allocated to EC2 instances with sufficient resources. The ECS control plane automates the distribution of containers across available instances and can restart failed containers, reschedule them, or manage replicas as needed.
Outlines
🚀 Overview of AWS Container Services
This introduction gives a high-level overview of container services available on AWS. It explores various options for running containerized applications, such as ECS (Elastic Container Service), EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service), and Fargate. The video aims to help developers choose the right service for their microservice architecture by comparing these services and explaining their features.
⚙️ Managing Containers on EC2 with ECS
This section dives into managing containerized applications with ECS on EC2 instances. It outlines how microservices can lead to an increasing number of containers, and the complexities of managing resources, scheduling, and monitoring containers across a distributed infrastructure. The need for container orchestration tools like Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and AWS ECS is highlighted as a way to automate container management tasks.
🔄 Introduction to Fargate for Serverless Containers
This paragraph explains AWS Fargate, a serverless alternative to EC2 for running containers. Fargate automatically provisions the required resources (CPU, memory, etc.) for running a container without needing to manage virtual machines. This service scales effortlessly, and users only pay for the resources consumed by their containers, making it a flexible and cost-effective solution compared to traditional EC2-based deployment.
📊 Cost Efficiency and Scaling with Fargate
Fargate offers advantages in terms of cost efficiency and scalability. Unlike EC2, where users pay for entire servers, Fargate charges only for the exact resources consumed by each container. The automatic scaling of infrastructure ensures users only allocate the necessary resources for running their applications, reducing waste and operational overhead.
🔗 EKS: Using Kubernetes on AWS
EKS allows developers to manage Kubernetes clusters on AWS infrastructure. This section compares EKS to ECS, noting that EKS supports Kubernetes’ portability across platforms. While ECS is AWS-specific, EKS enables easier migration to other cloud providers or on-premise environments, making it a flexible choice for Kubernetes users looking to avoid vendor lock-in.
⚡ Differences Between EKS and ECS
While ECS integrates tightly with the AWS ecosystem, EKS supports Kubernetes’ broader toolset and allows easier migration. EKS gives access to Kubernetes’ vast array of tools, plugins, and third-party integrations, while ECS might be better for simpler applications. It also touches on the replication and backup features of Kubernetes master nodes managed by AWS.
🖥️ EKS Cluster Configuration and Worker Nodes
EKS provisions and manages Kubernetes master nodes across multiple availability zones. Users create worker nodes using EC2 instances, which are grouped in node groups to simplify management. The section discusses the semi-managed node group option, allowing users to automate some of the worker node setup while still managing aspects like auto-scaling manually.
🛠️ Options for Worker Node Management
This part explains the options for managing worker nodes in EKS: fully managed Fargate instances, semi-managed EC2 instances through node groups, or fully self-managed EC2 instances. It encourages the use of node groups to streamline operations and provides the flexibility to combine EC2 and Fargate within the same EKS cluster for greater control.
📦 Elastic Container Registry (ECR) Overview
ECR (Elastic Container Registry) is introduced as AWS’s solution for storing container images, functioning as an alternative to Docker Hub. Its tight integration with other AWS services, such as ECS and EKS, allows for seamless updates, image management, and deployment workflows within the AWS ecosystem.
🔄 Combining AWS Services for Container Management
This final part summarizes the three key container services on AWS: ECR for image storage, ECS for orchestration, and EKS for Kubernetes management. It emphasizes the ability to integrate these services into a CI/CD pipeline to streamline building, pushing, and deploying containers in an automated fashion.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Elastic Container Service (ECS)
💡Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
💡Amazon EC2
💡AWS Fargate
💡Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
💡Container Orchestration
💡Microservices
💡Control Plane
💡Kubernetes
💡Serverless
Highlights
AWS offers multiple container services depending on application requirements, including ECS (Elastic Container Service), EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service), and AWS Fargate.
ECS is a container orchestration tool that manages the entire container lifecycle, such as scheduling, restarting, and load balancing.
When using ECS with EC2 instances, users must still manage the underlying virtual machines, including provisioning, operating systems, and Docker runtime.
AWS Fargate provides a serverless option for running containers, automatically provisioning resources without the need to manage EC2 instances.
Fargate only charges for the resources that containers consume, offering better scalability and cost management compared to pre-provisioned EC2 instances.
EKS allows users to deploy Kubernetes clusters on AWS infrastructure, offering the flexibility of using Kubernetes, a more popular container orchestration tool.
One advantage of EKS over ECS is that Kubernetes is platform-agnostic, making it easier to migrate workloads across different platforms or on-premise infrastructure.
While EKS manages Kubernetes master nodes, users still need to manage worker nodes, though AWS offers semi-managed EC2 node groups to simplify this process.
Fargate can also be used with EKS to manage worker nodes, offering a fully managed infrastructure solution for Kubernetes clusters.
AWS Fargate eliminates the need to manually scale EC2 instances and provides on-demand scaling based on container needs.
Elastic Container Registry (ECR) integrates with ECS and EKS, serving as a private repository for container images, offering features like automatic image updates.
ECR simplifies container management by tightly integrating with other AWS services, allowing seamless interaction with the AWS ecosystem.
ECR supports versioning and tagging of container images, making it easier to manage different application versions and stages of development.
AWS offers extensive integration with services like CloudWatch for monitoring, Elastic Load Balancer for traffic distribution, and IAM for security when using containers.
EKS supports Kubernetes tools and plugins, such as Helm, enhancing the Kubernetes ecosystem with rich functionality for managing containerized applications.
Transcripts
in this video i will give you a high
level overview of all the different
container services you can use on aws
so if you want to run a containerized
application on aws you have multiple
options to choose from depending on your
application requirements
so we'll go through all of these options
one by one we will see what ecs elastic
container service is and what it's used
for
then we'll compare it and talk about eks
which is elastic kubernetes service
we will also see different ways of
running containers with ec2 or aws far
gate and finally we will see the ecr
service which stands for elastic
container registry
now think about a micro service
application scenario
if you're developing microservices
you would need containers for each and
containers scale pretty quickly
maybe you create replicas you have
different third-party
services and applications for your micro
service application this could be
messaging systems authentication
services etc so you end up with a bunch
of containers
that you need to deploy on some
environment in this case we're talking
about aws virtual service
so let's say we have created
10 containers for each our 10 micro
services plus we have five other
containers that our micro services use
which run different applications and
let's say we deploy all of those
on our ec2 instances
which have docker installed on them now
once you have deployed them how do you
manage them so you have an
infrastructure of all these virtual
servers that are running all your docker
containers how do you know how much
resources you still have remaining on
these machines how do you know where to
schedule the next container how do you
know by looking across your
infrastructure whether some of your
docker containers are not running
anymore whether servers ran out of
resources and
when you see that some containers have
died do you manually restart each
container if you have maybe five
replicas of
one application container you don't need
any more how do you get rid of all those
containers do you stop them and remove
them one by one and these are all
things
that you need to manage when you have
tens of containers maybe hundreds of
containers that you need to manage on
your infrastructure so obviously you
need some kind of automation some kind
of tool that can help you with all these
issues
and all these things that i just
mentioned are features of a container
orchestration tool so you probably
already know one of them which is the
most popular orchestration tool
kubernetes but of course there are
multiple orchestration tools out there
docker swarm is one of them which is
for less complex a bit smaller
containerized applications you also have
mesos apache mesos you also have
hashicorp
nomad and you also have an aws service
called amazon elastic container service
ecs so ecs is one of the container
services that aws offers and it is
essentially a container orchestration
service
so ecs being an orchestrator for
containers will manage the whole life
cycle of a container when you start the
container if it needs to get rescheduled
somewhere if it needs to get restarted
load balanced etc
so how does this service actually work
on aws if you wanted to create a cluster
a container cluster basically that is
managed by aws ecs service you would
create an ecs cluster
and that ecs cluster will basically
contain all the services
that are necessary for managing the
individual containers so ecs cluster
basically represents a control plane for
all your
virtual machines that are running
containers
and that control plane and the services
the managing services
in that control plane then can manage
these individual containers
and essentially managing the whole life
cycle of a container from being started
scheduled to being removed when you
create ecs cluster as i said you have
the control plane but the containers
need to run somewhere right so
containers need to run on actual
machines on virtual machines so where do
these virtual machines come from these
virtual machines
will be the ec2 instances we would
create an ec2 instance that will
basically host the containers the ec2
will not be isolated and managed by us
completely but ec2 instance will be
connected to this ecs cluster that we
created and on those ec2 instances you
will have the docker runtime or
container runtime generally
so that containers can run and also
you're going to have ecs agents
installed and this way the control plane
or ecs processes can communicate with
each individual ec2 instance and manage
them
so at the end it means that you have a
control plane that helps you
manage all your containers and automate
some of these
complex things that you don't want to do
manually and repeatedly so you have
delegated the management of your
containers to an aws service so you
don't have to worry about that however
you still have to
manage
the actual virtual machines
the ec2 instances
meaning you have to create the ec2
instances you have to join them to the
ecs cluster and when you schedule a new
container you have to make sure that you
have enough ec2 instances and resources
to schedule the next container you also
have to manage the server operating
system
and you also have docker runtime and the
ecs agent as i mentioned so all these
are basically part of
a virtual machine that you have to still
manage
on the upside of course you
have
full access to your infrastructure which
is an advantage if you need full
configuration access and power of the
infrastructure that's running your
containers
so now you have delegated the management
of your containerized application or
your containers basically to the aws
service which of course makes your
operations easier however you still have
the infrastructure to manage the virtual
servers
now what if you wanted to delegate
management of the infrastructure also to
aws
so you want the container lifecycle to
be managed by aws and you want the
hosting infrastructure to also be
managed by aws now there is an option
for that and it is called
aws far gate so far gate is basically an
alternative to ec2 instances so instead
of creating a provisioning ec2 instances
and connecting that to the ecs cluster
you don't need to provision any virtual
machines you use fargate interface and
fargate will take care of spinning up
the vm to run your container
so how does fargate work
fargate is a serverless way to launch
containers so you take a container that
you want to deploy on aws
and you tell aws here's my container
please run it and you hand it over to
fargate now at this point you don't have
any virtual machine that will run your
container you haven't provisioned
anything
or any server yet you just have the
control plane of ecs and you have the
far gate interface so you give your
container to fargate and you say please
schedule this fargate will then take
your container
it will analyze by looking at your
container how much resources your
container needs to run how much cpu how
much ram how much storage it needs to be
deployed and to run
and then fargate will itself
automatically provision a server
resources for that specific container
and then it will deploy and run that
container on the provisioned server
resources so this happens automatically
and every time you add or you hand over
a new container to deploy to fargate
fargate will do the same you go and
provision server resources to run that
specific container
so advantages are obviously you don't
need to worry about having enough ec2
instances and resources to schedule a
new container because you don't have to
provision anything beforehand and
because you don't have to provision the
infrastructure before you deploy
containers you always have
only the amount of infrastructure
resources needed to run your containers
and that means
you pay only for the resources that your
containers are actually consuming
and also
it really easily scales without fixed
set of ec2 resources defined beforehand
since every new container gets new
resources the pricing is based on how
long the container
runs
and how much cpu and memory was
requested for that container
so for comparison for ec2 you obviously
pay for the whole server even though you
might not be running any containers on
it or just a few maybe
and for fargate you only pay for the
resources that container is consuming
so now you have your
infrastructure managed by aws using the
fargate service and the containers that
are running that were scheduled through
fargate are now also managed by ecs so
you have multiple levels of your
infrastructure and the application on it
being managed by aws services now the
only thing that you have to worry about
and manage
is the actual application itself so
you develop the application you create
containers and that's it and then you
just deploy the containers on aws
infrastructure
which obviously is a great thing however
again if you need
more access to the underlying
infrastructure you need access to the
actual infrastructure
running your containers then you have
the flexibility and access with ec2
instances
and of course when you run your
containerized application on aws
infrastructure using the aws services
you have advantage of using
any other aws services from the aws
ecosystem right so
both ec2 and fargate and ecs and all
these services obviously fully integrate
with
the whole aws ecosystem right so this
could be cloud watch for monitoring
elastic load balancer for load balancing
iam for permissions and users vpc for
networking and so on
now this is how you can let aws manage
your containerized applications using
ecs
now what if
you want to use kubernetes as you know
kubernetes is the most popular container
orchestration tool currently so a lot of
projects a lot of companies actually use
kubernetes so can you still use aws
infrastructure
if you want to use kubernetes and how
can you use that aws actually has
another service which is for
managing kubernetes cluster on aws
infrastructure so alternative to ecs you
have a service called eks which stands
for elastic kubernetes service that lets
you manage kubernetes cluster
so the difference or advantage of using
eks is the first thing that i just
mentioned which is if you're using
kubernetes already and your project
wants to deploy their kubernetes cluster
on aws
infrastructure obviously you want to be
able to keep your kubernetes tool and
not use
a proprietary container orchestration
of aws you have an option of doing that
using eks
so that's the first obvious reason
another reason if you
do not necessarily think about using
kubernetes or you don't already use
kubernetes in your project making
decision between ecs and eks is
basically ecs is specific to aws right
so if you decide at some later point to
migrate to another platform you will not
be able to move that cluster to another
platform because it is really integrated
and based on aws with eks though because
it's managing the kubernetes cluster you
can easily migrate kubernetes because
it's not specific to aws right it's an
independent tool which you can use
anywhere so you can migrate or much
easily migrate kubernetes cluster on
another platform or maybe even on
premise right if you have your own
infrastructure in your company then
you can use the same configuration same
tools across multiple platforms so
that's a major advantage of using eks
versus ecs now i have to mention here
that even though kubernetes is an
independent tool if you're using it on
aws and you use a lot of additional
tools and services from the aws
ecosystem in your kubernetes cluster
then of course when you migrate your
kubernetes cluster you'll have to
replace those services with some other
tools because they will not be available
on another platform right because these
services are again specific to aws so
just know that it's not 100
easily migratable especially if you're
using aws specific services in your
cluster so that's maybe one thing to
consider another also important reason
for using eks versus ecs is
that if you use kubernetes which is
again a much more popular orchestration
tool than ecs you also have access to
all the kubernetes tools and plugins and
things are developing in the kubernetes
ecosystem like helm and some other tools
that integrate well with kubernetes now
on the side of ecs a more suitable
use case for ecs
is if you have less complex
containerized applications that maybe
don't need this full-fledged kubernetes
cluster to run in in this case you can
actually deploy it on ecs cluster and
also you don't pay for the ecs control
plane compared to eks cluster control
plane
but generally i think eks is much better
choice
for managing and orchestrating your
cluster on aws infrastructure now how
does eks work it's actually pretty
similar to how ecs works with eks you
create a cluster
which represents the control plane in
kubernetes world these are going to be
the masternodes so when you create an
eks service or eks cluster aws will
provision in the background kubernetes
masternodes
that already have all the kubernetes
master services installed on them so all
of that is managed and provisioned for
you you don't have to worry about
masternodes for your kubernetes cluster
also because it's managed by aws
these master nodes it will automatically
replicate the master nodes across
multiple availability zones so if you're
creating eks in region
eu west 3 that has three availability
zones then you will get automatic
replication of your masternodes on all
those azs and of course then you have
the storage which is the lcd part of the
master processes which stores
the whole configuration
the current state basically of
kubernetes cluster and that storage
needs to be replicated and needs to be
backed up because you shouldn't or you
can't lose the data otherwise you lose
all your cluster configuration and again
because it's a managed service aws will
also take care of storing the data
replicating it and
backing it up properly so basically
masternodes of kubernetes is not your
worry anymore so with eks you have the
master nodes control plane configured
now you need the worker nodes right you
need infrastructure that actually runs
your containers again same way as in the
ecs you will create ec2 instances the
so-called compute fleet of multiple
virtual servers and then connect them to
the eks
and now you have the masternodes and
worker node group connected and that
gives you a complete kubernetes cluster
and once that's done you can simply
connect to the cluster using cubectl
command and start deploying containers
inside that cluster in the example of
ecs we saw that these ec2 instances this
compute fleet each server had the ecs
agent installed this way the control
plane could communicate with the
individual nodes in this case we're in
the kubernetes world so worker nodes
will have kubernetes processes so this
way control plane or kubernetes
masternodes can communicate with worker
nodes just like they do on any platform
right it's not specific to aws in this
case so you have the worker nodes made
out of ec2 instances
that are connected to the eks
cluster
however in this case also you need to
manage the ec2 instances yourself you
have to manage the operating system and
the process is running on them in eks
cluster however you have a possibility
to choose a semi-managed ec2 instances
for your cluster so basically you can
group your worker nodes into node groups
and that node group can actually handle
some of the heavy lifting for you and
basically make it easier for you to
configure new worker nodes for your
cluster for example worker nodes or ec2
instances manage my node group will get
all the processes
necessary installed on them so you don't
have to worry about installing container
runtime kubernetes worker processes
etc for them to make it into worker
nodes so that means you have an
alternative between completely
self-managed ec2 instances and
semi-managed ec2 instances through node
groups
and when working with eks cluster
it is actually a good practice to use
node groups because they make a lot of
things simpler and you can also
create multiple node groups to group
your worker nodes in different logical
groups but as i said it is still
semi-managed you still have to take care
of some other stuff for example auto
scaling right you don't have the auto
scaling configuration out of the box you
still need to configure things in
kubernetes and on the aws side to make
auto scaling possible so you have to
take care of
creating new ec2 instances removing them
etc
however if that's also something you
want to delegate to aws if you don't
want to worry about that you can also
for eks cluster use fargate instead and
in that case you would have fully
managed worker nodes in addition to
fully managed control plane so these are
the three steps of
worker node
infrastructure management you have
available in aws
or you can even use both ec2 and fargate
at the same time for the same eks
cluster
so basically from the hosting
perspective of where your containers are
running having ec2 and fargate as
alternatives this part is pretty much
the same whether you use ecs or eks
and this basically gives you the
combination of the services that you
have as an option if you want to run a
containerized application
on aws
using a container orchestration tool to
manage them
now we just saw two of the services
on aws that are specifically for
containers and there is one more
container service on aws and that is
amazon ecr which stands for elastic
container registry so basically this is
just
a repository for container images
alternative to docker hub or
nexus docker repository where you can
store your docker images for example
advantage
of using elastic container registry is
of course
because it's part of the whole aws
ecosystem it integrates well with other
services so for example if you use eks
with ec2 instances for example
then it will be easier to connect it and
configure
your cluster
with
ecr to fetch the instances but also to
do some other stuff like automatically
get notified when a new version of the
image gets pushed to the registry and
then automatically download that into
your cluster and also some other
additional features and of course you
have all those abilities because these
are all aws services so they are tightly
integrated with each other
and ecr is pretty easy and
straightforward to use
you basically create your private
repositories for your different
application images or docker images and
you can start pushing different versions
or different tags of that image to those
registries and then of course use that
endpoint
to download the images from the cluster
so to summarize on aws you have three
container services
first for storing container images in
private container repository and the
other two for orchestrating or managing
your complex containerized application
on aws infrastructure
and in this part we're gonna look at ecr
and ek services and use them in our ci
cd pipeline
to build and push
images to ecr and deploy them to elastic
kubernetes service
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