AWS ECS Cluster Creation Documentation

Owned by Todd Barczak
Aug 06, 2021
5 min read

Prerequisites for AWS ECS Cluster Creation:

There must be a registered AWS Account tool with proper Connection credentials verified for the tool to show up in AWS Tool drop down

To Create an AWS Account Tool:

  1. Navigate to Tool Registry and select +New Tool

2. Complete Create New Tool form. For Tool Identifier field, select AWS Account.

3. Select Create Tool and tool will save. When viewing Tool Details, navigate to Connection tab, enter the required values and Save . Select Test Connection to verify that tool is configured properly:

 

 

When creating an AWS ECS Cluster, it is important to know the correct values in order to create a cluster. It is a nuanced operation and the chances for failures are high unless the user is experienced with AWS infrastructure creation. There are 2 steps to cluster creation. Template creation is a prerequisite to creating the cluster. Once the template has been created, you must select Run Task for the first cluster to be created.

Task Setup Instructions:

  1. Select Create AWS ECS Cluster from the Type drop down. Once this has been selected, the following values will be fetched for selection:

    • AWS Tool - Select an established AWS tool from the Tool Registry.

    • Cluster Template - Select Networking/Fargate or EC2.

    • Cluster Name - Create a unique name for your cluster.

    • Image Type - Select Windows or Linux/Unix

    • Create VPC - Either use an existing VPC from the AWS VPC console or create a new one by enabling the toggle.

    • EC2 Instance Type - Select a value from the list fetched from the AWS portal.

    • Key Pair - Find this value in the AWS portal in EC2.

    • Existing VPC - Select an existing VPC from the list of values fetched from the AWS portal.

    • Private Subnets - Both subnets should be from different availability zones. Maximum 2 subnets preferred.

    • Security Group - Select a value from the list fetched from the AWS portal.

  2. Select Create to save. A task template has now been created.

Cluster Creation Instructions:

  1. Select Run Task to trigger the cluster creation.

  2. View the Activity Logs in Task Details to view status and confirm that creation was successful.

If the Activity Logs indicate that cluster creation is complete, cluster has been created and can be accessed in AWS.

To create a new cluster from an existing template, edit the Cluster Name, as AWS does not support creating 2 clusters with the same name.

To edit an existing task template, click on the cog wheel icon.

Once the Task and cluster have been created, the task can be linked to a Docker step in the pipeline.

 

ECS Cluster Creation Documentation

To navigate to ECS Cluster Creation:

  1. Select Tasks from the left navigation and click +Create New Task.

2. Select “Create AWS ECS Cluster” from the Type drop down. Once this has been selected, other drop down fields will become available to select to continue creation process.

3. In the Cluster Template drop down, select Networking or EC2.

 

4. Either use an existing VPC or create new VPC by enabling Create VPC toggle. If creating a new VPC, give values to the following fields:

  • VPC CIDR Block

  • Public Subnet CIDR1

 

 

When Cluster Template is EC2 with Create VPC enabled, the following field become available:

  • EC2 Instance Type

  • Key Pair

  • Existing VPC

  • Private Subnets

  • Security Group

**Saving this form will only create a template in the tasks tab. To actually create the cluster the user must click on Run Task following this to trigger the cluster creation.

Cluster Creation

Once the template is created - the user can Run Task to provision a new cluster. If user has already created a cluster from this template, provide a new Cluster Name before selecting Run Task. AWS Does not support creating two clusters with the same name and configuration. Select gear/cog icon to edit Cluster Name in the form.

Activity Logs

To view any logs for this action, view Activity Logs tab which are refreshed as the data comes in from the microservice.

 

Note: User must know the correct values in order to create a cluster as it is a nuanced operation - chances for failures are high unless the user is experienced with AWS infrastructure creation.

 

In case of failures - the user will see the errors that can be viewed in the “Activity Logs” tab.

Click on row to inspect.

Message will display reason for failure.