Adventures with ElasticBeanstalk

26.08.2021 — nodejs, typescript, yarn — 1 min read

- by Nick Grealy and Sam Wei

Background:

We wanted to setup a simple NodeJS project in ElasticBeanstalk. We followed these instructions which seem to be a bit outdated.

The .ebextensions/*.config appears to be the old way of doing things. Documentation isn't centrally located... so you end up looking all over for it. Our suggestion - use config.yml and environments (e.g. dev.cfg.yml).

Steps to deploy

1. Install CLI

1brew install awsebcli

2. Deploy app

Notes: when deploying your app, AWS will use package.json by convention for it's configuration.

For instance, it will look for a npm start script to execute your app, and will use the engines block to determine which version of Node to run.

package.json

1{
2  "name": "myapp",
3  "version": "1.0.0",
4  "private": true,
5  "engines": {
6    "node": "14.16.0"
7  },
8  "scripts": {
9    "start": "node index.js"
10  },
11  "dependencies": {
12    "express": "~4.16.1"
13  }
14}

Some deployment commands...

1# creates the local eb config directories
2eb init --platform node.js --region ap-southeast-2
3
4# deploy our app to an environment named 'nick'
5eb create nick
6
7# open website in browser
8eb open
9
10# N.B. ElasticBeanstalk only deploys GIT COMMITted resources!
11eb deploy
12
13# destroy environments
14eb terminate nick
15
16# delete everythign (incl application)
17eb terminate nick --force --all --ignore-links

3. Manage env config

We didn't delve into it too far yet, but basically you can manage the config per environment.

1# use a given configuration name
2eb use nick
3
4# save config to local disk
5eb config save --cfg nick
6
7# push config
8eb config --update file://`pwd`/.elasticbeanstalk/saved_configs/nick.cfg.yml

.elasticbeanstalk/saved_configs/yourenv.cfg.yml

1EnvironmentConfigurationMetadata:
2  Description: Configuration created from the EB CLI using "eb config save".
3  DateCreated: "1629899407000"
4  DateModified: "1629899407000"
5Platform:
6  PlatformArn: arn:aws:elasticbeanstalk:ap-southeast-2::platform/Node.js 14 running on 64bit Amazon Linux 2/5.4.4
7OptionSettings:
8  aws:elasticbeanstalk:command:
9    BatchSize: "30"
10    BatchSizeType: Percentage
11  aws:elb:policies:
12    ConnectionDrainingEnabled: "true"
13  aws:elb:loadbalancer:
14    CrossZone: "true"
15  aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:
16    ServiceRole: aws-elasticbeanstalk-service-role
17  aws:elasticbeanstalk:application:environment:
18    AWS_REGION: '`{"Ref" : "AWS::Region"}`'
19    TEST_NICK: "Rocks"
20  aws:elasticbeanstalk:healthreporting:system:
21    SystemType: enhanced
22  aws:autoscaling:launchconfiguration:
23    IamInstanceProfile: aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role
24  aws:autoscaling:updatepolicy:rollingupdate:
25    RollingUpdateType: Health
26    RollingUpdateEnabled: "true"
27EnvironmentTier:
28  Type: Standard
29  Name: WebServer
30AWSConfigurationTemplateVersion: 1.1.0.0

.elasticbeanstalk/config.yml

1branch-defaults:
2  dev:
3    environment: nick-dev
4  main:
5    environment: null
6    group_suffix: null
7global:
8  application_name: aws-elasticbeanstalk-vanilla
9  branch: null
10  default_ec2_keyname: null
11  default_region: ap-southeast-2
12  default_platform:
13    arn:aws:elasticbeanstalk:ap-southeast-2::platform/Node.js 14 running
14    on 64bit Amazon Linux 2/5.4.4
15  include_git_submodules: true
16  instance_profile: null
17  platform_name: null
18  platform_version: null
19  profile: null
20  repository: null
21  sc: git
22  workspace_type: Application

Errors

1. Default subnet in ap-southeast-2b not found

12021-08-25 12:05:52    ERROR   Creating load balancer failed Reason: Default subnet in ap-southeast-2b not found (Service: AmazonElasticLoadBalancing; Status Code: 409; Error Code: InvalidConfigurationRequest; Request ID: 23078f28-f251-4f01-843a-bf1992e5ab64; Proxy: null)
22021-08-25 12:06:07    ERROR   Stack named 'awseb-e-7rwhhxm3gp-stack' aborted operation. Current state: 'CREATE_FAILED'  Reason: The following resource(s) failed to create: [AWSEBLoadBalancer].

Solution: Create a default subnet for your region:

1aws ec2 create-default-subnet --availability-zone ap-southeast-2b
2aws ec2 create-default-subnet --availability-zone ap-southeast-2c

2. Your environment is using a deprecated platform branch. It might not be supported in the future.

Solution:

a) Remove aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:nodejs setting from .ebextensions/<whatever>.config

Delete this...

1option_settings:
2  aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:nodejs:
3    NodeCommand: "npm start"

b) Specify latest platform in config.yml.

Update this...

1global:
2  default_platform:
3    arn:aws:elasticbeanstalk:ap-southeast-2::platform/Node.js 14 running
4    on 64bit Amazon Linux 2/5.4.4