# Amazon ECS standalone tasks
You can run your application as a task when you have an application that performs some work, and then stops, for example a batch process. If you want to run a task one time, you can use the console, AWS CLI, APIs, or SDKs.
If you need to run your application on a rate-based, cron-based, or one-time schedule, you can create schedule using EventBridge Scheduler.
## Task workflow
When you launch Amazon ECS tasks (standalone tasks or by Amazon ECS services), a task is created and initially moved to the `PROVISIONING` state. When a task is in the `PROVISIONING` state, neither the task nor the containers exist because Amazon ECS needs to find compute capacity for placing the task.
Amazon ECS selects the appropriate compute capacity for your task based on your launch type or capacity provider configuration. You can use capacity providers and capacity provider strategies with both the Fargate and EC2s. With Fargate, you don’t have to think about provisioning, configuring, and scaling of your cluster capacity. Fargate takes care of all infrastructure management for your tasks. For EC2, you can either manage your cluster capacity by registering Amazon EC2 instances to your cluster, or you can use cluster auto scaling to simplify your compute capacity management. Cluster auto scaling takes care of dynamically scaling your cluster capacity, so that you can focus on running tasks. Amazon ECS determines where to place the task based on the requirements you specify in the task definition, such as CPU and memory, as well your placement constraints and strategies. For more information, see, [How Amazon ECS places tasks on container instances](task-placement.md).
If you use a capacity provider with managed scaling enabled, tasks that can't be started due to a lack of compute capacity are moved to the `PROVISIONING` state rather than failing immediately. After finding the capacity for placing your task, Amazon ECS provisions the necessary attachments (for example, Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) for tasks in `awsvpc` mode). It uses the Amazon ECS container agent to pull your container images, and then start your containers. After the provisioning completes and the relevant containers have launched, Amazon ECS moves the task into `RUNNING` state. For information about the task states, see [Amazon ECS task lifecycle](task-lifecycle-explanation.md).
# Running an application as an Amazon ECS task
You can create a task for a one-time process using the AWS Management Console.
**To create a standalone task (AWS Management Console)**
1. Open the console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecs/v2](https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecs/v2).
1. The Amazon ECS console allows you to create a standalone task from either your cluster detail page or from the task definition revision list. Use the following steps to create your standalone task depending on the resource page you choose.
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/standalone-task-create.html)
1. For **Existing cluster**, choose the cluster.
Choose **Create cluster** to run the task on a new cluster
1. Choose how your tasks are distributed across your cluster infrastructure. Under **Compute configuration**, choose your option.To use a capacity provider strategy, you must configure your capacity providers at the cluster level.
If you haven't configured your cluster to use a capacity provider, use a launch type instead.
If you want to run your workloads on Amazon ECS Managed Instances, you must use the Capacity provider strategy option.
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/standalone-task-create.html)
1. Under **Deployment configuration**, do the following:
1. For **Task definition**, enter the task definition.
**Important**
The console validates the selection to ensure that the selected task definition family and revision are compatible with the defined compute configuration.
1. For **Desired tasks**, enter the number of tasks to launch.
1. For **Task group**, enter the task group name.
1. If your task definition uses the `awsvpc` network mode, expand **Networking**. Use the following steps to specify a custom configuration.
1. For **VPC**, select the VPC to use.
1. For **Subnets**, select one or more subnets in the VPC that the task scheduler considers when placing your tasks.
1. For **Security group**, you can either choose an existing security group or create a new one. To use an existing security group, choose the security group and move to the next step. To create a new security group, choose **Create a new security group**. You must specify a security group name, description, and then add one or more inbound rules for the security group.
1. For **Public IP**, choose whether to auto-assign a public IP address to the elastic network interface (ENI) of the task.
AWS Fargate tasks can be assigned a public IP address when run in a public subnet so they have a route to the internet. EC2 tasks can't be assigned a public IP using this field. For more information, see [Amazon ECS task networking options for Fargate](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/fargate-task-networking.html) and [Allocate a network interface for an Amazon ECS task.](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/task-networking-awsvpc.html).
1. If your task uses a data volume that's compatible with configuration at deployment, you can configure the volume by expanding **Volume**.
The volume name and volume type are configured when creating a task definition revision and can't be changed when you run a standalone task. To update the volume name and type, you must create a new task definition revision and run a task by using the new revision.
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/standalone-task-create.html)
1. (Optional) To use a task placement strategy other than the default, expand **Task Placement**, and then choose from the following options.
For more information, see [How Amazon ECS places tasks on container instances](task-placement.md).
+ **AZ Balanced Spread** – Distribute tasks across Availability Zones and across container instances in the Availability Zone.
+ **AZ Balanced BinPack** – Distribute tasks across Availability Zones and across container instances with the least available memory.
+ **BinPack** – Distribute tasks based on the least available amount of CPU or memory.
+ **One Task Per Host** – Place, at most, one task from the service on each container instance.
+ **Custom** – Define your own task placement strategy.
If you chose **Custom**, define the algorithm for placing tasks and the rules that are considered during task placement.
+ Under **Strategy**, for **Type** and **Field**, choose the algorithm and the entity to use for the algorithm.
You can enter a maximum of 5 strategies.
+ Under **Constraint**, for **Type** and **Expression**, choose the rule and attribute for the constraint.
For example, to set the constraint to place tasks on T2 instances, for the **Expression**, enter **attribute:ecs.instance-type =\$1 t2.\$1**.
You can enter a maximum of 10 constraints.
1. (Optional) To override the task IAM role, or task execution role that is defined in your task definition, expand **Task overrides**, and then complete the following steps:
1. For **Task role**, choose an IAM role for this task. For more information, see [Amazon ECS task IAM role](task-iam-roles.md).
Only roles with the `ecs-tasks.amazonaws.com` trust relationship are displayed. For instructions on how to create an IAM role for your tasks, see [Creating the task IAM role](task-iam-roles.md#create_task_iam_policy_and_role).
1. For **Task execution role**, choose a task execution role. For more information, see [Amazon ECS task execution IAM role](task_execution_IAM_role.md).
1. (Optional) To override the container commands and environment variables, expand **Container Overrides**, and then expand the container.
+ To send a command to the container other than the task definition command, for **Command override**, enter the Docker command.
+ To add an environment variable, choose **Add Environment Variable**. For **Key**, enter the name of your environment variable. For **Value**, enter a string value for your environment value (without the surrounding double quotation marks (`" "`)).
AWS surrounds the strings with double quotation marks (" ") and passes the string to the container in the following format:
```
MY_ENV_VAR="This variable contains a string."
```
1. (Optional) To help identify your task, expand the **Tags** section, and then configure your tags.
To have Amazon ECS automatically tag all newly launched tasks with the cluster name and the task definition tags, select **Turn on Amazon ECS managed tags**, and then select **Task definitions**.
Add or remove a tag.
+ [Add a tag] Choose **Add tag**, and then do the following:
+ For **Key**, enter the key name.
+ For **Value**, enter the key value.
+ [Remove a tag] Next to the tag, choose **Remove tag**.
1. Choose **Create**.
# Using Amazon EventBridge Scheduler to schedule Amazon ECS tasks
EventBridge Scheduler is a serverless scheduler that allows you to create, run, and manage tasks from one central, managed service. It provides one-time and recurring scheduling functionality independent of event buses and rules. EventBridge Scheduler is highly customizable, and offers improved scalability over EventBridge scheduled rules, with a wider set of target API operations and AWS services. EventBridge Scheduler provides the following schedules which you can configure for your tasks in the EventBridge Scheduler console:
+ Rate-based
+ Cron-based
You can configure cron-based schedules in any time zone.
+ One-time schedules
You can configure one-time schedules in any time zone.
You can schedule your Amazon ECS using Amazon EventBridge Scheduler.
Although you can create a scheduled task in the Amazon ECS console, currently the EventBridge Scheduler console provides more functionality.
Complete the following steps before you schedule a task:
1. Use the VPC console to get the subnet IDs where the tasks run and the security group IDs for the subnets. For more information, see [Subnets for your VPC](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/configure-subnets.html), and [Control traffic to your AWS resources using security groups](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-security-groups.html) in the *Amazon VPC User Guide*.
1. Configure the EventBridge Scheduler execution role. For more information, see [Set up the execution role](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/scheduler/latest/UserGuide/setting-up.html#setting-up-execution-role) in the *Amazon EventBridge Scheduler User Guide*.
1. If you want to use a capacity provider strategy to run the task, you must have a capacity provider associated with the cluster.
**To create a new schedule using the console**
1. Open the Amazon EventBridge Scheduler console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/scheduler/home](https://console.aws.amazon.com/scheduler/home/).
1. On the **Schedules** page, choose **Create schedule**.
1. On the **Specify schedule detail** page, in the **Schedule name and description** section, do the following:
1. For **Schedule name**, enter a name for your schedule. For example, **MyTestSchedule**.
1. (Optional) For **Description**, enter a description for your schedule. For example, **TestSchedule**.
1. For **Schedule group**, choose a schedule group. If you don't have a group, choose **default**. To create a schedule group, choose **create your own schedule**.
You use schedule groups to add tags to groups of schedules.
1. Choose your schedule options.
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/tasks-scheduled-eventbridge-scheduler.html)
1. (Optional) If you chose **Recurring schedule** in the previous step, in the **Timeframe** section, do the following:
1. For **Timezone**, choose a timezone.
1. For **Start date and time**, enter a valid date in `YYYY/MM/DD` format, and then specify a timestamp in 24-hour `hh:mm` format.
1. For **End date and time**, enter a valid date in `YYYY/MM/DD` format, and then specify a timestamp in 24-hour `hh:mm` format.
1. Choose **Next**.
1. On the **Select target** page, do the following:
1. Choose **All APIs**, and then in the search box enter **ECS**.
1. Select **Amazon ECS**.
1. In the search box, enter **RunTask**, and then choose **RunTask**.
1. For **ECS cluster**, choose the cluster.
1. For **ECS task**, choose the task definition to use for the task.
1. Choose how your tasks are distributed across your cluster infrastructure. Expand **Compute options**, and then choose one of the following options
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/tasks-scheduled-eventbridge-scheduler.html)
1. For **Subnets**, enter the subnet IDs to run the task in.
1. For **Security groups**, enter the security group IDs for the subnet.
1. (Optional) To use a task placement strategy other than the default, expand **Placement constraint**, and then enter the constraints.
For more information, see [How Amazon ECS places tasks on container instances](task-placement.md).
1. (Optional) To help identify your tasks, under **Tags** configure your tags.
To have Amazon ECS automatically tag all newly launched tasks with the task definition tags, select **Enable Amazon ECS managed tags**.
1. Choose **Next**.
1. On the **Settings** page, do the following:
1. To turn on the schedule, under **Schedule state**, toggle **Enable schedule**.
1. To configure a retry policy for your schedule, under **Retry policy and dead-letter queue (DLQ)**, do the following:
+ Toggle **Retry**.
+ For **Maximum retention time of event**, enter the maximum **hour(s)** and **min(s)** that EventBridge Scheduler must keep an unprocessed event.
+ The maximum time is 24 hours.
+ For **Maximum retries**, enter the maximum number of times EventBridge Scheduler retries the schedule if the target returns an error.
The maximum value is 185 retries.
With retry policies, if a schedule fails to invoke its target, EventBridge Scheduler re-runs the schedule. If configured, you must set the maximum retention time and retries for the schedule.
1. Choose where EventBridge Scheduler stores undelivered events.
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/tasks-scheduled-eventbridge-scheduler.html)
1. To use a customer managed key to encrypt your target input, under **Encryption**, choose **Customize encryption settings (advanced)**.
If you choose this option, enter an existing KMS key ARN or choose **Create an AWS KMS key** to navigate to the AWS KMS console. For more information about how EventBridge Scheduler encrypts your data at rest, see [Encryption at rest](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/scheduler/latest/UserGuide/encryption-rest.html) in the *Amazon EventBridge Scheduler User Guide*.
1. For **Permissions**, choose **Use existing role**, then select the role.
To have EventBridge Scheduler create a new execution role for you, choose **Create new role for this schedule**. Then, enter a name for **Role name**. If you choose this option, EventBridge Scheduler attaches the required permissions necessary for your templated target to the role.
1. Choose **Next**.
1. In the **Review and create schedule** page, review the details of your schedule. In each section, choose **Edit** to go back to that step and edit its details.
1. Choose **Create schedule**.
You can view a list of your new and existing schedules on the **Schedules** page. Under the **Status** column, verify that your new schedule is **Enabled**.
## Next steps
You can use the EventBridge Scheduler console or the AWS CLI to manage the schedule. For more information, see [Managing a schedule](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/scheduler/latest/UserGuide/managing-schedule.html) in the *Amazon EventBridge Scheduler User Guide*.
# Stopping an Amazon ECS task
If you no longer need to keep a standalone task running, you can stop the task. The Amazon ECS console makes it easy to stop one or more tasks.
You can't restart a standalone stopped task.
If you want to stop a service, see [Deleting an Amazon ECS service using the console](delete-service-v2.md).
**To stop a standalone task (AWS Management Console)**
1. Open the console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecs/v2](https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecs/v2).
1. In the navigation pane, choose **Clusters**.
1. On the **Clusters** page, choose the cluster to navigate to the cluster details page.
1. On the cluster detail page, choose the **Tasks** tab.
1. You can filter tasks by launch type using the **Filter launch type** list.
[\[See the AWS documentation website for more details\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/standalone-task-stop.html)