Use RunTask with an AWS SDK or CLI

Example 1: To run a task on your default cluster

The following run-task example runs a task on the default cluster and uses a client token.

aws ecs run-task \
    --cluster default \
    --task-definition sleep360:1 \
    --client-token 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

Output:

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "attachments": [],
            "attributes": [
                {
                    "name": "ecs.cpu-architecture",
                    "value": "x86_64"
                }
            ],
            "availabilityZone": "us-east-1b",
            "capacityProviderName": "example-capacity-provider",
            "clusterArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:cluster/default",
            "containerInstanceArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:container-instance/default/bc4d2ec611d04bb7bb97e83ceEXAMPLE",
            "containers": [
                {
                    "containerArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:container/default/d6f51cc5bbc94a47969c92035e9f66f8/75853d2d-711e-458a-8362-0f0aEXAMPLE",
                    "taskArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task/default/d6f51cc5bbc94a47969c9203EXAMPLE",
                    "name": "sleep",
                    "image": "busybox",
                    "lastStatus": "PENDING",
                    "networkInterfaces": [],
                    "cpu": "10",
                    "memory": "10"
                }
            ],
            "cpu": "10",
            "createdAt": "2023-11-21T16:59:34.403000-05:00",
            "desiredStatus": "RUNNING",
            "enableExecuteCommand": false,
            "group": "family:sleep360",
            "lastStatus": "PENDING",
            "launchType": "EC2",
            "memory": "10",
            "overrides": {
                "containerOverrides": [
                    {
                        "name": "sleep"
                    }
                ],
                "inferenceAcceleratorOverrides": []
            },
            "tags": [],
            "taskArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task/default/d6f51cc5bbc94a47969c9203EXAMPLE",
            "taskDefinitionArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-east-1:123456789012:task-definition/sleep360:1",
            "version": 1
        }
    ],
    "failures": []
}

For more information, see Running an application as a standalone task in the Amazon ECS Developer Guide.

Example 2: To configure an Amazon EBS volume for a standalone task

The following run-task example configures an encrypted Amazon EBS volume for a Fargate task on the default cluster. You must have an Amazon ECS infrastructure role configured with the AmazonECSInfrastructureRolePolicyForVolumes managed policy attached. You must specify a task definition with the same volume name as in the run-task request. This example uses the --cli-input-json option and a JSON input file called ebs.json.

aws ecs run-task \
    --cli-input-json file://ebs.json

Contents of ebs.json:

{
   "cluster": "default",
   "taskDefinition": "mytaskdef",
   "launchType": "FARGATE",
   "networkConfiguration":{
        "awsvpcConfiguration":{
            "assignPublicIp": "ENABLED",
            "securityGroups": ["sg-12344321"],
            "subnets":["subnet-12344321"]
        }
    },
   "volumeConfigurations": [
        {
            "name": "myEBSVolume",
            "managedEBSVolume": {
                "volumeType": "gp3",
                "sizeInGiB": 100,
                "roleArn":"arn:aws:iam::1111222333:role/ecsInfrastructureRole",
                "encrypted": true,
                "kmsKeyId": "arn:aws:kms:region:111122223333:key/1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Output:

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "attachments": [
                {
                    "id": "ce868693-15ca-4083-91ac-f782f64000c9",
                    "type": "ElasticNetworkInterface",
                    "status": "PRECREATED",
                    "details": [
                        {
                        "name": "subnetId",
                        "value": "subnet-070982705451dad82"
                        }
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "id": "a17ed863-786c-4372-b5b3-b23e53f37877",
                    "type": "AmazonElasticBlockStorage",
                    "status": "CREATED",
                    "details": [
                        {
                            "name": "roleArn",
                            "value": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ecsInfrastructureRole"
                        },
                        {
                            "name": "volumeName",
                            "value": "myEBSVolume"
                        },
                        {
                            "name": "deleteOnTermination",
                            "value": "true"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ],
            "attributes": [
                {
                    "name": "ecs.cpu-architecture",
                    "value": "x86_64"
                }
            ],
            "availabilityZone": "us-west-2b",
            "clusterArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-west-2:123456789012:cluster/default",
            "containers": [
                {
                    "containerArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-west-2:123456789012:container/default/7f1fbd3629434cc4b82d72d2f09b67c9/e21962a2-f328-4699-98a3-5161ac2c186a",
                    "taskArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-west-2:123456789012:task/default/7f1fbd3629434cc4b82d72d2f09b67c9",
                    "name": "container-using-ebs",
                    "image": "amazonlinux:2",
                    "lastStatus": "PENDING",
                    "networkInterfaces": [],
                    "cpu": "0"
                }
            ],
            "cpu": "1024",
            "createdAt": "2025-01-23T10:29:46.650000-06:00",
            "desiredStatus": "RUNNING",
            "enableExecuteCommand": false,
            "group": "family:mytaskdef",
            "lastStatus": "PROVISIONING",
            "launchType": "FARGATE",
            "memory": "3072",
            "overrides": {
                "containerOverrides": [
                    {
                        "name": "container-using-ebs"
                    }
                ],
                "inferenceAcceleratorOverrides": []
            },
            "platformVersion": "1.4.0",
            "platformFamily": "Linux",
            "tags": [],
            "taskArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-west-2:123456789012:task/default/7f1fbd3629434cc4b82d72d2f09b67c9",
            "taskDefinitionArn": "arn:aws:ecs:us-west-2:123456789012:task-definition/mytaskdef:4",
            "version": 1,
            "ephemeralStorage": {
                "sizeInGiB": 20
            },
            "fargateEphemeralStorage": {
                "sizeInGiB": 20
            }
        }
    ],
    "failures": []
}

For more information, see Use Amazon EBS volumes with Amazon ECS in the Amazon ECS Developer Guide.

class EcsWrapper:
    """Encapsulates Amazon ECS operations."""

    def __init__(self, ecs_client: BaseClient):
        """
        Initializes the EcsWrapper with an ECS client.

        :param ecs_client: A Boto3 Amazon ECS client. Boto3 clients are created
            by the ``boto3.client`` factory function and are instances of
            ``botocore.client.BaseClient``, which is the correct type to
            annotate here (``boto3.client`` itself is a function, not a type).
        """
        self.ecs_client = ecs_client

    @classmethod
    def from_client(cls) -> "EcsWrapper":
        """Creates an EcsWrapper using a default Boto3 ECS client."""
        ecs_client = boto3.client("ecs")
        return cls(ecs_client)


    def run_task(
        self,
        cluster: str,
        task_definition: str,
        subnets: List[str],
        security_groups: List[str],
        count: int = 1,
    ) -> List[Dict[str, Any]]:
        """
        Runs a standalone Fargate task.

        :param cluster: The cluster name or ARN.
        :param task_definition: The task definition family or family:revision.
        :param subnets: List of subnet IDs.
        :param security_groups: List of security group IDs.
        :param count: Number of tasks to run.
        :return: A list of task details.
        :raises ClientError: If the request fails (e.g., ClusterNotFoundException).
        """
        try:
            response = self.ecs_client.run_task(
                cluster=cluster,
                taskDefinition=task_definition,
                launchType="FARGATE",
                count=count,
                networkConfiguration={
                    "awsvpcConfiguration": {
                        "subnets": subnets,
                        "securityGroups": security_groups,
                        "assignPublicIp": "ENABLED",
                    }
                },
            )
            tasks = response.get("tasks", list())
            failures = response.get("failures", list())
            if failures:
                logger.warning("Task run failures: %s", failures)
            for task in tasks:
                logger.info(
                    "Started task '%s' with status '%s'",
                    task["taskArn"],
                    task["lastStatus"],
                )
            return tasks
        except ClientError as err:
            if err.response["Error"]["Code"] == "ClusterNotFoundException":
                logger.error(
                    "Cluster '%s' not found: %s",
                    cluster,
                    err.response["Error"]["Message"],
                )
            raise