Create and manage container service deployments in Lightsail - Amazon Lightsail
PrerequisitesDeployment parametersCommunication between containersContainer logsDeployment versionsDeployment statusDeployment failuresView your current container service deploymentCreate or modify your container service deployment

Create and manage container service deployments in Lightsail

Create a deployment when you're ready to launch containers on your Amazon Lightsail container service. A deployment is a set of specifications for the containers that you wish to launch on your service. Your container service can have one running deployment at a time, and a deployment can have up to 10 container entries. You can create a deployment at the same time as you create your container service, or you can create it after your service is up and running.

Note

If you create a new deployment, then the existing utilization metrics of your container service will disappear, and only metrics for the new current deployment will be shown.

For more information about container services, see Container services in Amazon Lightsail.

Contents

Prerequisites

Complete the following prerequisites before you get started with creating a deployment in your container service:

Deployment parameters

This section describes the parameters that you can specify for the container entries and the public endpoint of your deployment.

Container entry parameters

You can add up to 10 container entries in your deployment. Each container entry has the following parameters that you can specify:

Deployment configuration of a container service in the Lightsail console

  • Container name – Enter a name for the container. All containers within a deployment must have unique names, and must contain only alphanumeric characters and hyphens. A hyphen can separate words but it cannot be at the start or end of the name.

  • Source image – Specify a source container image for the container. You can specify container images from the following sources:

  • Launch command – Specify a launch command to run a shell script or a bash script that configures your container when it's created. A launch command can do things like add software, update software, or configure your container in some other way.

  • Environment variables – Specify environment variables, which are key-value parameters that provide dynamic configuration of the application or script run by the container.

  • Open ports – Specify the ports and protocols to open on the container. You can specify to open any port over HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, and UDP. You must open an HTTP or HTTPS port for the container that you plan to use as the public endpoint of your container service. See the following section of this guide for more information.

Public endpoint parameters

You can specify the container entry in the deployment that will serve as the public endpoint of your container service. The application on the public endpoint container is publicly accessible on the internet through a randomly generated default domain of your container service. The default domain is formatted as https://<ServiceName>.<RandomGUID>.<AWSRegion>.cs.amazonlightsail.com, in which <ServiceName> is the name of your container service, <RandomGUID> is a randomly generated globally unique identifier of your container service in the AWS Region for your Lightsail account, and <AWSRegion> is the AWS Region in which the container service was created. The public endpoint of Lightsail container services supports HTTPS only, and it does not support TCP or UDP traffic. Only one container can be the public endpoint for a service. So make sure that you choose the container that is hosting the front-end of your application as the public endpoint while rest of the containers are internally accessible.

Note

You can use your own custom domain name with your container service. For more information, see Enabling and managing custom domains for your Amazon Lightsail container services.

The public endpoint of your deployment, and container service, has the following parameters that you can specify:

Public endpoint of a container service in the Lightsail console

  • Endpoint container – Select the name of the container in your deployment that will serve as the public endpoint of your container service. Only the containers that have an HTTP or HTTPS port open in the deployment are listed in the dropdown menu.

  • Port – Select the HTTP or HTTPS port to use for the public endpoint. Only the HTTP and HTTPS ports that are open on the selected container are listed in the dropdown menu. Select an HTTP port if the selected container is not configured to support an HTTPS connection when first launched.

    Note

    The default domain for your container service uses HTTPS by default even if you choose an HTTP port as the public endpoint port. This is because the load balancer of your container service is configured for HTTPS by default, but it uses HTTP to establish a connection with your containers.

    The load balancer of your container service connects to your containers using HTTP, but serves content to users using HTTPS.

  • Health check path – Specify a path on the selected public endpoint container where your container service's load balancer will periodically check to make sure it's healthy.

  • Advanced health check settings – You can configure the following health check settings for the selected public endpoint container:

    • Health check timeout seconds - The amount of time, in seconds, to wait for a response. If no response is received during this time, the health check fails. You can specify 2–60 seconds.

    • Health check interval seconds - The approximate interval, in seconds, between health checks of the container. You can specify 5–300 seconds.

    • Health check success codes - The HTTP codes to use when checking for a successful response from a container. You can specify values between 200 and 499. You can specify multiple values (for example, 200,202) or a range of values (for example, 200–299).

    • Health check healthy threshold - The number of consecutive health check successes required before moving the container to the Healthy state.

    • Health check unhealthy threshold - The number of consecutive health check failures required before moving the container to the Unhealthy state.

Private domain

All container services also have a private domain that is formatted as <ServiceName>.service.local, in which <ServiceName> is the name of your container service. Use the private domain to access your container service from another one of your Lightsail resources in the same AWS Region as your service. The private domain is the only way to access your container service if you don't specify a public endpoint in the deployment of your service. A default domain is generated for your container service even if you don't specify a public endpoint, but it will show a 404 No Such Service error message when you try to browse to it.

To access a specific container using the private domain of your container service, you must specify the open port of the container that will accept your connection request. You do this by formatting the domain of your request as <ServiceName>.service.local:<PortNumber>, in which <ServiceName> is the name of your container service and <PortNumber> is the open port of the container that you wish to connect to. For example, if you create a deployment on your container service named container-service-1, and you specify a Redis container with port 6379 open, then you should format the domain of your request as container-service-1.service.local:6379.

Communication between containers

Using environment variables, you can open communications between containers within the same container service, containers within different container services, or between a container and other resources (for example, between a container and a managed database).

To open communication between containers within the same container service, add an environment variable to your container deployment that references localhost as shown in the following example.

Container deployment with a localhost environment variable in the Lightsail console

To open communication between containers that are in different container services, add an environment variable to your container deployment that references the private domain (for example, container-service-1.service.local) of the other container service as shown in the following example.

Container deployment with a private domain environment variable in the Lightsail console

To open communication between containers and other resources, add an environment variable to your container deployment that references the public endpoint URL of the resource. For example, the public endpoint of a Lightsail managed database is typically ls-123abc.czoexamplezqi.us-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com. So you should reference that in the environment variable as shown in the following example.

Container deployment with a resource public endpoint URL environment variable in the Lightsail console

Container logs

Every container in your deployment generates a log. The container logs provide the stdout and stderr streams of processes that run inside the container. Access your containers' logs periodically to diagnose their operations. For more information, see Viewing the container logs of your Amazon Lightsail container services.

Deployment versions

Every deployment that you create in your container service is saved as a deployment version. If you modify the parameters of an existing deployment, the containers are re-deployed to your service and the modified deployment results in a new deployment version. The latest 50 deployment versions for each container service are saved. You can use any of the 50 deployment versions to create a new deployment in the same container service. For more information, see Viewing and managing deployment versions of your Amazon Lightsail container services.

Deployment status

Your deployment can be in one of the following states after it's created:

  • Activating – Your deployment is activating and your containers are being created.

  • Active – Your deployment was successfully created, and it's currently running on your container service.

  • Inactive – Your previously successfully created deployment is no longer running on your container.

  • Failed – Your deployment failed because one or more of the containers specified in the deployment failed to launch.

Deployment failures

Your deployment fails if one or more containers in your deployment fails to launch. If your deployment fails, and there is a previous deployment running on your container service, then your container service keeps the previous deployment as the active deployment. If there is no previous deployment, then your container service remains in ready state with no currently active deployment.

View the container logs of the failed deployment to diagnose and troubleshoot what went wrong. For more information, see Viewing the container logs of your Amazon Lightsail container services.

View your current container service deployment

Complete the following procedure to view the current deployment on your Lightsail container service.

  1. Sign in to the Lightsail console.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose Containers.

  3. Choose the name of the container service for which you want to view the current deployment.

  4. On the container service management page, choose the Deployments tab.

    The Deployments page lists your current deployment and deployment versions. Both sections of the page are empty if you haven't created a deployment in your container service.

Create or modify your container service deployment

Complete the following procedure to create or modify a deployment on your Lightsail container service. Whether you create a new deployment or modify an existing one, your container service saves your every deployment as a new deployment version. For more information, see Viewing and managing deployment versions of your Amazon Lightsail container services.

  1. Sign in to the Lightsail console.

  2. In the left navigation pane, choose Containers.

  3. Choose the name of the container service for which you want to create or modify a container service deployment.

  4. On the container service management page, choose the Deployments tab.

    The Deployments page lists your current deployment and deployment versions, if any.

  5. Choose one of the following options:

    • If your container service has an existing deployment, choose Modify your deployment.

    • If your container service has not had a deployment, choose Create a deployment.

      The deployment form opens, where you can edit existing deployment parameters, or enter new deployment parameters.

      Container service deployment form in the Lightsail console

  6. Enter the parameters of your deployment. For more information about the deployment parameters that you can specify, see the Deployment parameters section earlier in this guide.

  7. Choose Add container entry to add more than one container entry to your deployment. You can have up to 10 container entries in your deployment.

  8. Choose the container entry of your deployment to serve as the public endpoint container service. This includes specifying the HTTP or HTTPS port, the health check path on the selected container entry, and advanced health check settings. For more information, see Public endpoint parameters earlier in this guide.

  9. When you're done entering the parameters of your deployment, choose Save and deploy to create the deployment on your container service.

    The status of your container service changes to Deploying while your deployment is being crated. After a few moments, the status of your container service changes to one of the following depending on the status of your deployment:

    • If your deployment succeeds, the status of your container service changes to Running and the status of the deployment changes to Active. If you configured a public endpoint in your deployment, then the container chosen as the public endpoint is available through the default domain of your container service.

    • If your deployment fails, and there is a previous deployment running on your container service, the status of your container service changes to Running and your container service keeps the previous deployment as the active deployment. If there is no previous deployment, the status of your container service changes to Ready with no currently active deployment. View the container logs of the failed deployment to diagnose and troubleshoot what went wrong. For more information, see Viewing the container logs of your Amazon Lightsail container services.

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