Step 2.4: Create and Deploy an App - Chef 11 - AWS OpsWorks

Step 2.4: Create and Deploy an App - Chef 11

Important

The AWS OpsWorks Stacks service reached end of life on May 26, 2024 and has been disabled for both new and existing customers. We strongly recommend customers migrate their workloads to other solutions as soon as possible. If you have questions about migration, reach out to the AWS Support Team on AWS re:Post or through AWS Premium Support.

To make MyStack more useful, you need to deploy an app to the PHP App Server instance. You store an app's code and any related files in a repository, such as Git. You need to take a couple of steps to get those files to your application servers:

Note

The procedure in this section applies to Chef 11 stacks. For information about how to add apps to layers in Chef 12 stacks, see Adding Apps.

  1. Create an app.

    An app contains the information that AWS OpsWorks Stacks needs in order to download the code and related files from the repository. You can also specify additional information such as the app's domain.

  2. Deploy the app to your application servers.

    When you deploy an app, AWS OpsWorks Stacks triggers a Deploy lifecycle event. The agent then runs the instance's Deploy recipes, which download the files to the appropriate directory along with related tasks such as configuring the server, restarting the service, and so on.

Note

When you create a new instance, AWS OpsWorks Stacks automatically deploys any existing apps to the instance. However, when you create a new app or update an existing one, you must manually deploy the app or update to all existing instances.

This step shows how to manually deploy an example app from a public Git repository to an application server. If you would like to examine the application, go to https://github.com/amazonwebservices/opsworks-demo-php-simple-app. The application used in this example is in the version1 branch. AWS OpsWorks Stacks also supports several other repository types. For more information, see Application Source.

To create and deploy an app
  1. Open the Apps Page

    In the navigation pane, click Apps and on the Apps page, click Add an app.

    Apps page showing no apps and an "Add an app" button with a brief description.
  2. Configure the App

    On the App page, specify the following values:

    Name

    The app's name, which AWS OpsWorks Stacks uses for display purposes. The example app is named SimplePHPApp. AWS OpsWorks Stacks also generates a short name—simplephpapp for this example—that is used internally and by the Deploy recipes, as described later.

    Type

    The app's type, which determines where to deploy the app. The example uses PHP, which deploys the app to PHP App Server instances.

    Data source type

    An associated database server. For now, select None; we'll introduce database servers in Step 3: Add a Back-end Data Store.

    Repository type

    The app's repository type. The example app is stored in a Git repository.

    Repository URL

    The app's repository URL. The example URL is: git://github.com/awslabs/opsworks-demo-php-simple-app.git

    Branch/Revision

    The app's branch or version. This part of the walkthrough uses the version1 branch.

    Keep the default values for the remaining settings and click Add App. For more information, see Adding Apps.

    Add App form with settings for name, type, document root, data sources, and application source.
  3. Open the Deployment Page

    To install the code on the server, you must deploy the app. To do so, click deploy in the SimplePHPApp Actions column.

    Apps table showing SimplePHPApp with deploy, edit, and delete options in the Actions column.
  4. Deploy the App

    When you deploy an app, the agent runs the Deploy recipes on the PHP App Server instance, which download and configure the application.

    Command should already be set to deploy. Keep the defaults for the other settings and click Deploy to deploy the app.

    Deploy app interface with settings for SimplePHPApp and instance selection options.

    When deployment is complete, the Deployment page displays a Status of Successful, and php-app1 will have a green check mark next to it.

  5. Run SimplePHPApp

    SimplePHPApp is now installed and ready to go. To run it, click Instances in the navigation pane to go to the Instances page. Then click the php-app1 instance's public IP address.

    PHP App Server instance details showing hostname, status, size, and public IP address.

    You should see a page such as the following in your browser.

    Confirmation page for a simple PHP application running on AWS Cloud with PHP version 5.3.20.
Note

This walkthrough assumes that you will go on to the next section and ultimately complete the entire walkthrough in one session. If you prefer, you can stop at any point and continue later by signing in to AWS OpsWorks Stacks and opening the stack. However, you are charged for any AWS resources that you use, such as online instances. To avoid unnecessary charges, you can stop your instance, which terminates the corresponding EC2 instance. You can start the instances again when you are ready to continue.