How To Run Just One Container With AWS App Runner…Hopefully

after my epic #containers on @awscloud rant the other day, I had a LOT of ppl tell me I should’ve used App Runner

that’s 100% fair as it it the service that probably makes the most sense

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

btw, this thread is available as a page (probably more usable) at …

https://markn.ca/2021/how-to-run-just-one-container-with-aws-app-runner-hopefully/

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

the original twitter thread is available at

now, to put on my new user and I’m off on my @awscloud App Runner adventure!

☁️ #cloud #devops

https://twitter.com/marknca/status/1433473472269750276

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

on the “Containers on AWS” page, App Runner is the last entry in the excellent & much appreciated table

its description?

“Build and run containerized applications on a fully managed service”

that is what I want to do…assuming I can run just 1 container

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

not a great description in the console’s universal search

“Build and run production web applications at scale” << no mention of “containers” at all

…but the containers page said this was the way. I solider on…

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

the landing page is pretty standard for an @awscloud service

it serves it’s purpose & actually mentions “containers” which is nice

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I like the clear pricing on compute and storage costs. that’s important to know up front

don’t like is the extra as “automatic deployments” and “build” are different vectors that I need to account for that could be pricey & complicated quickly

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I click on the orange “Create an App Runner service” to get started but only because it’s under the “Get started with App Runner” header

I just want to launch a container, not create a whole new service…

“service” sounds heavy, which I’m trying to avoid

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I’m on step 1/3 (according to the left hand side). those steps:

1. Source & deployment
2. Configure service
3. Review & create

…seems straightforward enough

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

right out of the gate, it looks like I can deploy from source as well. that echoes back to the “build” pricing thing

I only want to run a single container, so I stick with the clear “Container registry” option

I pick “Amazon ECR Public” as the provider

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I’ll use the “hello-app-runner” container from the public registry as it seems appropriate for this effort

https://gallery.ecr.aws/aws-containers/hello-app-runner

I copy the URI from the page to paste into the “Container Image URI” field in App Runner

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

sidenote: while accurate, does URI bother everyone else too? I figured we’d all just given up on it and defaulted to URL and considered that a victory given that it’s almost in the mainstream vocabulary now

more at https://danielmiessler.com/study/difference-between-uri-url/

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

back in App Runner, I leave the “Deployment trigger” set to “Manual” and then click that enticing, orange Next button

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

that drops me into step 2, configure service

thankfully a lot of this page is under toggle switches making these options accessible but not “in my face”

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I enter my “Service name” as “HelloWorld”, leave everything else as-is, and click the orange Next button…

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

this brings me to the “Review” page, also known as step 3/3

throwing caution to the wind, I scroll down and click the orange “Create & deploy” button

is this what I want? maybe…

should I do it?

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I click… ☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

…and despite trying to make that sound exciting, I’m greeted by the standard “we’re doing something you asked for” details page for an App Runner Service

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

well that took about 5.5 minutes

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

now the great news, I have a “Default domain” automatically assigned to my container

I load it up in my browser and…success!

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

ok, I’m feeling good about this. if I flip back to App Runner, on the Service (ugh) detail page, I get tabs for:

– Activity
– Logs
– Configuration
– Metrics
– Custom domains

…looks like there’s lot of flexibility here

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I’ve got some nice metrics filling in already. of course not super useful given that I’ve only loaded the page a handful of times and the container doesn’t do anything else

but FUTURE me might use this

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

the Configuration tab provides access to all of those settings that I ignored earlier. it would be worth the time to dig in and figure out which ones can be changed after launching

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

I ❤️ the Logs tab (don’t judge me, they’re useful!). nice to be able to do some simple searching here and then dive into CloudWatch for more complex work

nice touch

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

ok, first impressions are very positive. once you know about this service and what it does, it’s very straight forward

there’s a good amount of flexibility but the default path is very smooth & requires minimal effort

biggest challenge: naming (again)

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

in @awscloud App Runner your create “Services”, what are those? = one or more containers

“Services” might tie to micro services but it obscures the core msg that App Runner runs Containers (btw, so does the name)

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

honestly, this service should probably be called “@awscloud Container Runner” or something like that.

but I have to be quiet here…

if you say 3 better names for an AWS service, @QuinnyPig appears behind you in the mirror

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

ok, so this seems to be a very simple service for running containers

…oh, maybe @awscloud Simple Container Service?

(damn it, that’s 2x)

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

pricing seems reasonable. it’s listed as per hour but actually charges at per second (except for the add-ons)

https://aws.amazon.com/apprunner/pricing/

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

the documentation and criteria for having App Runner build from source isn’t great

the docs are at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/apprunner/latest/dg/service-source-code.html

…it seems like it’ll only do python and node.js runtimes which is ok but not amazing

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

but, I’ll cut them a break since the service only launched in the spring of 2021

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/apprunner/latest/relnotes/release-2021-05-18-apprunner-release.html

bringing on new runtimes probably isn’t easy…but the existing docs need to get better asap or no one will use that feature

☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

wrapping up, this was a much better experience once I was in the service. simple, straight forward, reasonable pricing scheme

finding this one and linking it to containers was again, harder than it needed to be especially for new users

/☁️ #cloud #devops

@marknca tweeted at 07-Sep-2021, 13:13

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