Outback is CLI tool written in Go to help streamline the process of deploying containerized applications to AWS Elastic Container Service.

Outback automates the process of building a Docker image, pushing the image to AWS's container registry, creating an updated ECS Task Definition pointing to the new image, and finally updating the ECS service to use the new image.

1. Install Go

   brew install go

2. Setup make sure that Go compiled binaries are included in your $PATH

3. Install Docker

4. Install AWS CLI

5. Create an AWS access key

6. Add AWS access key to the file ~/.aws/credentials to match the profile in the config of Outback .outback/config.json.

   [default]
   aws_access_key_id = KEYVALUE
   aws_secret_access_key = ACCESSKEYVALUE
   

1. Install the Outback binary go install github.com/koala-labs/outback@latest

On first run, if there is not a .outback/config.json config present in your current working directory, Outback will create this config for you with the default configuration below.

{
  "profile": "default",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "repo": "default.dkr.ecr.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/default",
  "clusters": [
    {
      "name": "dev",
      "services": ["api"],
      "dockerfile": "Dockerfile"
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "name": "migrate",
      "command": "php artisan migrate"
    }
  ]
}

Outback will relies on this config to run its operations.

In addition, some AWS settings can be configured globally through environment variables:

• outback deploy
• outback build
• outback service
• outback task
• outback rollback

A deployment consists of 5 steps necessary to update an AWS ECS Service.

1. It builds a docker image
2. It tags a docker image with the current short git commit hash
3. It pushes a docker image to AWS ECR
4. It creates a new task definition revision, only replacing its image with the newly tagged one and adding two environment variables to track the deploy
5. It updates a service on ecs to use the newly created task definition

• deploy

outback deploy --cluster --verbose --login

Create a deployment

A cluster must be specified via the --cluster flag. The --verbose flag can be input to enable verbose output. The --login flag can be input to login to AWS ECR.

Docker build arguments

Outback can use --build-arg or -b to pass arguments during the docker build phase. Multiple build arguments can be passed, see example below.

outback deploy --cluster dev --build-arg NODE_ENV=dev --build-arg CAT=lazy

Docker build arguments can also be passed though the .outback/config.json and coexist with the --build-arg command option.

{
  "profile": "default",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "repo": "default.dkr.ecr.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/default",
  "clusters": [
    {
      "name": "dev",
      "services": ["api"],
      "dockerfile": "Dockerfile",
      "build-args": ["NODE_ENV=dev", "CAT=lazy"]
    }
  ],
  "tasks": [
    {
      "name": "migrate",
      "command": "php artisan migrate"
    }
  ]
}

The final task definition for the deployment will also include two environment variables to help track when the deploy happened and what commit was deployed:

• OUTBACK_DEPLOY_TIME tracks the exact time the ECS deploy was triggered (using the RFC822Z date format)
• OUTBACK_DEPLOY_GIT_SHA tracks the most recent git commit for the source repo (also matches the ECR docker image tag)

If you only need to build and push a docker image to the repository outlined in the .outback/config.json file you can use the outback build command.

• build

outback build --cluster --verbose --login

Build and push a docker image to AWS ECR

A cluster must be specified via the --cluster flag to select the correct dockerfile. The --verbose flag can be input to enable verbose output. The --login flag can be input to login to AWS ECR.

Docker build arguments

Outback can use --build-arg or -b to pass arguments during the docker build phase. Multiple build arguments can be passed, see example below.

outback build --cluster dev --build-arg NODE_ENV=dev --build-arg CAT=lazy

Docker build arguments can also be passed though the .outback/config.json and coexist with the --build-arg command option.

Services manage long-lived instances of your containers that are run on AWS ECS. If your container exits for any reason, the service scheduler will restart your containers and ensure your service has the desired number of tasks running. Services can be used in concert with a load balancer to distribute traffic amongst the tasks in your service.

• env add
• env rm
• env list

outback service env add --env <key=value>

Add/Update environment variables

At least one environment variable must be specified via the --env flag. Specify --env with a key=value parameter multiple times to add multiple variables.

outback service env rm --key <key-name>

Remove environment variables

Removes the environment variable specified via the --key flag. Specify --key with a key name multiple times to unset multiple variables.

outback service env list

List environment variables

outback service info --cluster dev --service frontend

To list the status of service on a cluster, in this example: cluster dev, frontend service.

Tasks are one-time executions of your container. Instances of your task are run until you manually stop them either through AWS APIs, the AWS Management Console, or until they are interrupted for any reason.

• run

outback task run --command "<command>"

Run a one off tasks

You must specify a cluster, service, and command to run. The command will use the image described in the task definition for the service that is specified. When specifying a command, the task definitions current command will be overridden with the one specified.

There is also an option of creating command aliases in .outback/config.json. Once a command alias is in the outback config, specifying that alias via the --command flag will run the configured command.

If the awslogs driver is configured for the service in which you base your task. Logs for that task will be sent to cloudwatch under the same log group and prefix as described in the task definition.

The rollback option will update the ECS service revision number to the desired task number. If the need is to rollback to the previous deploy, use:

outback rollback --cluster dev

Revision Number

Rollback can use --revision or -r to pass the revision number that is desired for the ECS service to run:

outback rollback --cluster dev --revision 123

Use the following command to run the tests and output function-level code coverage

go test ./... -coverprofile coverage.txt && go tool cover -func coverage.txt

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to be learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Run the test suite (go test ./...)
4. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
5. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
6. Open a Pull Request

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Koala Labs - @koala_labs - [email protected]