17. Elastic Beanstalk

Question 1

What is the Elastic Beanstalk deployment process?

Answer 1

1. Describe dependencies (requirements.txt for Python, package.json for Node.js)
2. Package code as zip
3. Console: upload zip file (creates new app version) and they deploy
   - CLI: create new app version using CLI and then deploy
4. Elastic Beanstalk will deploy the zip on each EC2 instance, resolve dependencies, and start the application

Question 2

When can you set an ELB type for your Elastic Beanstalk?

Answer 2

ONLY at creation

- you cannot change the ELB type after creating an EB environment

Question 3

True or False: Beanstalk in Single Docker Container environment does NOT use ECS.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

What is used to generate the ECS task definition in Elastic Beanstalk?

Answer 4

Dockerrun.aws.json is used to generate the ECS task definition

Question 5

When would you use a Custom Platform on EB?

Answer 5

Custom Platform is to create an entirely new Beanstalk Platform

• used when your application language is incompatible with Beanstalk and doesn’t use Docker
• Build your own platform using the Packer software
• Define an AMI using Platform.yaml file

Question 6

When would you use a Custom Image (AMI) on EB?

Answer 6

Custom Image is to tweak an existing Beanstalk Platform (Python, Node.js, Java, etc)

Question 7

Which deployment policy provides minimal application downtime?

Answer 7

Blue/Green Deployment

Question 8

How do you enable X-Ray on Elastic Beanstalk?

Answer 8

.ebextensions/xray-daemon.config

Question 9

What is the folder that contains all EB configuration files?

Answer 9

.ebextensions (hidden at root dir of Elastic Beanstalk proj)

Question 10

What is the environment manifest?

Answer 10

env.yaml

• at root of Elastic Beanstalk project
• allows you to configure EB defaults

Question 11

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to configure your project directory and the EB CLI?

Answer 11

> eb init

Question 12

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to create your first environment?

Answer 12

> eb create

Question 13

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to see the current status of your environment?

Answer 13

> eb status

Question 14

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to view health info about the instances and the state of your overall environment use?

Answer 14

> eb health (use –refresh to update every 10s)

Question 15

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to see a list of events output by EB?

Answer 15

> eb events

Question 16

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to pull logs from an instance in your environment?

Answer 16

> eb logs

Question 17

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to open your environment’s website in a browser?

Answer 17

> eb open

Question 18

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command once the environment is running, deploy an update?

Answer 18

> eb deploy

Question 19

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to take a look at the configuration options available for your running environment?

Answer 19

> eb config

Question 20

What is the Elastic Beanstalk CLI command to delete the environment?

Answer 20

> eb terminate

Question 21

How do you install the EB CLI?

Answer 21

> git clone https://github.com/aws/aws-elastic-beanstalk-cli.git

> ./aws-elastic-beanstalk-cli-setup/scripts/bundled_installer

Question 22

Why would you want to use a custom image on EB?

Answer 22

a custom AMI can improve provisioning times when instances are launched in your environment, often used when you need to install a lot of software that isn’t included in the standard AMIs

Question 23

Can you run containers on EB?

Answer 23

Yes. You can run containers on EB either in Single-container or Multi-container, these containers are running on ECS instead of EC2

Question 24

What are the types of environments you can launch in EB?

Answer 24

Web Environment (Single-Instance or Load Balanced)
Worker Environment

Question 25

What comes with a Single Instance Web Environment in EB?

Answer 25

EB will launch a single EC2 instance and an EIP is assigned to the EC2

Question 26

What comes with a Load Balanced Web Environment in EB?

Answer 26

EB will launch EC2s behind an ELB managed by an ASG

Question 27

What comes with a Worker Environment in EB?

Answer 27

EB creates an SQS queue, installs the SQS daemon on the EC2 instances, and has an ASG scaling policy which will add or remove instances based on queue size

Question 28

Where will EB create your RDS?

Answer 28

If you let EB create the RDS instance, that means when you delete your environment, it will delete the database (bc the DB will be inside EB).

This setup is intended for development and test environments.

Question 29

What is a Blue/Green deployment?

Answer 29

Blue/Green is when deployment swaps environments (OUTSIDE an environment)

When you have external resources, such as RDS, which cannot be destroyed, B/G deployment is best

Question 30

Rolling deployment policies do not work on which environment?

Answer 30

Rolling deployments require an ELB so they cannot be used with a Single-Instance Web Environment

Question 31

What is the Immutable Deployment Policy?

Answer 31

Immutable creates the same amount of servers, switches all at once to new servers, and removes old servers

• no downtime
• easy to rollback

Question 32

What is the Rolling with additional batch Deployment Policy?

Answer 32

Rolling with additional batch adds new servers in batches to replace old

• never reduces capacity

Question 33

What is the Rolling Deployment Policy?

Answer 33

Rolling updates servers in batches

• reduced capacity based on batch size

Question 34

What is the All at once Deployment Policy?

Answer 34

All at once takes all servers out-of-service, applies changes, puts servers back-in-service

• Fast
• Has downtime