Compute | AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Question 1

What is AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 1

AWS Elastic Beanstalk makes it even easier for developers to quickly deploy and manage applications in the AWS Cloud. Developers simply upload their application, and Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

Question 2

Who should use AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 2

Those who want to deploy and manage their applications within minutes in the AWS Cloud. You don’t need experience with cloud computing to get started. AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and Docker web applications.

Question 3

Which languages and development stacks does AWS Elastic Beanstalk support?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 3

AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports the following languages and development stacks:

Apache Tomcat for Java applications

Apache HTTP Server for PHP applications

Apache HTTP Server for Python applications

Nginx or Apache HTTP Server for Node.js applications

Passenger or Puma for Ruby applications

Microsoft IIS 7.5, 8.0, and 8.5 for .NET applications

Java SE

Docker

Go

See Supported Platforms for a complete, up-to-date list of supported language and development stacks.

Question 4

Will AWS Elastic Beanstalk support other languages?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 4

Yes. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is designed so that it can be extended to support multiple development stacks and programming languages in the future. AWS is working with solution providers on the APIs and capabilities needed to create additional Elastic Beanstalk offerings.

Question 5

What can developers now do with AWS Elastic Beanstalk that they could not before?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 5

AWS Elastic Beanstalk automates the details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto scaling, and application deployment, creating an environment that runs a version of your application. You can simply upload your deployable code (e.g., WAR file), and AWS Elastic Beanstalk does the rest. The AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio and the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse allow you to deploy your application to AWS Elastic Beanstalk and manage it without leaving your IDE. Once your application is running, Elastic Beanstalk automates management tasks–such as monitoring, application version deployment, a basic health check–and facilitates log file access. By using Elastic Beanstalk, developers can focus on developing their application and are freed from deployment-oriented tasks, such as provisioning servers, setting up load balancing, or managing scaling.

Question 6

How is AWS Elastic Beanstalk different from existing application containers or platform-as-a-service solutions?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 6

Most existing application containers or platform-as-a-service solutions, while reducing the amount of programming required, significantly diminish developers’ flexibility and control. Developers are forced to live with all the decisions predetermined by the vendor–with little to no opportunity to take back control over various parts of their application’s infrastructure. However, with AWS Elastic Beanstalk, developers retain full control over the AWS resources powering their application. If developers decide they want to manage some (or all) of the elements of their infrastructure, they can do so seamlessly by using Elastic Beanstalk’s management capabilities.

Question 7

What elements of my application can I control when using AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 7

With AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you can:

Select the operating system that matches your application requirements (e.g., Amazon Linux or Windows Server 2012 R2)

Choose from several available database and storage options

Enable login access to Amazon EC2 instances for immediate and direct troubleshooting

Quickly improve application reliability by running in more than one Availability Zone

Enhance application security by enabling HTTPS protocol on the load balancer

Access built-in Amazon CloudWatch monitoring and getting notifications on application health and other important events

Adjust application server settings (e.g., JVM settings) and pass environment variables

Run other application components, such as a memory caching service, side-by-side in Amazon EC2

Access log files without logging in to the application servers

Question 8

What are the Cloud resources powering my AWS Elastic Beanstalk application?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 8

AWS Elastic Beanstalk uses proven AWS features and services, such as Amazon EC2, Amazon RDS, Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, Amazon S3, and Amazon SNS, to create an environment that runs your application. The current version of AWS Elastic Beanstalk uses the Amazon Linux AMI or the Windows Server 2012 R2 AMI.

Question 9

What kinds of applications are supported by AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 9

AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports Java, .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and Docker, and is ideal for web applications. However, due to Elastic Beanstalk’s open architecture, non-web applications can also be deployed using Elastic Beanstalk. We expect to support additional application types and programming languages in the future. See Supported Platforms to learn more.

Question 10

Which operating systems does AWS Elastic Beanstalk use?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 10

AWS Elastic Beanstalk runs on the Amazon Linux AMI and the Windows Server 2012 R2 AMI. Both AMIs are supported and maintained by Amazon Web Services and are designed to provide a stable, secure, and high-performance execution environment for Amazon EC2 Cloud computing.

Question 11

How quickly will my application start running?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 11

It typically takes a few minutes to create the AWS resources to run your application, measured from the time you upload your application version (e.g., WAR file, ASP.NET files, Node.js files, PHP files, Python files, or Ruby files) to when it is fully deployed and accessible to your users. This time is dependent on a number of factors, including the size of your deployable code and the number of application servers you are deploying.

Question 12

How quickly will my application get updated?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 12

Deploying new application versions to existing resources (e.g., environments) happens much faster (typically under a minute) and is mostly dependent on the size of the new application version.

Question 13

How quickly can my application scale up and down?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 13

AWS Elastic Beanstalk provides a truly elastic environment using Auto Scaling. Your application can be configured to automatically scale tens or even hundreds of times based on thresholds, such as CPU utilization or network bandwidth. These thresholds can be easily configured for your specific application using the Elastic Beanstalk console. With Elastic Beanstalk, you don’t have to worry if you will be able to scale quickly to handle peaks in traffic or users, nor if you will be forced to pay for resources that you don’t need.

Question 14

Can I have multiple versions of my application running at the same time?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 14

Yes. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is designed to support multiple running environments, such as one for integration testing, one for pre-production, and one for production. Each environment is independently configured and runs on its own separate AWS resources. Elastic Beanstalk also stores and tracks application versions over time, so an existing environment can be easily rolled back to a prior version or a new environment can be launched using an older version to try and reproduce a customer problem.

Question 15

How many applications can I run with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 15

You can create up to 75 applications and 1,000 application versions. By default, you can run up to 200 environments across all of your applications. If you are also using AWS outside of AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you may not be able to create 10 environments since other limits may be hit sooner. For example, the default AWS account limits allow you to launch up to 20 EC2 instances and create up to 10 elastic load balancers. If you need more resources, complete the AWS Elastic Beanstalk request form, and your request will be promptly evaluated.

Question 16

Can I use AWS Elastic Beanstalk to deploy applications that must be highly available?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 16

Yes. To do this, you edit your environment configuration settings, select 2 or more instances for Auto Scaling minimum, and set Multiple Availability Zones to “Any 2”. AWS Availability Zones are designed to be physically distinct, fail independently, and be reliable.

Question 17

What happens if my application stops responding to requests?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 17

AWS Elastic Beanstalk applications are protected against failures in the underlying infrastructure. If an Amazon EC2 instance fails for any reason, AWS Elastic Beanstalk will use Auto Scaling to automatically launch a new instance. Elastic Beanstalk can also detect if your application is not responding on the custom URL even though the underlying infrastructure appears healthy, and will log that as an environment event (e.g., a bad version was deployed) so you can take appropriate action.

Question 18

Which AWS Regions is AWS Elastic Beanstalk available in?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 18

Please refer to Regional Products and Services for details of Elastic Beanstalk availability by Region.

Question 19

How do I access AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

General

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 19

You can use the AWS Management Console, the AWS Elastic Beanstalk command line interface (CLI), the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio, the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse, the AWS Elastic Beanstalk API, or AWS SDKs.

Question 20

Can I use an integrated development environment, like Eclipse or Microsoft Visual Studio?

Getting Started

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 20

Yes. You can use Eclipse and Visual Studio to deploy your application to AWS Elastic Beanstalk. You can use the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse for Java applications and the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio for .NET applications. The toolkits allow you to develop your application, deploy it to Elastic Beanstalk, and even test it out without having to switch your focus away from your IDE.

Question 21

How do I sign up for AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Getting Started

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 21

To sign up for AWS Elastic Beanstalk, choose the Sign Up Now button on the Elastic Beanstalk detail page. You must have an Amazon Web Services account to access this service; if you do not already have one, you will be prompted to create one when you begin the Elastic Beanstalk process. After signing up, please refer to the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Getting Started Guide.

Question 22

Why am I asked to verify my phone number when signing up for AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Getting Started

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 22

AWS Elastic Beanstalk registration requires you to have a valid phone number and email address on file with AWS in case we ever need to contact you. Verifying your phone number takes only a few minutes and involves receiving an automated phone call during the registration process and entering a PIN number using the phone key pad.

Question 23

How do I get started after I have signed up?

Getting Started

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 23

The best way to get started with AWS Elastic Beanstalk is to work through the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Getting Started Guide, part of our technical documentation. Within a few minutes, you will be able to deploy and use a sample application or upload your own application.

Question 24

Is there a sample application that I can use to check out AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Databases and Storage

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 24

Yes. AWS Elastic Beanstalk includes a sample application that you can use to test drive the offering and explore its functionality.

Question 25

Does AWS Elastic Beanstalk store anything in Amazon S3?

Databases and Storage

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 25

Yes. AWS Elastic Beanstalk stores your application files and, optionally, server log files in Amazon S3. If you are using the AWS Management Console, the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio, or AWS Toolkit for Eclipse, an Amazon S3 bucket will be created in your account for you and the files you upload will be automatically copied from your local client to Amazon S3. Optionally, you may configure Elastic Beanstalk to copy your server log files every hour to Amazon S3. You do this by editing the environment configuration settings.

Question 26

Can I use Amazon S3 to store application data, like images?

Databases and Storage

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 26

Yes. You can use Amazon S3 for application storage. The easiest way to do this is by including the AWS SDK as part of your application’s deployable file. For example, you can include the AWS SDK for Java as part of your application’s WAR file.

Question 27

What database solutions can I use with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Databases and Storage

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 27

AWS Elastic Beanstalk does not restrict you to any specific data persistence technology. You can choose to use Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) or Amazon DynamoDB, or use Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or other relational databases running on Amazon EC2.

Question 28

How do I set up a database for use with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Databases and Storage

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 28

Elastic Beanstalk can automatically provision an Amazon RDS DB instance. The information about connectivity to the DB instance is exposed to your application by environment variables. To learn more about how to configure RDS DB instances for your environment, see the Elastic Beanstalk Developer Guide.

Question 29

Does this mean I need to modify the application code when moving from test to production?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 29

Not with AWS Elastic Beanstalk. With Elastic Beanstalk, you can specify the connection information in the environment configuration. By extracting the connection string from the application code, you can easily configure different Elastic Beanstalk environments to use different databases.

Question 30

How do I make my application private?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 30

By default, your application is available publicly at myapp.elasticbeanstalk.com for anyone to access. You can use Amazon VPC to provision a private, isolated section of your application in a virtual network that you define. This virtual network can be made private through specific security group rules, network ACLs, and custom route tables. You can also easily control what other incoming traffic, such as SSH, is delivered or not to your application servers by changing the EC2 security group settings.

Question 31

Can I run my application inside a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 31

Yes, you can run your applications in a VPC. For more details, see the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Developer Guide.

Question 32

Where can I find more information about security and running applications on AWS?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 32

For more information about security on AWS, please refer to our Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes document and visit our Security Center.

Question 33

Is it possible to use Identity & Access Management (IAM) with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 33

Yes. IAM users with the appropriate permissions can now interact with AWS Elastic Beanstalk.

Question 34

Why should I use IAM with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 34

IAM allows you to manage users and groups in a centralized manner. You can control which IAM users have access to AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and limit permissions to read-only access to Elastic Beanstalk for operators who should not be able to perform actions against Elastic Beanstalk resources. All user activity within your account will be aggregated under a single AWS bill.

Question 35

How do I create IAM users?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 35

You can use the IAM console, IAM command line interface (CLI), or IAM API to provision IAM users. By default, IAM users have no access to AWS services until permissions are granted.

Question 36

How do I grant an IAM user access to AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 36

You can grant IAM users access to services by using policies. To simplify the process of granting access to AWS Elastic Beanstalk, you can use one of the policy templates in the IAM console to help you get started. Elastic Beanstalk offers two templates: a read-only access template and a full-access template. The read-only template grants read access to Elastic Beanstalk resources. The full-access template grants full access to all Elastic Beanstalk operations, as well as permissions to manage dependent resources, such as Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, and Amazon S3. You can also use the AWS Policy Generator to create custom policies. For more details, see the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Developer Guide.

Question 37

Can I restrict access to specific AWS Elastic Beanstalk resources?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 37

Yes. You can allow or deny permissions to specific AWS Elastic Beanstalk resources, such as applications, application versions, and environments.

Question 38

Who gets billed for the AWS resources that an IAM user creates?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 38

All resources created by IAM users under a root account are owned and billed to the root account.

Question 39

Who has access to an AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment launched by an IAM user?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 39

The root account has full access to all AWS Elastic Beanstalk environments launched by any IAM user under that account. If you use the Elastic Beanstalk template to grant read-only access to an IAM user, that user will be able to view all applications, application versions, environments, and any associated resources in that account. If you use the Elastic Beanstalk template to grant full access to an IAM user, that user will be able to create, modify, and terminate any Elastic Beanstalk resources under that account.

Question 40

Can an IAM user access the AWS Elastic Beanstalk console?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 40

Yes. An IAM user can access the AWS Elastic Beanstalk console using their username and password.

Question 41

Can an IAM user call the AWS Elastic Beanstalk API?

Security

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 41

Yes. An IAM user can use their access key and secret key to perform operations using the Elastic Beanstalk API.

Question 42

Can an IAM user use the AWS Elastic Beanstalk command line interface?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 42

Yes. An IAM user can use their access key and secret key to perform operations using the AWS Elastic Beanstalk command line interface (CLI).

Question 43

How can I keep the underlying platform of the environment running my application automatically up-to-date?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 43

You can opt-in to having your AWS Elastic Beanstalk environments automatically updated to the latest version of the underlying platform running your application during a specified maintenance window. Elastic Beanstalk regularly releases new versions of supported platforms (Java, PHP, Ruby, Node.js, Python, .NET, Go, and Docker) with operating system, web and application server, and language and framework updates.

Question 44

How can I get started with managed platform updates?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 44

To let Elastic Beanstalk automatically manage your platform updates, you must enable managed platform updates in the Configuration tab of the Elastic Beanstalk console or use the EB CLI or API. After you have enabled the feature, you can configure which types of updates to allow and when updates can occur.

Question 45

What kinds of platform version updates will managed platform updates apply?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 45

AWS Elastic Beanstalk can automatically perform platform updates for new patch and minor platform versions. Elastic Beanstalk will not automatically perform major platform version updates (e.g., Java 7 Tomcat 7 to Java 8 Tomcat 8) because they include backwards incompatible changes and require additional testing. In these cases, you must manually initiate the update.

Question 46

How does AWS Elastic Beanstalk distinguish between “major,” “minor,” and “patch” version releases?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 46

AWS Elastic Beanstalk platforms are versioned using this pattern: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (e.g., 2.0.0). Each portion is incremented as follows:

MAJOR version when there are incompatible changes.

MINOR version when there is additional functionality added in a backward-compatible manner.

PATCH version when there are backward-compatible bug fixes.

Question 47

When and how can I perform major version updates?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 47

You can perform major version updates at any time using the AWS Elastic Beanstalk management console, API, or CLI. You have the following options to perform a major version update:

Apply the update in-place on an existing environment. See Updating Your Elastic Beanstalk Environment’s Platform Version.

Create a clone of an existing environment with the new platform version. See Clone an Environment to learn more.

Question 48

How does Elastic Beanstalk apply managed platform updates?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 48

The updates are applied using an immutable deployment mechanism that ensures that no changes are made to the existing environment until a parallel fleet of Amazon EC2 instances, with the updates installed, is ready to be swapped with the existing instances, which are then terminated. In addition, if the Elastic Beanstalk health system detects any issues during the update, traffic is redirected to the existing fleet of instances, ensuring minimal impact to end users of your application.

Question 49

Will my application be available during the maintenance windows?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 49

Since managed platform updates use an immutable deployment mechanism to perform the updates, your application will be available during the maintenance window and consumers of your application will not be impacted by the update.

Question 50

What does it cost to use managed platform updates?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 50

There is no additional charge for the managed platform updates feature. You simply pay for the additional EC2 instances necessary to perform the update for the duration of the update.

Question 51

What is a maintenance window?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 51

A maintenance window is a weekly two-hour-long time slot during which AWS Elastic Beanstalk will initiate platform updates if managed platform updates is enabled and a new version of the platform is available. For example, if you select a maintenance window that begins every Sunday at 2 AM, AWS Elastic Beanstalk will initiate the platform update sometime between 2-4 AM every Sunday. It is important to note that, depending on the configuration of your applications, updates could complete outside of the maintenance window.

The maintenance window is set on a per-environment basis, providing you the option to set different maintenance windows for your various application components or applications. This allows environment updates to be staggered if you do not want multiple pieces of your application to be updated at the same time. If you enable managed platform updates but do not specify a maintenance window, a default weekly 2-hour window will be assigned for your environment. If you want to change when maintenance is performed on your behalf, you can do so by modifying the managed update configuration in the AWS Management Console or by using the UpdateEnvironment API.

Question 52

How will I be notified of the availability of new platform versions?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 52

You will be notified about the availability of new platform versions through the AWS Management Console, forum announcements, and release notes.

Question 53

Where can I find details of changes between platform versions?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 53

Details on changes between platform versions can be found on the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Release Notes page.

Question 54

What operations can I perform on the environment while a managed update is in progress?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 54

The only action available to you while a managed platform update is in-progress is ‘abort’. This will allow you to stop the update immediately and roll back to the previous version.

Question 55

Which platform version will my environment be updated to if there are multiple new versions released in between maintenance windows?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 55

Your environment will always be updated to the latest version available based on the level (minor plus patch or patch only) you have selected.

Question 56

Where can I find details of all the managed platform updates that have been performed on my environment?

Managed Platform Updates

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 56

Details for every managed platform update are available on the events page and are tagged with an event type of “MAINTENANCE.”

Question 57

How often are platform version updates released?

Billing

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 57

The number of version releases in a given year varies based on the frequency and content of releases and patches from the language/framework’s vendor or core team, and the outcome of a thorough vetting of these releases and patches by our platform engineering team.

Question 58

How much does AWS Elastic Beanstalk cost?

Billing

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 58

There is no additional charge for AWS Elastic Beanstalk–you pay only for the AWS resources actually used to store and run your application. New AWS customers who are eligible for the AWS Free Tier may deploy an application that runs within the Free Tier using the default settings of Elastic Beanstalk.

Question 59

How much do the AWS resources powering my application on AWS Elastic Beanstalk cost?

Billing

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 59

You pay only for what you use, and there is no minimum fee for the use of any AWS resources. For Amazon EC2 pricing information, please visit the pricing section on the EC2 detail page. For Amazon S3 pricing information, please visit the pricing section on the S3 detail page. You can use the AWS simple calculator to estimate your bill for different application sizes.

Question 60

How do I check how many AWS resources have been used by my application and access my bill?

Support

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 60

You can view your charges for the current billing period at any time on the Amazon Web Services web site by logging into your Amazon Web Services account and choosing Account Activity under Your Web Services Account.

Question 61

Does AWS Support cover AWS Elastic Beanstalk?

Support

AWS Elastic Beanstalk | Compute

Answer 61

Yes. AWS Support covers issues related to your use of AWS Elastic Beanstalk. For further details and pricing, see the AWS Support page.