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AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Elastic Beanstalk provides an easy way to deploy containerized applications on AWS with automatic scaling, load balancing, and managed infrastructure.

Architecture​

flowchart TB
    subgraph EB["Elastic Beanstalk"]
        ALB["Application Load Balancer"]

        subgraph ASG["Auto Scaling Group"]
            EC2_1["EC2<br/>API+Worker"]
            EC2_2["EC2<br/>API+Worker"]
            EC2_3["EC2<br/>API+Worker"]
        end

        ALB --> ASG
    end

    ASG --> RDS["RDS<br/>(Postgres)"]
    ASG --> ElastiCache["ElastiCache<br/>(Redis)"]
    ASG --> S3["S3<br/>(Storage)"]

Prerequisites​

  • AWS account with appropriate permissions
  • EB CLI installed (pip install awsebcli)
  • RDS PostgreSQL instance (setup guide)
  • ElastiCache Redis cluster

Project Setup​

1. Create Application Directory​

mkdir boards-eb && cd boards-eb

2. Create docker-compose.yml​

Elastic Beanstalk uses Docker Compose for multi-container deployments:

version: "3.8"

services:
  api:
    image: ghcr.io/weirdfingers/boards-backend:latest
    command: ["uvicorn", "boards.api.app:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8800"]
    ports:
      - "80:8800"
    environment:
      - BOARDS_DATABASE_URL=${BOARDS_DATABASE_URL}
      - BOARDS_REDIS_URL=${BOARDS_REDIS_URL}
      - BOARDS_GENERATOR_API_KEYS=${BOARDS_GENERATOR_API_KEYS}
      - BOARDS_AUTH_PROVIDER=${BOARDS_AUTH_PROVIDER}
      - BOARDS_LOG_FORMAT=json
      - BOARDS_GENERATORS_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/generators.yaml
      - BOARDS_STORAGE_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/storage_config.yaml
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app/config:ro

  worker:
    image: ghcr.io/weirdfingers/boards-backend:latest
    command: ["boards-worker", "--log-level", "info", "--processes", "1", "--threads", "1"]
    environment:
      - BOARDS_DATABASE_URL=${BOARDS_DATABASE_URL}
      - BOARDS_REDIS_URL=${BOARDS_REDIS_URL}
      - BOARDS_GENERATOR_API_KEYS=${BOARDS_GENERATOR_API_KEYS}
      - BOARDS_INTERNAL_API_URL=http://api:8800
      - BOARDS_LOG_FORMAT=json
      - BOARDS_GENERATORS_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/generators.yaml
      - BOARDS_STORAGE_CONFIG_PATH=/app/config/storage_config.yaml
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app/config:ro

3. Create Configuration Files​

mkdir config

Create config/generators.yaml:

generators:
  - class: boards.generators.fal.flux.FluxProGenerator
    enabled: true
  - class: boards.generators.openai.dalle.DallE3Generator
    enabled: true

Create config/storage_config.yaml:

default_provider: s3

providers:
  s3:
    type: s3
    bucket: my-boards-bucket
    region: us-east-1

Initialize Elastic Beanstalk​

eb init

# Select region
# Select "Create new Application"
# Name: boards
# Platform: Docker running on 64bit Amazon Linux 2023
# Select default options for remaining prompts

Create Environment​

eb create boards-production \
  --instance-type t3.small \
  --scale 2 \
  --elb-type application \
  --vpc.id vpc-xxxxx \
  --vpc.ec2subnets subnet-xxxxx,subnet-yyyyy \
  --vpc.elbsubnets subnet-xxxxx,subnet-yyyyy

Configure Environment Variables​

Store sensitive values securely:

# Database URL
eb setenv BOARDS_DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@rds-endpoint:5432/boards?sslmode=require"

# Redis URL
eb setenv BOARDS_REDIS_URL="redis://elasticache-endpoint:6379/0"

# Generator API keys
eb setenv BOARDS_GENERATOR_API_KEYS='{"fal": "your-key", "openai": "your-key"}'

# Auth configuration
eb setenv BOARDS_AUTH_PROVIDER=jwt
eb setenv BOARDS_JWT_SECRET="your-secret"

# AWS credentials for S3 (or use instance role)
eb setenv AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="xxxxx"
eb setenv AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="xxxxx"

Security Groups​

Configure security group rules to allow:

  1. Elastic Beanstalk → RDS: Port 5432
  2. Elastic Beanstalk → ElastiCache: Port 6379
  3. Load Balancer → EC2: Port 80
# Allow EB instances to access RDS
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id sg-rds-xxxxx \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 5432 \
  --source-group sg-eb-xxxxx

# Allow EB instances to access ElastiCache
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id sg-redis-xxxxx \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 6379 \
  --source-group sg-eb-xxxxx

Deploy​

eb deploy

Check deployment status:

eb status
eb health

HTTPS Configuration​

Using ACM Certificate​

  1. Request a certificate in AWS Certificate Manager
  2. Configure the load balancer:

Create .ebextensions/https.config:

option_settings:
  aws:elbv2:listener:443:
    ListenerEnabled: true
    Protocol: HTTPS
    SSLCertificateArns: arn:aws:acm:us-east-1:123456789:certificate/xxxxx
  aws:elbv2:listener:80:
    ListenerEnabled: true
    Protocol: HTTP
    Rules: redirect-to-https

Resources:
  AWSEBV2LoadBalancerListener80:
    Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::Listener
    Properties:
      DefaultActions:
        - Type: redirect
          RedirectConfig:
            Protocol: HTTPS
            Port: "443"
            StatusCode: HTTP_301

Auto Scaling​

Configure scaling in .ebextensions/autoscaling.config:

option_settings:
  aws:autoscaling:asg:
    MinSize: 2
    MaxSize: 10
  aws:autoscaling:trigger:
    MeasureName: CPUUtilization
    Unit: Percent
    UpperThreshold: 70
    LowerThreshold: 30
    UpperBreakSize: 1
    LowerBreakSize: 1

Instance Profile (IAM Role)​

Create an instance profile with necessary permissions:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:PutObject",
        "s3:GetObject",
        "s3:DeleteObject"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-boards-bucket/*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "secretsmanager:GetSecretValue"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:us-east-1:*:secret:boards/*"
    }
  ]
}

Logging​

CloudWatch Logs​

Enable log streaming in .ebextensions/logs.config:

option_settings:
  aws:elasticbeanstalk:cloudwatch:logs:
    StreamLogs: true
    DeleteOnTerminate: false
    RetentionInDays: 30

View logs:

eb logs

Application Logs​

# Recent logs
eb logs --all

# Stream logs
eb logs --stream

Monitoring​

CloudWatch Metrics​

Key metrics to monitor:

  • EnvironmentHealth
  • InstanceHealth
  • CPUUtilization
  • NetworkIn/NetworkOut

Health Dashboard​

eb health --refresh

Updates and Rollback​

Deploy New Version​

# Update image version in docker-compose.yml
eb deploy

Rollback​

# List versions
eb appversion

# Rollback to previous version
eb deploy --version version-label

Cost Optimization​

  • Use Spot Instances for workers
  • Right-size instances based on usage
  • Consider Reserved Instances for steady workloads

Enable Spot in .ebextensions/spot.config:

option_settings:
  aws:ec2:instances:
    EnableSpot: true
    SpotMaxPrice: 0.05

Troubleshooting​

View Instance Logs​

eb ssh
cat /var/log/eb-docker/containers/eb-current-app/*.log

Container Issues​

eb ssh
docker ps
docker logs <container-id>

Database Connection​

eb ssh
docker exec -it <api-container> python -c "from boards.db import engine; print(engine.connect())"

Next Steps​