How do I deploy updated Docker images to Amazon ECS tasks?

Question

What is the right approach to make my Amazon ECS tasks update their Docker images, once said images have been updated in the corresponding registry?

Answer 1

Ran into same issue. After spending hours, have concluded these simplified steps for automated deployment of updated image:

1.ECS task definition changes: For a better understanding, let's assume you have created a task definition with below details (note: these numbers would change accordingly as per your task definition):

launch_type = EC2

desired_count = 1

Then you need to make the following changes:

deployment_minimum_healthy_percent = 0  //this does the trick, if not set to zero the force deployment wont happen as ECS won't allow to stop the current running task

deployment_maximum_percent = 200  //for allowing rolling update

2.Tag your image as <your-image-name>:latest . The latest key takes care of getting pulled by the respective ECS task.

sudo docker build -t imageX:master .   //build your image with some tag
sudo -s eval $(aws ecr get-login --no-include-email --region us-east-1)  //login to ECR
sudo docker tag imageX:master .dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/:latest    //tag your image with latest tag

3.Push to the image to ECR

sudo docker push  .dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/:latest

4.apply force-deployment

sudo aws ecs update-service --cluster  --service  --force-new-deployment --region us-east-1

Note: I have written all the commands assuming the region to be us-east-1. Just replace it with your respective region while implementing.