---
title: 'Quick Start: Fargate'
nav_order: 1
---

## What is ECS Fargate?

AWS Fargate is a technology for Amazon ECS that allows you to run containers without having to manage servers or clusters.  It provides an interesting "serverless" option for running Docker containers on AWS. The major benefit with ECS Fargate is you pass on the maintenance burden to AWS. Refer to [Heroku vs ECS Fargate vs EC2 On-Demand vs EC2 Spot Pricing Comparison](https://blog.boltops.com/2018/04/22/heroku-vs-ecs-fargate-vs-ec2-on-demand-vs-ec2-spot-pricing-comparison) for a pricing comparison.

## Let's Go

In a hurry? No sweat! Here's a quick start to using ufo that takes only a few minutes. For this example, we will use a Sinatra app from [tongueroo/demo-ufo](https://github.com/tongueroo/demo-ufo).  The `ufo init` command sets up the ufo directory structure in your project. The `ufo ship` command deploys your code to an AWS ECS service.  The `ufo ps` and `ufo scale` command shows you how to verify and scale additional containers.

    git clone https://github.com/tongueroo/demo-ufo demo
    cd demo
    AWS_ACCOUNT=$(aws sts get-caller-identity | jq -r '.Account')
    aws ecr create-repository --repository-name demo/sinatra
    ECR_REPO=$(aws ecr describe-repositories --repository-name demo/sinatra | jq -r '.repositories[].repositoryUri')
    ufo init --image $ECR_REPO --launch-type fargate --execution-role-arn arn:aws:iam::$AWS_ACCOUNT:role/ecsTaskExecutionRole
    ufo current --service demo-web
    ufo ship
    ufo ps
    ufo scale 2

This quickstart assumes:

* You have push access to the repo. Refer to the Notes "Repo Push Access" section below for more info.
* The `ecsTaskExecutionRole` needs to exist on your AWS account.  If you do not have an ecsTaskExecutionRole yet, create one by following: [Create ecsTaskExecutionRole with AWS CLI]({% link _docs/aws-ecs-task-execution-role.md %}).

## What Happened

The `ufo ship demo-web` command does the following:

1. Builds the Docker image and pushes it to a registry
2. Builds the ECS task definitions and registry them to ECS
3. Updates the ECS Service
4. Creates an ELB and connects it to the ECS Service

You should see output similar to this.

    $ ufo ship
    Building docker image with:
      docker build -t 112233445566.dkr.ecr.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/demo/sinatra:ufo-2018-06-29T22-54-07-20b3a10 -f Dockerfile .
    ...
    10:58:38PM CREATE_COMPLETE AWS::ECS::Service Ecs
    10:58:40PM CREATE_COMPLETE AWS::CloudFormation::Stack development-demo-web
    Stack success status: CREATE_COMPLETE
    Time took for stack deployment: 4m 24s.
    Software shipped!
    $

## Video Demo

Here's demo of ufo with ECS Fargate:

<div class="video-box"><div class="video-container">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nYWt-mM7kyY" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></div>

## Verification ufo commands

You can verify that service with these ufo commands.

    $ ufo ps
    => Service: demo-web
       Service name: development-demo-web-Ecs-1LMRH98Y352F7
       Status: ACTIVE
       Running count: 1
       Desired count: 1
       Launch type: FARGATE
       Task definition: demo-web:84
       Elb: develop-Elb-BNIP29PG593M-771779085.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    |    Id    | Name |   Release   |    Started    | Status  | Notes |
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    | 78e02265 | web  | demo-web:84 | 2 minutes ago | RUNNING |       |
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    $ ufo scale 2
    Scale demo-web service in development cluster to 2
    $ ufo ps --no-summary
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    |    Id    | Name |   Release   |    Started    | Status  | Notes |
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    | 78e02265 | web  | demo-web:84 | 2 minutes ago | RUNNING |       |
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    $ ufo ps --no-summary
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    |    Id    | Name |   Release   |    Started    | Status  | Notes |
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    | 02b78575 | web  | demo-web:84 | PENDING       | PENDING |       |
    | 78e02265 | web  | demo-web:84 | 2 minutes ago | RUNNING |       |
    +----------+------+-------------+---------------+---------+-------+
    $ ufo ps --no-summary
    +----------+------+-------------+----------------+---------+-------+
    |    Id    | Name |   Release   |    Started     | Status  | Notes |
    +----------+------+-------------+----------------+---------+-------+
    | 02b78575 | web  | demo-web:84 | 12 seconds ago | RUNNING |       |
    | 78e02265 | web  | demo-web:84 | 3 minutes ago  | RUNNING |       |
    +----------+------+-------------+----------------+---------+-------+
    $

## Verification curl

You can verify that the app is up and running curling the ELB DNS.

    $ curl develop-Elb-BNIP29PG593M-771779085.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com ; echo
    42
    $

Congratulations 🎉 You have successfully deployed a docker web service to "serverless" Fargate.

Note: This quick start requires a working Docker installation.  For Docker installation instructions refer to the [Docker installation guide](https://docs.docker.com/engine/installation/).

## Clean up

Remove the service to save costs.

    $ ufo destroy
    You are about to destroy demo-web service on the development cluster.
    Are you sure you want to do this? (y/n) y
    Deleting CloudFormation stack with ECS resources: development-demo-web.
    11:05:40PM DELETE_IN_PROGRESS AWS::CloudFormation::Stack development-demo-web User
    ...
    11:07:51PM DELETE_COMPLETE AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup EcsSecurityGroup
    Stack development-demo-web deleted.
    $

Here's an article that compares the cost of ECS Fargate: [Heroku vs ECS Fargate vs EC2 On-Demand vs EC2 Spot Pricing Comparison](https://blog.boltops.com/2018/04/22/heroku-vs-ecs-fargate-vs-ec2-on-demand-vs-ec2-spot-pricing-comparison)

{% include repo_push_access.md %}

{% include prev_next.md %}