I've been working with Elastic Beanstalk for a while, mostly just following what my coworker has done. However, I'm starting to get more involved with AWS infrastructure. We have several apps set up similarly, all running with RDS databases and docker containers in EB, and the configurations vary since some clients use our infrastructure while others have their own AWS setups.
Recently, while following an AWS course, I found out that Elastic Beanstalk creates CloudFormation Stacks, but I've noticed that many of these Stacks have drift, mostly due to security group changes that restrict SSH access to our VPN's IP.
I learned that there are several ways to manage SSH options, like using ebextensions. Since we have many similar setups, I'm considering whether I should create a Stack Template to streamline the process, rather than managing everything through the UI or ebextensions. I used an IaC generator to analyze our resources, but it only generated a template for the EB Application and not for the EB Environments.
Is it sensible to use Stack templates for Elastic Beanstalk? If not, what alternatives do you suggest? If so, can you recommend any good tutorials?
2 Answers
Rather than building your own version of Elastic Beanstalk, consider setting up the Stack with appropriate security groups. This way, you can manage SSH access better and maintain a cleaner configuration.
If you take a closer look at Elastic Beanstalk, you'll see that it's basically built on CloudFormation templates. Although I love using Beanstalk, it feels outdated compared to alternatives like ECS, especially if you're working with Docker. ECS gives you more control and aligns better with your Docker configurations, avoiding some of the peculiarities that come with EB.
Thanks for the insight! I’ll look into ECS.
I agree, I don't want to build my own EB! Can you clarify if 'setup the stack with property security groups' means creating security groups separately and referencing them or using a Stack template to create them?