In the IT industries one of the major important things is to manage and deploy the website applications which can be difficult and time taking processes. Here comes AWS App runner which is mainly used to quickly design and address the entire application lifecycle. It also provides a fully managed service which simplifies the management and deployment processes. It also allows the software developers to focus on the code of the application and the content. Hence, in this article a comprehensive knowledge has been provided about the AWS App runner.
What is AWS App Runner?
AWS App Runner is a type of fully managed service that helps developers deploy containerized website applications and the APIs. It is used to connect to your code or the image repository directly and helps in deploying the website applications and the APIs without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. It provides an automatic integration and the delivery pipeline with fully managed operation, scalability, security and performance. Hence in short AWS App Runner provides customers with a fast, simple, and one of the secure ways to deploy the applications.
How to Get Started with AWS App Runner
There are several steps that are crucial to getting started with AWS App Runner which is mentioned below:
Prerequisites: Some of the following prerequisites are mentioned below:
- Complete the following setup steps in Setting up for App Runner.
- Find out what you would like to use either BitBucket repository or GitHub repository.
- Develop a repository in your repository provider account.
Step 1: Complete the setup steps in setting up for App Runner
In the first step you can develop an App Runner service which is based on the example source code repository which you have developed on BitBucket or GitHub as a procedure of prerequisite. Hence this consist of a simple python website which consist of some steps which are mentioned below:
1. Configure your source code.
- Open the App Runner console and the regions list and then select the AWS region.
- After that, if the AWS account doesn’t consist of any App Runner service yet then the console home page is displayed. Further choose to develop an App Runner service.
- Choose Source code repository on the Source and deployment page, in the Source section, for Repository type,
- Select a Provider Type. Choose either GitHub or Bitbucket.
- Further choose Add new. If prompted, provide your GitHub or Bitbucket credentials.
- Choose the next set of steps based on the Provider type you previously selected.
2. Configure source deployment.
- Choose Automatic, and then choose Next in the Deployment settings section,
3. Configure application build.
- On the Configure build page, for Configuration file, choose Configure all settings here.
4. Provide the following build settings:
- Runtime – Choose Python 3.
- Build command – Enter pip install -r requirements.txt.
- Start command – Enter python server.py.
- Port – Enter 8080.
5. Choose Next.
6. Configure your service.
On the Configure service page, in the Service settings section, enter a service name.
7. Under Environment variables, select Add environment variable. Provide the following values for the environment variable.
- Source – Choose Plain text
- Environment variable name – NAME
- Environment variable value – any name (for example, your first name).
8. Review and confirm.
Step 2: Create an App Runner service
In the second step, you make a change to your code in the repository source directory.
- To make a change to your service code
- Navigate to your example repository.
- Edit the file named server.py.
- In the expression assigned to the variable message, change the text Hello to Good evening.
- Save and commit the changes to the repository.
- The following steps illustrate changing the service code in a GitHub repository.
- Navigate to your example GitHub repository.
- Choose the file name server.py to navigate to that file.
- Choose Edit this file (the pencil icon).
- In the expression assigned to the variable message, change the text Hello to Good evening.
- Choose Commit changes.
- The new commit starts to deploy for your App Runner service. On the service dashboard page, the service Status changes to Operation in progress. Wait for the deployment to end.
- Verify that the deployment is successful: refresh the browser tab where the webpage of your service is displayed.
The page now displays the modified message: Good evening, your name!
Step 3: Change your service code
In the third step, you make a change to the NAME environment variable value, to demonstrate a service configuration change.
To change an environment variable value
- Open the App Runner console, and in the Regions list and then select your AWS Region.
- In the navigation pane, choose Services, and then choose your App Runner service.
- On the service dashboard page, choose the Configuration tab.
- In the Configure service section, choose Edit.
- For the environment variable with the key NAME, change the value to a different name.
- Choose Apply changes.
- Wait for the update to end.
- Verify that the update is successful. The page now displays the modified name: Good evening, new name!
Step 4: Make a configuration change
In this step, you use the App Runner console to view logs for your App Runner service. App Runner streams logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs (CloudWatch Logs) and displays them on your service's dashboard.
To view logs for your service
- Open the App Runner console, and in the Regions list, select your AWS Region.
- In the navigation pane, choose Services, and then choose your App Runner service. The console displays the service dashboard with a Service overview.
- On the service dashboard page, choose the Logs tab.
4. To find specific deployments, scope down the deployment log list by entering a search term. You can search for any value that appears in the table.
5. To view a log's content, choose View full log (event log) or the log stream name (deployment and application logs).
6. Choose Download to download a log. For a deployment log stream, select a log stream first.
7. Choose View in CloudWatch to open the CloudWatch console and use its full capabilities to explore your App Runner service logs. For a deployment log stream, select a log stream first.
Step 5: Clean up
You've now learned how to develop an App Runner service, view logs, and make some changes. In this step, you delete the service to remove resources that you don't need anymore.
To delete your service
- On the service dashboard page, choose Actions, and then choose Delete service.
- In the confirmation dialog, enter the requested text, and then choose Delete.
Setting up App Runner
If you’re using App Runner for the first time then you need to complete the setup prerequisites which are listed below:
Sign up for an AWS account
1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.
2. Read the instruction carefully and proceed.
When you are trying to sign up for an AWS account, an AWS account root user is developed. The root user has access to all the AWS services and resources in the account. For security purposes the best practice is to assign the administrative access to a user and use the only root user to perform the tasks which requires root user access.
After that AWS sends you a confirmation email after the sign-up process is complete.
Accessing App Runner
With the help of any one of the interfaces you can define and configure your App runner service deployments.
- App Runner API- The App Runner API is used to provide a RESTful API for performing App Runner actions.
- AWS SDKs- It is used to provide a language specific APIs and takes care of multiple connection details such as error handling, calculating signatures, and handling the request retries.
- App Runner console- The App Runner console is used to provide a website interface for managing the App Runner services.
- AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI)- It is used to provide commands for a wide range of services such as Amazon VPC.
Features of AWS App Runner
There are multiple features which are there in AWS App Runner and due to that reason, it is used for deploying applications safely. Some of these key features are mentioned below:
1. Easy Deployment Process: AWS App Runner is used to automatically handles the deployment process such as scaling, load balancing, and monitoring. It helps in allowing developers to focus on writing code rather than managing only the infrastructure. It also helps the users to deploy the software applications from either source code or from pre-built container images stored in AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR) or Docker Hub.
2. Auto Scaling: App Runner automatically adjusts the number of instances based on incoming traffic, ensuring optimal performance during traffic spikes and reducing costs during periods of low demand. Users can configure minimum and maximum instance counts, giving control over the scalability behavior.
3. Monitoring and Logging: App Runner integrates with AWS CloudWatch, allowing users to monitor application performance, including request latency, traffic, and error rates. It automatically logs application activity to CloudWatch Logs, simplifying debugging and performance optimization.
4. Support for Programming Language: App Runner supports multiple programming languages, such as Node.js, Python, and Ruby, through either container images or source code-based deployments. For more flexibility, users can package their applications in custom containers with any programming language or runtime, allowing for broader compatibility.
5. Cost Efficiency: With App Runner, you only pay for the actual resources your application uses. It charges based on active instances and the compute/memory resources consumed. It also provides a free tier for limited usage, which can help users test and experiment with the service without incurring significant costs.
6. Data Handling: While App Runner does not directly manage databases, it helps to integrate seamlessly with AWS databases like RDS, DynamoDB, and Aurora through VPC connectivity. It also helps in deploying an application from the source code or the container image to AWS. It also helps in connecting directly with your code or the image repository.
7. Compliance and Governance: App Runner complies with major compliance standards like SOC, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and more, making it suitable for applications requiring stringent data protection and security measures. AWS customers are also responsible for maintaining the required governance over the whole IT control environment.
8. Service Observability: Through CloudWatch, you can set custom metrics and alerts to monitor specific aspects of your application, helping to ensure proactive maintenance and troubleshooting. AWS App runner helps in monitoring metrics, handling events service action calls, reading logs, and tracking the applications more effectively.
9. Language and Framework Support: If the user is deploying directly from source code, AWS App Runner natively supports frameworks and languages like Python (Flask, Django), Node.js (Express), and Ruby (Rails) through its build and deploy pipeline. As App runner provides flexibility and also allows the developers to choose the language which fits their application needs.
10. Operational Efficiency: App Runner fully manages the underlying infrastructure (such as servers and load balancers) for web applications, eliminating the need for manual infrastructure setup or maintenance. Hence AWS App runner provides a fast, cost effective and simple way to deploy from the source code or container image.
Conclusion
There are various advantages of using App Runner as it helps the users to monitor the image or the code repository for the changes. It also helps in automatically deploying processes. App Runner mainly provides a cost-effective way to run the applications. Hence you can pay for the resources that your App Runner service consumes. Therefore, in this article a detailed knowledge has been provided about the AWS App Runner and its overview.
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