Getting started with Java on Elastic Beanstalk - AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Getting started with Java on Elastic Beanstalk

To get started with Java applications on AWS Elastic Beanstalk, all you need is an application source bundle to upload as your first application version and to deploy to an environment. When you create an environment, Elastic Beanstalk allocates all of the AWS resources needed to run a scalable web application.

Launching an environment with a sample Java application

Elastic Beanstalk provides single page sample applications for each platform as well as more complex examples that show the use of additional AWS resources such as Amazon RDS and language or platform-specific features and APIs.

The single page samples are the same code that you get when you create an environment without supplying your own source code. The more complex examples are hosted on GitHub and may need to be compiled or built prior to deploying to an Elastic Beanstalk environment.

Samples

Name

Supported versions

Environment type

Source

Description

Tomcat (single page)

All Tomcat with Corretto platform branches

Web Server

Worker

tomcat.zip

Tomcat web application with a single page (index.jsp) configured to be displayed at the website root.

For worker environments, this sample includes a cron.yaml file that configures a scheduled task that calls scheduled.jsp once per minute. When scheduled.jsp is called, it writes to a log file at /tmp/sample-app.log. Finally, a configuration file is included in .ebextensions that copies the logs from /tmp/ to the locations read by Elastic Beanstalk when you request environment logs.

If you enable X-Ray integration on an environment running this sample, the application shows additional content regarding X-Ray and provides an option to generate debug information that you can view in the X-Ray console.

Corretto (single page)

Corretto 11

Corretto 8

Web Server

corretto.zip

Corretto application with Buildfile and Procfile configuration files.

If you enable X-Ray integration on an environment running this sample, the application shows additional content regarding X-Ray and provides an option to generate debug information that you can view in the X-Ray console.

Scorekeep

Java 8 Web Server Clone the repo at GitHub.com

Scorekeep is a RESTful web API that uses the Spring framework to provide an interface for creating and managing users, sessions, and games. The API is bundles with an Angular 1.5 web app that consumes the API over HTTP.

The application uses features of the Java SE platform to download dependencies and build on-instance, minimizing the size of the souce bundle. The application also includes nginx configuration files that override the default configuration to serve the frontend web app statically on port 80 through the proxy, and route requests to paths under /api to the API running on localhost:5000.

Scorekeep also includes an xray branch that shows how to instrument a Java application for use with AWS X-Ray. It shows instrumentation of incoming HTTP requests with a servlet filter, automatic and manual AWS SDK client instrumentation, recorder configuration, and instrumentation of outgoing HTTP requests and SQL clients.

See the readme for instructions or use the AWS X-Ray getting started tutorial to try the application with X-Ray.

Does it Have Snakes?

Tomcat 8 with Java 8 Web Server Clone the repo at GitHub.com

Does it Have Snakes? is a Tomcat web application that shows the use of Elastic Beanstalk configuration files, Amazon RDS, JDBC, PostgreSQL, Servlets, JSPs, Simple Tag Support, Tag Files, Log4J, Bootstrap, and Jackson.

The source code for this project includes a minimal build script that compiles the servlets and models into class files and packages the required files into a Web Archive that you can deploy to an Elastic Beanstalk environment. See the readme file in the project repository for full instructions.

Locust Load Generator

Java 8

Web Server

Clone the repo at GitHub.com

Web application that you can use to load test another web application running in a different Elastic Beanstalk environment. Shows the use of Buildfile and Procfile files, DynamoDB, and Locust, an open source load testing tool.

Download any of the sample applications and deploy it to Elastic Beanstalk by following these steps:

To launch an environment with a sample application (console)
  1. Open the Elastic Beanstalk console, and in the Regions list, select your AWS Region.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Applications, and then choose an existing application's name in the list or create one.

  3. On the application overview page, choose Create new environment.

    
              The application overview page with a list of application environments on the Elastic Beanstalk console

    This launches the Create environment wizard. The wizard provides a set of steps for you to create a new environment.

    
              The Create environment wizard on the Elastic Beanstalk console
  4. For environment tier, choose the Web server environment or Worker environment environment tier. You can't change an environment's tier after creation.

    Note

    The .NET on Windows Server platform doesn't support the worker environment tier.

  5. For Platform, select the platform and platform branch that match the language your application uses.

    Note

    Elastic Beanstalk supports multiple versions for most of the platforms that are listed. By default, the console selects the recommended version for the platform and platform branch you choose. If your application requires a different version, you can select it here. For information about supported platform versions, see Elastic Beanstalk supported platforms.

  6. For Application code, choose Sample application.

  7. For Configuration presets, choose Single instance.

  8. Choose Next.

  9. The Configure service access page displays.

    
              Configure service access
  10. Choose Use an existing service role for Service Role.

  11. Next, we'll focus on the EC2 instance profile dropdown list. The values displayed in this dropdown list may vary, depending on whether you account has previously created a new environment.

    Choose one of the following, based on the values displayed in your list.

    • If aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role displays in the dropdown list, select it from the EC2 instance profile dropdown list.

    • If another value displays in the list, and it’s the default EC2 instance profile intended for your environments, select it from the EC2 instance profile dropdown list.

    • If the EC2 instance profile dropdown list doesn't list any values to choose from, expand the procedure that follows, Create IAM Role for EC2 instance profile.

      Complete the steps in Create IAM Role for EC2 instance profile to create an IAM Role that you can subsequently select for the EC2 instance profile. Then return back to this step.

      Now that you've created an IAM Role, and refreshed the list, it displays as a choice in the dropdown list. Select the IAM Role you just created from the EC2 instance profile dropdown list.

  12. Choose Skip to Review on the Configure service access page.

    This will select the default values for this step and skip the optional steps.

  13. The Review page displays a summary of all your choices.

    To further customize your environment, choose Edit next to the step that includes any items you want to configure. You can set the following options only during environment creation:

    • Environment name

    • Domain name

    • Platform version

    • Processor

    • VPC

    • Tier

    You can change the following settings after environment creation, but they require new instances or other resources to be provisioned and can take a long time to apply:

    • Instance type, root volume, key pair, and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role

    • Internal Amazon RDS database

    • Load balancer

    For details on all available settings, see The create new environment wizard.

  14. Choose Submit at the bottom of the page to initialize the creation of your new environment.


        Configure service access
To create a an IAM Role for EC2 instance profile selection
  1. Choose View permission details. This displays under the EC2 instance profile dropdown list.

    A modal window titled View instance profile permissions displays. This window lists the managed profiles that you'll need to attach to the new EC2 instance profile that you create. It also provides a link to launch the IAM console.

  2. Choose the IAM console link displayed at the top of the window.

  3. In the IAM console navigation pane, choose Roles.

  4. Choose Create role.

  5. Under Trusted entity type, choose AWS service.

  6. Under Use case, choose EC2.

  7. Choose Next.

  8. Attach the appropriate managed policies. Scroll in the View instance profile permissions modal window to see the managed policies. The policies are also listed here:

    • AWSElasticBeanstalkWebTier

    • AWSElasticBeanstalkWorkerTier

    • AWSElasticBeanstalkMulticontainerDocker

  9. Choose Next.

  10. Enter a name for the role.

  11. (Optional) Add tags to the role.

  12. Choose Create role.

  13. Return to the Elastic Beanstalk console window that is open.

  14. Close the modal window View instance profile permissions.

    Important

    Do not close the browser page that displays the Elastic Beanstalk console.

  15. Choose 
          refresh icon
        (refresh), next to the EC2 instance profile dropdown list.

    This refreshes the dropdown list, so that the Role you just created will display in the dropdown list.

Next steps

After you have an environment running an application, you can deploy a new version of the application or a completely different application at any time. Deploying a new application version is very quick because it doesn't require provisioning or restarting EC2 instances.

After you've deployed a sample application or two and are ready to start developing and running Java applications locally, see the next section to set up a Java development environment with all of the tools and libraries that you will need.