Step 2: Create a Basic Application Server Stack
Important
AWS OpsWorks Stacks is no longer accepting new customers. Existing customers will be able to use the OpsWorks console, API, CLI, and CloudFormation resources as normal until May 26, 2024, at which time they will be discontinued. To prepare for this transition, we recommend you transition your stacks to AWS Systems Manager as soon as possible. For more information, see AWS OpsWorks Stacks End of Life FAQs and Migrating your AWS OpsWorks Stacks applications to AWS Systems Manager Application Manager.
A basic application server stack consists of a single application server instance with a public IP address to receive user requests. Application code and any related files are stored in a separate repository and deployed from there to the server. The following diagram illustrates such a stack.
The stack has the following components:
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A layer, which represents a group of instances and specifies how they are to be configured.
The layer in this example represents a group of IIS instances.
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An instance, which represents an Amazon EC2 instance.
In this case, the layer configures a single instance to run IIS, but layers can have any number of instances.
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An app, which contains the information required to install an application on the instance.
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A cookbook, which contains custom Chef recipes that support the custom IIS layer. The cookbook and app code are stored in remote repositories, such as an archive file in an Amazon S3 bucket or a Git repository.
The following sections describe how to use the AWS OpsWorks Stacks console to create the stack and deploy the application.