Creating a cluster for the Fargate and External launch type using the console

You can create an Amazon ECS cluster using the Amazon ECS console. Before you begin, be sure that you've completed the steps in Set up to use Amazon ECS and assign the appropriate IAM permission. For more information, see Cluster examples. The Amazon ECS console provides a simple way to create the resources that are needed by an Amazon ECS cluster by creating a AWS CloudFormation stack.

To make the cluster creation process as easy as possible, the console has default selections for many choices which we describe below. There are also help panels available for most of the sections in the console which provide further context.

• Creates a default namespace in AWS Cloud Map that is the same name as the cluster. A namespace allows services that you create in the cluster to connect to the other services in the namespace without additional configuration.

  For more information, see Interconnecting services.

You can modify the following options:

• Change the default namespace associated with the cluster.

  A namespace allows services that you create in the cluster can connect to the other services in the namespace without additional configuration. The default namespace is the same as the cluster name. For more information, see Interconnecting services.

• Configure the cluster for external instances

• Turn on Container Insights.

  CloudWatch Container Insights collects, aggregates, and summarizes metrics and logs from your containerized applications and microservices. Container Insights also provides diagnostic information, such as container restart failures, that you use to isolate issues and resolve them quickly. For more information, see Monitor Amazon ECS containers using Container Insights.

• Add tags to help you identify your cluster.

To create a new cluster (Amazon ECS console)

1. Open the console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ecs/v2.

2. From the navigation bar, select the Region to use.

3. In the navigation pane, choose Clusters.

4. On the Clusters page, choose Create cluster.

5. Under Cluster configuration, configure the following:

   • For Cluster name, enter a unique name.

     The name can contain up to 255 letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and hyphens.

   • (Optional) To have the namespace used for Service Connect be different from the cluster name, for Namespace, enter a unique name.

6. (Optional) Use external instances (Amazon ECS Anywhere) for your capacity. Expand Infrastructure, clear AWS Fargate (serverless), and then select External instances using ECS Anywhere.

7. (Optional) To turn on Container Insights, expand Monitoring, and then turn on Use Container Insights.

8. (Optional) To help identify your cluster, expand Tags, and then configure your tags.

   [Add a tag] Choose Add tag and do the following:

   • For Key, enter the key name.

   • For Value, enter the key value.

   [Remove a tag] Choose Remove to the right of the tag’s Key and Value.

9. Choose Create.

Next steps

If you are using external instances, you must register the instances with the cluster. For more information, see Registering an external instance to an Amazon ECS cluster.

After you create the cluster, you can create task definitions for your applications and then run them as standalone tasks, or as part of a service. For more information, see the following:

• Amazon ECS task definitions

• Run an application as an Amazon ECS task

• Creating a service using the console