Docker volume examples for Amazon ECS

The following examples show how to provide ephemeral storage for a container and how to provide a shared volume for multiple conatiners, and how to provide NFS persistent storage for a container.

To provide ephemeral storage for a container using a Docker volume

In this example, a container uses an empty data volume that is disposed of after the task is finished. One example use case is that you might have a container that needs to access some scratch file storage location during a task. This task can be achieved using a Docker volume.

1. In the task definition volumes section, define a data volume with name and DockerVolumeConfiguration values. In this example, we specify the scope as task so the volume is deleted after the task stops and use the built-in local driver.

   "volumes": [
       {
           "name": "scratch",
           "dockerVolumeConfiguration" : {
               "scope": "task",
               "driver": "local",
               "labels": {
                   "scratch": "space"
               }
           }
       }
   ]

2. In the containerDefinitions section, define a container with mountPoints values that reference the name of the defined volume and the containerPath value to mount the volume at on the container.

   "containerDefinitions": [
       {
           "name": "container-1",
           "mountPoints": [
               {
                 "sourceVolume": "scratch",
                 "containerPath": "/var/scratch"
               }
           ]
       }
   ]

To provide persistent storage for multiple containers using a Docker volume

In this example, you want a shared volume for multiple containers to use and you want it to persist after any single task that use it stopped. The built-in local driver is being used. This is so the volume is still tied to the lifecycle of the container instance.

1. In the task definition volumes section, define a data volume with name and DockerVolumeConfiguration values. In this example, specify a shared scope so the volume persists, set autoprovision to true. This is so that the volume is created for use. Then, also use the built-in local driver.

   "volumes": [
       {
           "name": "database",
           "dockerVolumeConfiguration" : {
               "scope": "shared",
               "autoprovision": true,
               "driver": "local",
               "labels": {
                   "database": "database_name"
               }
           }
       }
   ]

2. In the containerDefinitions section, define a container with mountPoints values that reference the name of the defined volume and the containerPath value to mount the volume at on the container.

   "containerDefinitions": [
       {
           "name": "container-1",
           "mountPoints": [
           {
             "sourceVolume": "database",
             "containerPath": "/var/database"
           }
         ]
       },
       {
         "name": "container-2",
         "mountPoints": [
           {
             "sourceVolume": "database",
             "containerPath": "/var/database"
           }
         ]
       }
     ]

To provide NFS persistent storage for a container using a Docker volume

In this example, a container uses an NFS data volume that is automatically mounted when the task starts and unmounted when the task stops. This uses the Docker built-in local driver. One example use case is that you might have a local NFS storage and need to access it from an ECS Anywhere task. This can be achieved using a Docker volume with NFS driver option.

1. In the task definition volumes section, define a data volume with name and DockerVolumeConfiguration values. In this example, specify a task scope so the volume is unmounted after the task stops. Use the local driver and configure the driverOpts with the type, device, and o options accordingly. Replace NFS_SERVER with the NFS server endpoint.

   "volumes": [
          {
              "name": "NFS",
              "dockerVolumeConfiguration" : {
                  "scope": "task",
                  "driver": "local",
                  "driverOpts": {
                      "type": "nfs",
                      "device": "$NFS_SERVER:/mnt/nfs",
                      "o": "addr=$NFS_SERVER"
                  }
              }
          }
      ]

2. In the containerDefinitions section, define a container with mountPoints values that reference the name of the defined volume and the containerPath value to mount the volume on the container.

   "containerDefinitions": [
          {
              "name": "container-1",
              "mountPoints": [
                  {
                    "sourceVolume": "NFS",
                    "containerPath": "/var/nfsmount"
                  }
              ]
          }
      ]