Configuring a load balancer for the blue/green deployment type

To configure your service that uses the blue/green deployment type to use a load balancer, you must use either an Application Load Balancer or a Network Load Balancer.

To choose a load balancer type

1. If you didn't do so already, follow the procedures to create the service in Step 1: Configuring basic service parameters.

2. For Load balancer type, choose the load balancer type to use with your service:

   Application Load Balancer

   Allows containers to use dynamic host port mapping. With host port mapping, you can place multiple tasks using the same port on a single container instance. Multiple services can use the same listener port on a single load balancer with rule-based routing and paths.

   Network Load Balancer

   Allows containers to use dynamic host port mapping. With host port mapping, you can place multiple tasks using the same port on a single container instance. Multiple services can use the same listener port on a single load balancer with rule-based routing.

   We recommend that you use Application Load Balancers for your Amazon ECS services. That way, you can use all of the Application Load Balancer features.

3. For Load balancer name, choose the name of the load balancer to use with your service. Only load balancers that correspond to the load balancer type that you selected earlier are visible here.

4. The next step depends on the load balancer type for your service. If you chose an Application Load Balancer, follow the steps in To configure an Application Load Balancer. If you chose a Network Load Balancer, follow the steps in To configure a Network Load Balancer.

To configure an Application Load Balancer for the blue/green deployment type

1. For Container to load balance, choose the container and port combination from your task definition that your load balancer distributes traffic to, and choose Add to load balancer.

2. For Production listener port, choose the listener port and protocol of the listener that you created in Creating an Application Load Balancer (if applicable), or choose create new to create a new listener and then enter a port number and choose a port protocol for Production listener protocol.

3. (Optional) Select Test listener if you want to configure a listener port and protocol on your load balancer to test updates to your service before routing traffic to your new task set. Complete the following step:

   1. For Test listener port, choose the listener port and protocol of the listener that you want to test traffic over, or choose create new to create a new test listener and then enter a port number and choose a port protocol in Test listener protocol.

4. For blue/green deployments, two target groups are required. Each target group binds to a separate task set in the deployment. Complete the following steps:

   1. For Target group 1 name, choose the target group that you created in Creating an Application Load Balancer (if applicable), or choose create new to create a new target group.

      Important

      If your service's task definition uses the awsvpc network mode (which is required for the Fargate launch type), your target group must use ip as the target type, not instance. This is because tasks that use the awsvpc network mode are associated with an elastic network interface, not an Amazon EC2 instance.

   2. (Optional) If you chose to create a new target group, complete the following fields as follows:

      • For Target group name, enter a name for your target group.

      • For Target group protocol, enter the protocol to use for routing traffic to your tasks.

      • For Path pattern, if your listener does not have any existing rules, the default path pattern (/) is used. If your listener already has a default rule, then you must enter a path pattern that matches traffic that you want to have sent to your service's target group. For example, if your service is a web application called web-app, and you want traffic that matches http://my-elb-url/web-app to route to your service, then you would enter /web-app* as your path pattern. For more information, see ListenerRules in the User Guide for Application Load Balancers.

      • For Health check path, enter the path to which the load balancer should send health check pings.

   3. Repeat the steps for target group 2.

   4. When you are finished configuring your Application Load Balancer, choose Next step. Navigate to Step 4: Configuring your service to use Service Discovery.

To configure a Network Load Balancer for the blue/green deployment type

1. For Container to load balance, choose the container and port combination from your task definition that your load balancer should distribute traffic to, and choose Add to load balancer.

2. For Listener port, choose the listener port and protocol of the listener that you created in Creating a Network Load Balancer (if applicable), or choose create new to create a new listener and then enter a port number and choose a port protocol for Listener protocol.

3. For Target group name, choose the target group that you created in Creating a Network Load Balancer (if applicable), or choose create new to create a new target group.

   Important

   If your service's task definition uses the awsvpc network mode (which is required for the Fargate launch type), your target group must use ip as the target type, not instance. This is because tasks that use the awsvpc network mode are associated with an elastic network interface, not an Amazon EC2 instance.

4. (Optional) If you chose to create a new target group, complete the following fields as follows:

   • For Target group name, enter a name for your target group.

   • For Target group protocol, enter the protocol to use for routing traffic to your tasks.

   • For Health check path, enter the path to which the load balancer should send health check pings.

5. When you are finished configuring your Network Load Balancer, choose Next Step. Navigate to Step 4: Configuring your service to use Service Discovery.