Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms - AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Supported Amazon Linux versionsList of Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms

Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms

Many of the platforms that Elastic Beanstalk supports are based on the Linux operating system. Specifically, these platforms are based on Amazon Linux, a Linux distribution provided by AWS. Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, and these instances run Amazon Linux.

The Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms provide a lot of functionality out of the box. You can extend the platforms in several ways to support your application. For details, see Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

Topics

Supported Amazon Linux versions

AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports platforms based on Amazon Linux 2 and has recently started adding platforms based on Amazon Linux 2023. As of May 4, 2023, Elastic Beanstalk offers two Python platform branches based on Amazon Linux 2023. We're also working on releasing support for AL2023 to more platforms.

For more information about Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023, see the following:

For details about supported platform versions, see Elastic Beanstalk supported platforms.

Amazon Linux 2023

AWS announced the general availability of Amazon Linux 2023 in March of 2023. The Amazon Linux 2023 User Guide summarizes key differences between Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023. For more information, see Comparing Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023 in the user guide.

There is a high degree of compatibility between Elastic Beanstalk Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux 2023 platforms. Although there are some differences to note:

  • Instance Metadata Service Version 1 (IMDSv1) – The DisableIMDSv1 option setting defaults to true on AL2023 platforms. The default is false on AL2 platforms.

  • pkg-repo instance tool – The pkg-repo tool is not available for environments running on AL2023 platforms. However,you can manually apply package and operating system updates to an AL2023 instance. For more information, see Managing packages and operating system updates in the Amazon Linux 2023 User Guide.

  • Apache HTTPd configuration – The Apache httpd.conf file for AL2023 platforms has some configuration settings that are different from those for AL2:

    • Deny access to the server’s entire file system by default. These settings are described in Protect Server Files by Default on the Apache website Security Tips page.

    • Stop users from overriding security features you've configured. The configuration denies access to set up of .htaccess in all directories, except for those specifically enabled. This setting is described in Protecting System Settings on the Apache website Security Tips page. The Apache HTTP Server Tutorial: .htaccess files page states this setting may help improve performance.

    • Deny access to files with name pattern .ht*. This setting prevents web clients from viewing .htaccess and .htpasswd files.

You can change any of the above configuration settings for your environment. For more information, see Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms. Expand the Reverse Proxy topic to see the Configuring Apache HTTPD section.

List of Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms

The following list mentions the Linux platforms that Elastic Beanstalk supports for different programming languages, as well as for Docker containers, and links to chapters about them in this developer guide.

* Note

As of May 4, 2023, Elastic Beanstalk offers two Python platform branches based on Amazon Linux 2023. We're also working on releasing support for AL2023 to more platforms.