Migrating your Elastic Beanstalk Linux application to Amazon Linux 2 - AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Considerations for all Linux platformsPlatform specific considerations

Migrating your Elastic Beanstalk Linux application to Amazon Linux 2

AWS provides two versions of Amazon Linux: Amazon Linux 2 and Amazon Linux AMI. AWS Elastic Beanstalk maintains platform branches with both Amazon Linux versions. For details about Linux platforms, see Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

If your Elastic Beanstalk application is based on an Amazon Linux AMI platform branch, and the platform has newer generation Amazon Linux 2 platform branch(es), use this page to learn how to migrate your application's environments to Amazon Linux 2. The two platform generations aren't guaranteed to be backward compatible with your existing application. Furthermore, even if your application code successfully deploys to the new platform version, it might behave or perform differently due to operating system and run time differences. Although Amazon Linux AMI and Amazon Linux 2 share the same Linux kernel, they differ in their initialization system, libc versions, the compiler tool chain, and various packages. We've also updated platform specific versions of runtime, build tools, and other dependencies. Therefore we recommend that you take your time, test your application thoroughly in a development environment, and make any necessary adjustments.

When you're ready to go to production, Elastic Beanstalk requires a blue/green deployment to perform the upgrade. For details about platform update strategies, see Updating your Elastic Beanstalk environment's platform version.

Considerations for all Linux platforms

The following table discusses considerations you should be aware of when planning an application migration to Amazon Linux 2. These considerations apply to any of the Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms, regardless of specific programming languages or application servers.

Area Changes and information

Configuration Files

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, you can use configuration files as before, and all sections work the same way. However, specific settings might not work the same as they did on previous Amazon Linux AMI platforms. For example:

  • Some software packages that you install using a configuration file might not be available on Amazon Linux 2, or their names might have changed.

  • Some platform specific configuration options have moved from their platform specific namespaces to different, platform agnostic namespaces.

  • Proxy configuration files provided in the .ebextensions/nginx directory should move to the .platform/nginx platform hooks directory. For details, expand the Reverse Proxy Configuration section in Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

We recommend using platform hooks to run custom code on your environment instances. You can still use commands and container commands in .ebextensions configuration files, but they aren't as easy to work with. For example, writing command scripts inside a YAML file can be cumbersome and difficult to test.

You still need to use .ebextensions configuration files for any script that needs a reference to an AWS CloudFormation resource.

Platform hooks

Amazon Linux 2 platforms introduce a new way to extend your environment's platform by adding executable files to hook directories on the environment's instances. With previous Linux platform versions, you might have used custom platform hooks. These hooks weren't designed for managed platforms and weren't supported, but could work in useful ways in some cases. With Amazon Linux 2 platform versions, custom platform hooks don't work. You should migrate any hooks to the new platform hooks. For details, expand the Platform Hooks section in Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

Supported proxy servers

Amazon Linux 2 platform versions support the same reverse proxy servers as each platform supported in its Amazon Linux AMI platform versions. All Amazon Linux 2 platform versions use nginx as their default reverse proxy server. The Tomcat, Node.js, PHP, and Python platform also support Apache HTTPD as an alternative. All platforms enable proxy server configuration in a uniform way, as described in this section. However, configuring the proxy server is slightly different than it was on Amazon Linux AMI. These are the differences for all platforms:

  • Default is nginx – The default proxy server on all Amazon Linux 2 platform versions is nginx. On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions of Tomcat, PHP, and Python, the default proxy server was Apache HTTPD.

  • Consistent namespace – All Amazon Linux 2 platform versions use the aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy namespace to configure the proxy server. On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions this was a per-platform decision, and Node.js used a different namespace.

  • Configuration file location – You should place proxy configuration files in the .platform/nginx and .platform/httpd directories on all Amazon Linux 2 platform versions. On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions these locations were .ebextensions/nginx and .ebextensions/httpd, respectively.

For platform-specific proxy configuration changes, see Platform specific considerations. For information about proxy configuration on Amazon Linux 2 platforms, expand the Reverse Proxy Configuration section in Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

Instance profile

Amazon Linux 2 platforms require an instance profile to be configured. Environment creation might temporarily succeed without one, but the environment might show errors soon after creation when actions requiring an instance profile start failing. For details, see Managing Elastic Beanstalk instance profiles.

Enhanced health

Amazon Linux 2 platform versions enable enhanced health by default. This is a change if you don't use the Elastic Beanstalk console to create your environments. The console enables enhanced health by default whenever possible, regardless of platform version. For details, see Enhanced health reporting and monitoring.

Custom AMI

If your environment uses a custom AMI, create a new AMI based on Amazon Linux 2 for your new environment using an Elastic Beanstalk Amazon Linux 2 platform.

Custom platforms

The managed AMIs of Amazon Linux 2 platform versions don't support custom platforms.

Platform specific considerations

This section discusses migration considerations specific to particular Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the Docker platform.

Area Changes and information

Storage

Elastic Beanstalk configures Docker to use storage drivers to store Docker images and container data. On Amazon Linux AMI, Elastic Beanstalk used the Device Mapper storage driver. To improve performance, Elastic Beanstalk provisioned an extra Amazon EBS volume. On Amazon Linux 2 Docker platform versions, Elastic Beanstalk uses the OverlayFS storage driver, and achieves even better performance while not requiring a separate volume anymore.

With Amazon Linux AMI, if you used the BlockDeviceMappings option of the aws:autoscaling:launchconfiguration namespace to add custom storage volumes to a Docker environment, we advised you to also add the /dev/xvdcz Amazon EBS volume that Elastic Beanstalk provisions. Elastic Beanstalk doesn't provision this volume anymore, so you should remove it from your configuration files. For details, see Docker configuration on Amazon Linux AMI (preceding Amazon Linux 2).

Private repository authentication

When you provide a Docker-generated authentication file to connect to a private repository, you no longer need to convert it to the older format that Amazon Linux AMI Docker platform versions required. Amazon Linux 2 Docker platform versions support the new format. For details, see Using images from a private repository.

Proxy server

Amazon Linux 2 Docker platform versions don't support standalone containers that don't run behind a proxy server. On Amazon Linux AMI Docker platform versions, this used to be possible through the none value of the ProxyServer option in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy namespace.

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the Go platform.

Area Changes and information

Port passing

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Elastic Beanstalk doesn't pass a port value to your application process through the PORT environment variable. You can simulate this behavior for your process by configuring a PORT environment property yourself. However, if you have multiple processes, and you're counting on Elastic Beanstalk passing incremental port values to your processes (5000, 5100, 5200 etc.), you should modify your implementation. For details, expand the Reverse proxy configuration section in Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

The following table lists migration information for the Corretto platform branches in the Java SE platform.

Area Changes and information

Corretto vs. OpenJDK

To implement the Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE), Amazon Linux 2 platform branches use Amazon Corretto, an AWS distribution of the Open Java Development Kit (OpenJDK). Prior Elastic Beanstalk Java SE platform branches use the OpenJDK packages included with Amazon Linux AMI.

Build tools

Amazon Linux 2 platforms have newer versions of the build tools: gradle, maven, and ant.

JAR file handling

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, if your source bundle (ZIP file) contains a single JAR file and no other files, Elastic Beanstalk no longer renames the JAR file to application.jar. Renaming occurs only if you submit a JAR file on its own, not within a ZIP file.

Port passing

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Elastic Beanstalk doesn't pass a port value to your application process through the PORT environment variable. You can simulate this behavior for your process by configuring a PORT environment property yourself. However, if you have multiple processes, and you're counting on Elastic Beanstalk passing incremental port values to your processes (5000, 5100, 5200 etc.), you should modify your implementation. For details, expand the Reverse proxy configuration section in Extending Elastic Beanstalk Linux platforms.

Java 7

Elastic Beanstalk doesn't support an Amazon Linux 2 Java 7 platform branch. If you have a Java 7 application, migrate it to Corretto 8 or Corretto 11.

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the Tomcat platform.

Area Changes and information

Configuration options

On Amazon Linux 2 platform versions, Elastic Beanstalk supports only a subset of the configuration options and option values in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy namespace. Here's the migration information for each option.

Option Migration information

GzipCompression

Unsupported on Amazon Linux 2 platform versions.

ProxyServer

Amazon Linux 2 Tomcat platform versions support both the nginx and the Apache HTTPD version 2.4 proxy servers. However, Apache version 2.2 isn't supported.

On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions, the default proxy was Apache 2.4. If you used the default proxy setting and added custom proxy configuration files, your proxy configuration should still work on Amazon Linux 2. However, if you used the apache/2.2 option value, you now have to migrate your proxy configuration to Apache version 2.4.

The XX:MaxPermSize option in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:tomcat:jvmoptions namespace isn't supported on Amazon Linux 2 platform versions. The JVM setting to modify the size of the permanent generation applies only to Java 7 and earlier, and is therefore not applicable to Amazon Linux 2 platform versions.

Application path

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, the path to the application's directory on Amazon EC2 instances of your environment is /var/app/current. It was /var/lib/tomcat8/webapps on Amazon Linux AMI platforms.

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the Node.js platform.

Area Changes and information

Installed Node.js versions

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Elastic Beanstalk maintains several Node.js platform branches, and only installs the latest version of the Node.js major version corresponding with the platform branch on each platform version. For example, each platform version in the Node.js 12 platform branch only has Node.js 12.x.y installed by default. On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions, we installed the multiple versions of multiple Node.js versions on each platform version, and only maintained a single platform branch.

Choose the Node.js platform branch that corresponds with the Node.js major version that your application needs.

Apache HTTPD log file names

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, if you use the Apache HTTPD proxy server, the HTTPD log file names are access_log and error_log, which is consistent with all other platforms that support Apache HTTPD. On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions, these log files were named access.log and error.log, respectively.

For details about log file names and locations for all platforms, see How Elastic Beanstalk sets up CloudWatch Logs.

Configuration options

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Elastic Beanstalk doesn't support the configuration options in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:nodejs namespace. Some of the options have alternatives. Here's the migration information for each option.

Option Migration information

NodeCommand

Use a Procfile or the scripts keyword in a package.json file to specify the start script.

NodeVersion

Use the engines keyword in a package.json file to specify the Node.js version. Be aware that you can only specify a Node.js version that correspondes with your platform branch. For example, if you're using the Node.js 12 platform branch, you can specify only a 12.x.y Node.js version. For details, see Specifying Node.js dependencies with a package.json file.

GzipCompression

Unsupported on Amazon Linux 2 platform versions.

ProxyServer

On Amazon Linux 2 Node.js platform versions, this option moved to the aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy namespace. You can choose between nginx (the default) and apache.

Amazon Linux 2 Node.js platform versions don't support standalone applications that don't run behind a proxy server. On Amazon Linux AMI Node.js platform versions, this used to be possible through the none value of the ProxyServer option in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:nodejs namespace. If your environment runs a standalone application, update your code to listen to the port that the proxy server (nginx or Apache) forwards traffic to. 

var port = process.env.PORT || 8080;

app.listen(port, function() {
  console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:%s', port);
});

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the PHP platform.

Area Changes and information

PHP file processing

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, PHP files are processed using PHP-FPM (a CGI process manager). On Amazon Linux AMI platforms we used mod_php (an Apache module).

Proxy server

Amazon Linux 2 PHP platform versions support both the nginx and the Apache HTTPD proxy servers. The default is nginx.

Amazon Linux AMI PHP platform versions supported only Apache HTTPD. If you added custom Apache configuration files, you can set the ProxyServer option in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy namespace to apache.

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the Python platform.

Area Changes and information

WSGI server

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Gunicorn is the default WSGI server. By default, Gunicorn listens on port 8000. The port might be different than what your application used on the Amazon Linux AMI platform. If you're setting the WSGIPath option of the aws:elasticbeanstalk:container:python namespace, replace the value with Gunicorn's syntax. For details, see Python configuration namespaces.

Alternatively, you can use a Procfile to specify and configure the WSGI server. For details, see Configuring the WSGI server with a Procfile.

Application path

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, the path to the application's directory on Amazon EC2 instances of your environment is /var/app/current. It was /opt/python/current/app on Amazon Linux AMI platforms.

Proxy server

Amazon Linux 2 Python platform versions support both the nginx and the Apache HTTPD proxy servers. The default is nginx.

Amazon Linux AMI Python platform versions supported only Apache HTTPD. If you added custom Apache configuration files, you can set the ProxyServer option in the aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy namespace to apache.

The following table lists migration information for the Amazon Linux 2 platform versions in the Ruby platform.

Area Changes and information

Installed Ruby versions

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Elastic Beanstalk only installs the latest version of a single Ruby version, corresponding with the platform branch, on each platform version. For example, each platform version in the Ruby 2.6 platform branch only has Ruby 2.6.x installed. On Amazon Linux AMI platform versions, we installed the latest versions of multiple Ruby versions, for example, 2.4.x, 2.5.x, and 2.6.x.

If your application uses a Ruby version that doesn't correspond to the platform branch you're using, we recommend that you switch to a platform branch that has the correct Ruby version for your application.

Application server

On Amazon Linux 2 platforms, Elastic Beanstalk only installs the Puma application server on all Ruby platform versions. You can use a Procfile to start a different application server, and a Gemfile to install it.

On the Amazon Linux AMI platform, we supported two flavors of platform branches for each Ruby version—one with the Puma application server and the other with the Passenger application server. If your application uses Passenger, you can configure your Ruby environment to install and use Passenger.

For more information and examples, see Using the Elastic Beanstalk Ruby platform.