Setting configuration options during environment creation - AWS Elastic Beanstalk
In the Elastic Beanstalk consoleUsing the EB CLIUsing the AWS CLI

Setting configuration options during environment creation

When you create an AWS Elastic Beanstalk environment by using the Elastic Beanstalk console, EB CLI, AWS CLI, an SDK, or the Elastic Beanstalk API, you can provide values for configuration options to customize your environment and the AWS resources that are launched within it.

For anything other than a one-off configuration change, you can store configuration files locally, in your source bundle, or in Amazon S3.

This topic includes procedures for all of the methods to set configuration options during environment creation.

In the Elastic Beanstalk console

When you create an Elastic Beanstalk environment in the Elastic Beanstalk console, you can provide configuration options using configuration files, saved configurations, and forms in the Create New Environment wizard.

Using configuration files (.ebextensions)

Include .config files in your application source bundle in a folder named .ebextensions.

For details about configuration files, see .Ebextensions.

~/workspace/my-app-v1.zip
|-- .ebextensions
|   |-- environmentvariables.config
|   `-- healthcheckurl.config
|-- index.php
`-- styles.css

Upload the source bundle to Elastic Beanstalk normally, during environment creation.

The Elastic Beanstalk console applies recommended values for some configuration options and has form fields for others. Options configured by the Elastic Beanstalk console are applied directly to the environment and override settings in configuration files.

Using a saved configuration

When you create a new environment using the Elastic Beanstalk console, one of the first steps is to choose a configuration. The configuration can be a predefined configuration, typically the latest version of a platform such as PHP or Tomcat, or it can be a saved configuration.

To apply a saved configuration during environment creation (Elastic Beanstalk console)

  1. Open the Elastic Beanstalk console, and in the Regions list, select your AWS Region.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Applications, and then choose your application's name from the list.

    Note

    If you have many applications, use the search bar to filter the application list.

  3. In the navigation pane, find your application's name and choose Saved configurations.

  4. Select the saved configuration you want to apply, and then choose Launch environment.

  5. Proceed through the wizard to create your environment.

Saved configurations are application-specific. See Saved configurations for details on creating saved configurations.

Using the new environment wizard

Most of the standard configuration options are presented on the Configure more options page of the Create New Environment wizard. If you create an Amazon RDS database or configure a VPC for your environment, additional configuration options are available for those resources.

To set configuration options during environment creation (Elastic Beanstalk console)

  1. Open the Elastic Beanstalk console, and in the Regions list, select your AWS Region.

  2. In the navigation pane, choose Applications.

  3. Choose or create an application.

  4. Choose Actions, and then choose Create environment.

  5. Proceed through the wizard, and choose Configure more options.

  6. Choose any of the configuration presets, and then choose Edit in one or more of the configuration categories to change a group of related configuration options.

  7. When you are done making option selections, choose Create environment.

Any options that you set in the new environment wizard are set directly on the environment and override any option settings in saved configurations or configuration files (.ebextensions) that you apply. You can remove settings after the environment is created using the EB CLI or AWS CLI to allow the settings in saved configurations or configuration files to surface.

For details about the new environment wizard, see The create new environment wizard.

Using the EB CLI

Using configuration files (.ebextensions)

Include .config files in your project folder under .ebextensions to deploy them with your application code.

For details about configuration files, see .Ebextensions.

~/workspace/my-app/
|-- .ebextensions
|   |-- environmentvariables.config
|   `-- healthcheckurl.config
|-- .elasticbeanstalk
|   `-- config.yml
|-- index.php
`-- styles.css

Create your environment and deploy your source code to it with eb create.

~/workspace/my-app$ eb create my-env

Using saved configurations

To apply a saved configuration when you create an environment with eb create, use the --cfg option.

~/workspace/my-app$ eb create --cfg savedconfig

You can store the saved configuration in your project folder or in your Elastic Beanstalk storage location on Amazon S3. In the previous example, the EB CLI first looks for a saved configuration file named savedconfig.cfg.yml in the folder .elasticbeanstalk/saved_configs/. Do not include the file name extensions (.cfg.yml) when applying a saved configuration with --cfg.

~/workspace/my-app/
|-- .ebextensions
|   `-- healthcheckurl.config
|-- .elasticbeanstalk
|   |-- saved_configs
|   |   `-- savedconfig.cfg.yml
|   `-- config.yml
|-- index.php
`-- styles.css

If the EB CLI does not find the configuration locally, it looks in the Elastic Beanstalk storage location in Amazon S3. For details on creating, editing, and uploading saved configurations, see Saved configurations.

Using command line options

The EB CLI eb create command has several options that you can use to set configuration options during environment creation. You can use these options to add an RDS database to your environment, configure a VPC, or override recommended values.

For example, the EB CLI uses the t2.micro instance type by default. To choose a different instance type, use the --instance_type option.

$ eb create my-env --instance_type t2.medium

To create an Amazon RDS database instance and attach it to your environment, use the --database options.

$ eb create --database.engine postgres --database.username dbuser

If you leave out the environment name, database password, or any other parameters that are required to create your environment, the EB CLI prompts you to enter them.

See eb create for a full list of available options and usage examples.

Using the AWS CLI

When you use the create-environment command to create an Elastic Beanstalk environment with the AWS CLI, the AWS CLI does not apply any recommended values. All configuration options are defined in configuration files in the source bundle that you specify.

Using configuration files (.ebextensions)

To apply configuration files to an environment that you create with the AWS CLI, include them in the application source bundle that you upload to Amazon S3.

For details about configuration files, see .Ebextensions.

~/workspace/my-app-v1.zip
|-- .ebextensions
|   |-- environmentvariables.config
|   `-- healthcheckurl.config
|-- index.php
`-- styles.css
To upload an application source bundle and create an environment with the AWS CLI

  1. If you don't already have an Elastic Beanstalk bucket in Amazon S3, create one with create-storage-location.

    $ aws elasticbeanstalk create-storage-location
{
    "S3Bucket": "elasticbeanstalk-us-west-2-123456789012"
}

  2. Upload your application source bundle to Amazon S3.

    $ aws s3 cp sourcebundle.zip s3://elasticbeanstalk-us-west-2-123456789012/my-app/sourcebundle.zip

  3. Create the application version.

    $ aws elasticbeanstalk create-application-version --application-name my-app --version-label v1 --description MyAppv1 --source-bundle S3Bucket="elasticbeanstalk-us-west-2-123456789012",S3Key="my-app/sourcebundle.zip" --auto-create-application

  4. Create the environment.

    $ aws elasticbeanstalk create-environment --application-name my-app --environment-name my-env --version-label v1 --solution-stack-name "64bit Amazon Linux 2015.03 v2.0.0 running Tomcat 8 Java 8"

Using a saved configuration

To apply a saved configuration to an environment during creation, use the --template-name parameter.

$ aws elasticbeanstalk create-environment --application-name my-app --environment-name my-env --template-name savedconfig --version-label v1

When you specify a saved configuration, do not also specify a solution stack name. Saved configurations already specify a solution stack and Elastic Beanstalk will return an error if you try to use both options.

Using command line options

Use the --option-settings parameter to specify configuration options in JSON format.

$ aws elasticbeanstalk create-environment --application-name my-app --environment-name my-env --version-label v1 --template-name savedconfig --option-settings '[
  {
    "Namespace": "aws:elasticbeanstalk:application",
    "OptionName": "Application Healthcheck URL",
    "Value": "/health"
  }
]

To load the JSON from a file, use the file:// prefix.

$ aws elasticbeanstalk create-environment --application-name my-app --environment-name my-env --version-label v1 --template-name savedconfig --option-settings file://healthcheckurl.json

Elastic Beanstalk applies option settings that you specify with the --option-settings option directly to your environment. If the same options are specified in a saved configuration or configuration file, --option-settings overrides those values.