How to Enter into AWS Fargate Container 💡

This blog is for those who are tired of trying to exec into AWS Fargate containers. Even after referring to ChatGPT and various online blogs, you still couldn't find a solution to get inside a Fargate container. Here is the short and on-point solution you've been looking for.

Pre-requisites

1. AWS CLI Installed and Configured:

   • Install AWS CLI v2 or later if you haven’t already.

   • Ensure your CLI is configured with the correct region and credentials (aws configure).

2. IAM Permissions:

   • Add SSM permissions to the Task IAM role:

   • You should add the following policy to your existing ECS task IAM role. This grants permission for the ECS task to connect with the SSM Session Manager service.

     

   • Click ecsTaskExecutionRole > Add Permission > Create inline policy > Switch to JSON > Paste the below policy then save. Do this for both the policies.

       {
          "Version": "2012-10-17",
          "Statement": [
              {
              "Effect": "Allow",
              "Action": [
                   "ssmmessages:CreateControlChannel",
                   "ssmmessages:CreateDataChannel",
                   "ssmmessages:OpenControlChannel",
                   "ssmmessages:OpenDataChannel"
              ],
             "Resource": "*"
             }
          ]
       }
     

   • Add ECS Execute Command permission to your Task IAM role:

     Make sure your IAM role contains a policy that allows the action ecs:ExecuteCommand. Otherwise, you’re not able to run aws ecs execute-command in the AWS CLI in order to access the running container.

   • ✍️ Alter “Resource” value with ECS cluster arn in the below policy⬇️.

       {
         "Version": "2012-10-17",
         "Statement": [
           {
             "Effect": "Allow",
             "Action": "ecs:ExecuteCommand",
             "Resource": "arn:aws:ecs:example-region:example-arn:cluster/example-cluster/*"
           }
         ]
       }
     

3. AWS Session Manager Plugin Installed:

   • Install the Session Manager Plugin for AWS CLI.

---

Steps to Execute into a Container

1. Identify Your Cluster and Task

• Find the ECS cluster name and the task running your container:

    aws ecs list-clusters
  

    aws ecs list-tasks --cluster <your-cluster-name>
  

2. Describe the Task

• Get details about the task, including the container name:

    aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster <your-cluster-name> --tasks <task-id>
  

3. Enable Execute Command on the Task

• Now you need to enable the ECS Exec feature on existing ECS service and deploy the new task by using the below command.

    aws ecs update-service \
        --cluster <cluster-name> \
        --task-definition <task-definition-name> \
        --service <service-name> \
        --enable-execute-command \
        --force-new-deployment
  

• After executing the above command, wait for the new task to deploy successfully.

4. Execute the Command

• To open an interactive shell inside the container, replace /bin/bash with /bin/sh if bash is not available in your container.

    aws ecs execute-command --cluster <cluster-name> \
        --task <task-id> \
        --container <container-name> \
        --interactive \
        --command "/bin/sh"
  

• This is the output you’ll see when you’re executing aws ecs execute-command on an actual running container.

    aws ecs execute-command --cluster <cluster-name> \
        --task <task-id> \
        --container <container-name> \
        --interactive \
        --command "/bin/sh"
  
    The Session Manager plugin was installed successfully. Use the AWS CLI to start a session.
  
    Starting session with SessionId: ecs-execute-command-5tap5jrfpg8g5p2o5z8opsfqxe
    #
  

By following these steps, you can 🤩 successfully enable and use the ECS Exec feature to open an interactive shell inside a running container.

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If you have any suggestions, ideas, or thoughts to add, feel free to drop them in the comments. 👇📩

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