Elastic scale and auto-deploy

Question

Hello folks, I have been a AWS EC2 user for some time and looking for some guidance on a large project that I am embarking on. I am looking to deploy a cluster of few 100s of EC2 instances within a VPC, where each instance will be created off a private image with all the software that I need is already available. The part that I am seeking help on is - how to start application automatically as soon as the instance is created. Are there any tools that can help with such deployment? Any pointers, documentation or a link to it would be immensely helpful.

I am looking to avoid EKS and any other Kubernetes based options at this stage.

Thanks for your time on my question above.

I am looking to avoid EKS and any other Kubernetes based options at this stage.

Thanks for your time on my question above.

Accepted Answer

There are many options available here but ultimately depends on how you plan to deploy the instances, eg will you use Infrastructure as code using cloudformation/terraform or some other method. All methods  support using a [userdata](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/user-data.html) script to run commands for your bootstrap.

If using cloudformation I recommend using [cfn-init](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-resource-init.html) to bootstrap your instances as this offers a well defined structure to the bootstrap

Another important consideration is signalling that your instances are ready within your bootstrap. You should use [cfn-signal](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/cfn-signal.html) if using cloudformation or [lifecycle hooks](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/userguide/lifecycle-hooks.html) within autoscale groups so you can be sure your bootstrap has completed successfully and the instance is ready for service

Elastic scale and auto-deploy

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