I want to integrate AWS ECS with API Gateway (REST API) without using NLB, lambda, or any other service.

Hi,

Check out this blog: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/architecture/field-notes-serverless-container-based-apis-with-amazon-ecs-and-amazon-api-gateway/

It depicts in full detail what you want to achieve.

Another very detailled example here : https://medium.com/cloud-base/expose-ecs-service-via-api-gateway-part-1-75899439885f

Best,

Didier

If your ECS cluster is private, i.e., you can't access it from the internet, then you need to use VPC Link from API Gateway to get into the VPC. If you are using REST API, it only supports NLB. If you are using an HTTP API, you can use an NLB, ALB or CloudMap (which may be what you want).

If your cluster is exposed to the internet, you can connect API Gateway directly to it, but, API Gateway is not a load balancer, so you will only be able to connect it to a single instance. Also, if your service is exposed to the internet, users can bypass it and access the service directly, so it is not recommended.