Mounting S3 for App Runner

Question

I would like to mount my S3 bucket in a container, dockerize my app, and run it on App Runner. What is the best way to do this? I currently encounter two issues.
1. Although when I go inside the container and run scripts, the files can be read from the mounted bucket perfectly, but once I try to use the app in the browser, files could not be found.
2. I had to do docker run in privileged mode to enable s3f3, which I'm afraid is probably not supported by App Runner.
Thank you!

Answer

Mounting an S3 bucket directly inside a container, especially for an app on a managed service like AWS App Runner, can be complex and might not be the best approach. Here are some alternative solutions:

1. File Not Found in Browser:
   - This issue could be related to the path mappings or permissions. Ensure that the app's working directory in the container matches where you expect the S3 files to be.
   - Also, ensure that your application has the appropriate permissions to read from the S3 bucket.

2.  Privileged Mode in Docker:
You're correct, running containers in privileged mode on managed services like App Runner is generally not supported due to security concerns.

More Alternative Approaches:

Instead of trying to mount the S3 bucket directly, consider these steps:

1. Use AWS SDK:
Modify your application to directly interact with the S3 bucket using the AWS SDK. This allows your app to read/write from/to S3 without needing to mount it as a filesystem.

2. IAM Permissions:
   - Ensure that the App Runner service role has the necessary IAM permissions to access your S3 bucket.

3. Environment Variables:
   - Store any necessary configurations, like the S3 bucket name, as environment variables in App Runner. You can then access these in your application code.

4. Dockerfile & App Runner:
   - Create a Dockerfile for your app, ensuring all dependencies are installed.
   - Build and push the Docker image to Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR).
   - Deploy the image to App Runner. Make sure to provide necessary environment variables and permissions.

5. Caching (Optional):
   - If there are frequent read operations or specific files you often need, consider caching them locally in the container for faster access, rather than always fetching from S3.

This approach eliminates the need for mounting S3 as a filesystem, offers better scalability, and is more in line with cloud-native best practices.

3rd party Links (Not Owned by AWS):
https://devops.stackexchange.com/questions/8633/is-it-possible-to-mount-an-s3-bucket-as-a-point-in-a-docker-container

https://medium.com/@cbates255/docker-container-with-bind-mount-to-s3-1d000486d44d

Mounting S3 for App Runner

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