Issue with AWS Fargate Container: ResourceInitializationError on Secret Retrieval

Question

Hello all,

I'm currently facing a challenging issue with my AWS Fargate container, and I'm hoping to find some insights or solutions from those who might have encountered something similar.

Problem Description:
Our ECS Fargate cluster was functioning correctly, with all containers running healthily. However, suddenly, the containers stopped working, and now we're encountering a ResourceInitializationError. This error seems to be related to the container's inability to pull secrets or registry authentication details. Here's the specific error message:

ResourceInitializationError: unable to pull secrets or registry auth: execution resource retrieval failed: unable to retrieve secret from asm: service call has been retried 5 time(s): failed to fetch secret arn:aws:secretsmanager:us-east-1:123456789101112:secret:example/example-secret from secrets manager: RequestCanceled: request context canceled caused by: context deadline exceeded. Please check your task network configuration.

Interestingly, this isn't the first time we've faced this issue. It previously occurred after re-deploying the cluster. Running the deployment process again seemed to resolve the problem temporarily, but it's not a reliable solution, and the error has reappeared.

Seeking Suggestions:

* Has anyone experienced a similar issue with AWS Fargate and Secrets Manager integration? If so, how did you resolve it?
* Could this be related to the task's network configuration, as suggested by the error message? If so, what specific configurations should I review or adjust?
* Are there best practices for ensuring reliable secret retrieval in Fargate tasks that I might be missing?
* Any insights, advice, or resources you could share would be greatly appreciated. I'm particularly interested in understanding the root cause of this intermittent failure and any potential configuration changes that could prevent it from happening again.

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions!

Answer

Hey! This can be helpful

https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/ecs-data-security-container-task

Important: Sensitive data is injected into your container when the container is initially started. If the secret or Parameter Store parameter is updated or rotated, the container doesn't receive the updated value automatically. You must launch a new task. If your task is part of a service, update the service. Then, use the Force new deployment option to force the service to launch a fresh task.

Answer

## Error: `RequestCanceled: request context canceled caused by: context deadline exceeded`

This error message suggests an issue with the networking configuration or connectivity between your Fargate tasks and the AWS Secrets Manager service.

### Potential Solutions

#### 1. Review Task Networking Configuration

- Ensure that the task's networking configuration allows outbound connectivity to the AWS Secrets Manager service endpoint. This can be either an external endpoint or configured using [VPC Endpoint](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/secretsmanager/latest/userguide/vpc-endpoint-overview.html).
- Check for any network ACLs, security groups, or other network-level restrictions that might be blocking communication between your Fargate tasks and the Secrets Manager service. Ensure that port 443 is allowed.

#### 2. Review IAM Role and Permissions

- Verify that the IAM role used by your Fargate tasks has the necessary permissions to access the AWS Secrets Manager service and the specific secrets you're trying to retrieve.

### Additional Resources

- [Knowledge Center article](https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/ecs-unable-to-pull-secrets) for more troubleshooting options.
- The [AWSSupport-TroubleshootECSTaskFailedToStart](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager-automation-runbooks/latest/userguide/automation-aws-troubleshootecstaskfailedtostart.html) automation runbook is available to help identify the issue behind the failed task startup. To run the automation, you will need to provide the Task ID as a parameter.

Hope this helps you!

Issue with AWS Fargate Container: ResourceInitializationError on Secret Retrieval

Error: RequestCanceled: request context canceled caused by: context deadline exceeded

Potential Solutions

1. Review Task Networking Configuration

2. Review IAM Role and Permissions

Additional Resources

Relevant content

Error: `RequestCanceled: request context canceled caused by: context deadline exceeded`