First draft of ecs run-task post

src/content/blog/ECS-Run-Task.md

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+---
+author: Danielle Heberling
+pubDatetime: 2024-11-06T22:12:03.284Z
+title: Run Ephemeral Jobs for Longer than the Lambda Timeout
+description: Run Ephemeral Jobs for Longer than the Lambda Timeout
+slug: ecs-run-task
+---
+
+![horse race](/assets/horse-race.jpg)
+
+> Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@cadop?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Mathew Schwartz</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/equestrian-riding-horse-at-daytime-5qRWQEdK7Sg?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>
+
+## The Problem
+
+You have an ad-hoc job that runs in the background that doesn't have a client waiting for a synchronous response.
+
+You could run this in AWS Lambda to save money. The huge benefit with an ephemeral job run is that AWS only charges for when the Lambda is running.
+
+Problem is that this specific job runs longer than the Lambda timeout (at the time of writing this it is 15 minutes). Lambda and serverless solutions are great; however, in this specific case it is not the right tool for the job. We could write extra logic to make it work, but that adds unecessary complexity.
+
+You still want to run this ephemerally to save money and resources...so what can you do?
+
+## A Solution
+
+One option is to use [ECS run-task](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/APIReference/API_RunTask.html) with a [Fargate](https://aws.amazon.com/fargate/) launch type.
+
+AWS Resources Needed:
+
+- [An ECS Cluster](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/clusters.html) - a logical grouping of tasks or services (in my example we're using the `default` cluster that comes with new AWS accounts)
+- [A Task Definition](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/task_definitions.html) - a blueprint for your application which contains one or more containers and parameters to run
+- [A Container](https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/cloud-containers/) - a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application. This is commonly used with [Docker](https://www.docker.com/).
+
+Once those resources are deployed, the container can be trigger to run via `ECS run-task`. Once the code is done running and the container exits, then the ECS Task will spin down for in order to avoid being charged for a running container that isn't actively being used.
+
+There's a few ways to run an ECS task on demand:
+
+- AWS CLI
+- AWS SDK (could invoke from within Lambda etc)
+- In a Step Function state
+- EventBridge Scheduler
+- AWS Console
+
+Here's an example of what this command looks like via the AWS CLI:
+
+```bash
+aws ecs run-task \
+  --cluster default \
+  --task-definition my-task \
+  --launch-type FARGATE \
+  --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet1,subnet2],securityGroups=[securityGroup1],assignPublicIp=ENABLED}"
+```
+
+## Show Me the Code
+
+There's a [full code example](https://github.com/deeheber/ecs-run-task-demo) of how to deploy these cloud resources and invoke the deployed task via ecs run-task with the AWS CLI.
+
+Take a look at [the `README` file](https://github.com/deeheber/ecs-run-task-demo/blob/main/README.md) for directions.
+
+## Bonus
+
+There are a few more benefits to ECS run-task that I won't mention, but one notable one is the ability to override specific things in the task definition.
+
+For example, if you want to override the `CMD` defined in the `Dockerfile` used to build the Container Image for the task, you could do this by adding the `--overrides` flag.
+
+```bash
+aws ecs run-task \
+  --cluster default \
+  --task-definition my-task \
+  --launch-type FARGATE \
+  --network-configuration "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[subnet1,subnet2],securityGroups=[securityGroup1],assignPublicIp=ENABLED}" \
+  --overrides '{"containerOverrides":[{"name":"my-container","command":["npm", "run", "migrate"]}]}'
+```
+
+I've seen this used for one off commands that need to run every now and then such as database migrations, though I'm certain there are other good use cases. Here's [the full list](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/APIReference/API_TaskOverride.html) of what can be overridden.
+
+<br />
+<br />