Deployment Overview

Deployment Flow

Deploying the ECS Express Mode demo is a two-command workflow: terraform init to initialize the working directory and download providers, then terraform apply to provision the entire stack. The Express Gateway Service Express Gateway Service
The aws_ecs_express_gateway_service Terraform resource that provisions an ECS service with managed ALB, auto scaling, and simplified configuration for HTTP/HTTPS web applications and APIs. resource handles most of the infrastructure wiring automatically.

Note

All resources are created in a single apply. There is no multi-step deployment or manual ALB configuration required — Express Mode provisions the load balancer, target group, listener, and auto scaling as part of the service creation.

What Gets Provisioned

When terraform apply completes, Express Mode creates and configures the following resources on your behalf:

Resource	Provisioned By	Purpose
Shared ALB Shared ALB The Application Load Balancer shared by up to 25 Express services in the same VPC using Host header routing rules.	Express Mode	Receives HTTPS traffic and routes to tasks via Host header rules
Target Group	Express Mode	Health checks and load distribution across running tasks
Auto Scaling	Express Mode	Scales tasks between min and max count based on the configured metric
Application URL Application URL The unique Express-provisioned HTTPS URL on *.ecs.<region>.on.aws used for all normal application traffic.	Express Mode	Unique HTTPS endpoint on *.ecs.<region>.on.aws for application access
Rollback Alarm RollbackAlarm A CloudWatch metric alarm created by Express Mode that triggers automatic deployment rollback when new tasks fail ALB health checks.	Express Mode	CloudWatch alarm that triggers automatic rollback on failed deployments
VPC VPC Virtual Private Cloud — an isolated virtual network within AWS where resources are deployed. and Subnets	Your Terraform code	Network foundation with public subnets, internet gateway, and route table
IAM Roles	Your Terraform code	Task execution, infrastructure, and task roles with least-privilege policies
ECS Cluster	Your Terraform code	Logical grouping for the Express service

Verifying the Deployment

After terraform apply succeeds, verify the deployment is healthy by checking three things:

1. Terraform outputs — retrieve the Application URL Application URL
   The unique Express-provisioned HTTPS URL on *.ecs.<region>.on.aws used for all normal application traffic. and ALB DNS name from terraform output
2. Service status — confirm desired count equals running count in the ECS console or via aws ecs describe-services
3. Health endpoint — curl the health check path and confirm an HTTP 200 response

Tip

Use the Application URL (*.ecs.<region>.on.aws) for all application access rather than the raw ALB DNS name. The Application URL is the Express-provisioned endpoint with Host header routing configured.

Next Steps

The following pages cover each phase in detail:

• Terraform Apply — step-by-step init and apply instructions
• Verifying the Service — confirming tasks, health checks, and endpoints
• Accessing the Web UI — Swagger UI and Bedrock image analysis flow