AWS.Beanstalk.WebApplication

A demo web application in .NET Core for AWS Elastic Beanstalk.

It is leveraging AWS DynamoDB and X-Ray services, via configuration files.

1. Folder organization

Main components are highlighted below :

|
| -- /AWS.Beanstalk.WebApplication/                               -> the .NET application
        |
        | -- appsettings.json                                     -> The configuration file
        |
        | -- /Controllers/
                | -- ProductController.cs
        |
        | -- /scripts/
                | -- /deploy/
                        | -- aws-windows-deployment-manifest.json -> manisfest for deployment under Windows IIS
                | -- build.bat                                    -> script for build the .NET application
                | -- deploy.bat                                   -> script for deployment to elasticbeanstalk

When running for development locally, you should configure appsettings.json with correct region and create a dynamodb named "Product" table manually.

2. Prerequisites

2.1 Create an EC2 Profile

Your elasticbeanstalk environment will launch EC2 instance(s) with the default AWS role :

• "aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role". You need extend it with additionnal policies:

  • SSM Role (optional) to log into EC2 via AWS Session manager console for debug. So, there's no need to attach the EC2 any keypair and any security group with RDP ingress rule.
  • Custom inline policy "MyCustomPolicy" (mandatory) for DynamoDB, X-Ray, SNS operations defined as below:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "CustomPolicy",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "sns:Publish",
                "dynamodb:PutItem",
                "dynamodb:DescribeTable",
                "dynamodb:DeleteItem",
                "dynamodb:GetItem",
                "dynamodb:Scan",
                "dynamodb:UpdateItem",
                "xray:GetSamplingStatisticSummaries",
                "xray:PutTelemetryRecords",
                "xray:GetSamplingRules",
                "xray:GetSamplingTargets",
                "xray:PutTraceSegments"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

EC2 profile should look like:

2.2 Setup the eb-cli and create an eb configuration

• You must install the eb-cli in order to the script\build.bat to make the deployment to elasticbeanstalk.

You may require to install python first.

• Go to script\deploy directory, type command:

eb init

Follow instructions to generate the elasticbeanstalk application and its environment in elasticbeanstalk console.

Click to expand details

This will generate the configuration file AWS.Beanstalk.WebApplication\scripts\deploy\.elasticbeanstalk\ which will be used further by the script\deploy.bat.

To create the environment, you can use command:

# this command create an environment based on your parameters

eb create

BUT I prefer to create it via the elasticbeanstalk console with following options:

Configuration	Value to select	Comments
Environment type	Web server environment
Application name	Appdemo	name it as you like
Environment name	Appdemo-env	name it as you like
Platform	.NET (Windows/IIS)
Application code	default sample application
IAM Instance Profile	aws-elasticbeanstalk-ec2-role	refer Prerequisites section

• Once the environment created,

set the default environment, you have just created (I named it Appdemo-env) for further deployment.

eb use Appdemo-env

3. Getting started

• Go to directory AWS.Beanstalk.WebApplication\scripts, in order :

  • run the script build.bat to build the application.

  This will generate into the temporary output directory.

  • run the script deploy.bat to deploy the application.

  This will generate a bundle zipfile into the deploy directory.

  The bundle will automatically be uploaded to your elasticbeanstalk environment, by leveraging the eb deploy command against your elasticbeanstalk configuration.

• The bundle contains:

  • the application binaries

  • .ebextensions configuration files for:

    • custom environment variables (in elasticbeanstalk console: Configuration > Software > Environment properties)

    • aws resources such as Dynamodb "Product" table

    • X-Ray daemon setup

    • a manifest file "aws-windows-deployment-manifest.json" describing the deployment in IIS

    • elasticbeanstalk configuration

• Once the environment is ready, browse the website:

  • play with the product page.

  Product items will be stored and retrieved from generated Product dynamoDB table.

  • check the X-Ray console for insights.

  Service map in X-Ray:

  

  You can filter traces on annotations via the search bar, by example:

  # filter on create product operation
  annotation.operationType="CreateProduct"
  
  # filter on all type of operations with product
  annotation.operationType CONTAINS "Product"
  

🔎 Filtering

Click to expand details

4. Useful resources

• Set environment properties

• Config samples

5. Some useful commands when connected into EC2

  # View application custom logs
    cat C:\logs\xray-sdk.log
    cat C:\logs\webapp.log
    cat C:\logs\all.log

  # List all started services in windows
    net start

  # Stop and start any service: net stop/start servicename
    net stop "AWS X-Ray"
    net start "AWS X-Ray"

  # Restart IIS
    iisreset