The document discusses running containerized Node.js services on AWS Elastic Beanstalk (EB). It provides an overview of Docker containers, AWS, and AWS EB. It describes how to run containerized Node.js microservices on AWS EB, including using Dockerfiles, environment variables, and the AWS EB CLI. It discusses some trade-offs around setup time and costs for using this approach.

1. Running
Containerized Node.js Services
on AWS EB
zupzup.org
...or “why are there so many buzzwords in my title?”

2. Running Serverless
Containerized Node.js MicroServices
on AWS EB and AWS Lambda, Cross-compiled
from Rust
zupzup.org
It could have been worse...

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Why so many Buzzwords?
● Back to simple JavaScript Testing
● An inside look into DOM-diffing algorithms
● Learning JavaScript beyond the Fancy Frameworks
● Running Containerized NodeJS Services on AWS EB
● Ponies

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Why so many Buzzwords?
● Back to simple JavaScript Testing
● An inside look into DOM-diffing algorithms
● Learning JavaScript beyond the Fancy Frameworks
● Running Containerized NodeJS Services on AWS EB
● Ponies

5. zupzup.org
Why so many Buzzwords?
● Back to simple JavaScript Testing
● An inside look into DOM-diffing algorithms
● Learning JavaScript beyond the Fancy Frameworks
● Running Containerized NodeJS Services on AWS EB
● Ponies

6. zupzup.org
Why so many Buzzwords?
● Back to simple JavaScript Testing
● An inside look into DOM-diffing algorithms
● Learning JavaScript beyond the Fancy Frameworks
● Running Containerized NodeJS Services on AWS EB
● Ponies

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● Back to simple JavaScript Testing
● An inside look into DOM-diffing algorithms
● Learning JavaScript beyond the Fancy Frameworks
● Running Containerized NodeJS Services on AWS EB
● Ponies
Why so many Buzzwords?

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This Talk
● ~ 30 minutes
● NOT a demo-talk
● NOT a tutorial
● Concepts, Trade-offs & Impulse
● Q&A afterwards (Open Space)

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Overview
● ~3 min intro to Docker (Containers)
● ~3 min intro to AWS & AWS EB
● Steps needed to “Run Containe…on AWS EB”
● Trade-offs
● Node.js for “serious applications”
● Things (Libs etc.) I like for node backend development
○ Finally something useful!
● Conclusion

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Containers (Docker)
● Containerization
○ “Putting into an isolated environment, which can run anywhere”
● Initially based on LXC (linux containers - 2008)
○ Awkward to use, not widely spread back then
● Idea of a “portable environment”
○ For the whole development cycle (dev - testing - staging - prod)
○ You can do this with VMs (vagrant etc.)

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Docker
● No new ideas? Around since 2008? Why the hype?
○ Docker made it mainstream with usability (tooling) and marketing
● A Linux utility that can create, run and ship containers
○ By now a lot more - huge ecosystem
● Lightweight, self-contained Linux process
○ Runs in isolation using cgroups, namespaces etc.
○ Shares kernel of host system
○ Only 1 process per container

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Docker (Useful Properties)
● Lightweight, Low Overhead
● Fast Startup
● Stateless
● Declarative & Layered
● Ecosystem (tooling, integrations) for development cycle

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Docker
● ./my-app/Dockerfile
○ Description how to build an image (i.e.: template for a container)
● docker build -t mzupzup/my-app .
● docker run mzupzup/my-app
● docker push mzupzup/my-app
○ https://hub.docker.com/
○ Or any other registry
● docker pull mzupzup/my-app
● ...

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AWS
● Amazon Web Services
● Cloud Computing Provider
● On-Demand Model
○ Pay per use
● 16 Geographical Regions
○ Endless Scaling
● Tons of services (~70)

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AWS
Don’t try to
read this, it’s
small on
purpose!

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AWS
● Widely used
● Good Documentation (mostly)
● Lots of Tooling
● 2017 estimate: ~13 billion in revenue

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk
● Orchestration Service
● Application consists of multiple “services”
○ Computation & Storage
○ DB & Cache
○ Loadbalancing
○ Deployment
○ ...
● That’s what EB is here to help you with
● No extra costs, just underlying infrastructure

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk (start)

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk (~10 m later)

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AWS Elastic Beanstalk (Config)
● Logs
● Monitoring
● Auto-Scaling
● Adding a Database
● Deployment Strategies
● …
● Basically, everything you need to ship & scale an
Application

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Running Containerized node.js Services on AWS EB

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Monolith Approach (1 Application, 1 Deployment)
Loadbalancer
API Service (nodeJS)
DB
SPA (Re-emb-gular.js)
CacheSync Service (nodeJS)

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MicroServices approach (multiple Applications)
Loadbalancer
Sync Service (nodeJS) API Service
(nodeJS) DB
Cache
SPA
(Re-emb-gular.js)
Loadbalancer
DB
Loadbalancer
Edge Service (nginx)

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Example nodeJS Dockerfile

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Example SPA Dockerfile

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Adding a DB

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Env Variables for Secrets
REALLY_SECRET_PW 1234
const conn = new DB({
host: process.ENV.DB_HOST,
pw: process.ENV.REALLY_SECRET_PW,
});

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AWS EB CLI (for use in CI for example)
eb init / eb create
eb deploy
-> Dockerrun.aws.json
eb status / eb health / eb events / eb logs / eb config
eb terminate

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Example Dockerrun.aws.json

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Running Containerized nodeJS Services on AWS EB

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Trade-offs, Setup Time
● Very Quick to get something Running
○ e.g.: dev/testing/staging environments
● Don’t need much expertise initially
○ In Production, this can change very quickly
● Likely to be less work/cost than setting up your own
cluster (root server etc.)
● Advanced configuration gets complex very quickly

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Trade-offs, Cost (Pay Per Use vs. Monthly)
● Very low use: Yes
○ Testing / staging / CI
○ low traffic systems in general
■ my blog :(
● Avg. & fairly constant traffic: No
○ Monthly billing (e.g.: root-servers) often much cheaper
● Veeery High Use: Yes
○ Probably can’t run your own Datacenter
○ Automatic Scaling kicks in
○ Especially on a global scale (multiple regions)

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Good Practices
● Containers (not necessarily Docker)
○ “Portable environment”
● Clean CI / CD pipeline
● Well designed architecture
○ Not necessarily Microservices
○ Clear Service Boundaries

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node.js for “serious applications”
● “Serious Application”
○ ~ Relevant, productive, (distributed/moderately complex) system which
generates value
● Lots of successful examples
○ Linkedin
○ Walmart
○ Uber
○ Paypal
○ … you’ll find those for ANY language / technology…

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● Event-driven, Non-blocking I/O
○ Which is what most web-apps do - they don’t “think” much
● Fast Setup & Iteration Speed
○ Prototyping & Getting sh*t “done”!
● Huge Ecosystem & Community
○ Finding Developers
○ Has a dark side!
● Low Footprint
○ Nice for distributed systems
○ “Build for Obsolescence”
What node seems to be good at

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What node seems to be less good at
● CPU-intensive tasks
● Hype / Maturity
● Maintenance and Robustness
○ Dynamic vs. Static
○ Error handling
○ Testing
● Async model not intuitive for many
○ Callback Hell
○ Promise Hell
○ Reactive Hell

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Good Practices
● Handle all errors
○ Even (especially!) in {asyncPrimitive}-hell
● Write lots(!) of tests
○ Even if asynchronous integration tests are no fun
● “Soft” type checking where it counts
○ Service Boundaries
● Document your code & processes

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Libs I like (right now?) for node.js Backend dev
● hapi.js (web framework)
○ joi (request/response validation)
○ boom (http friendly errors)
○ good (monitoring)
● knex (multi-dialect query builder)
● winston (logging)
● node-config (app configuration)
● mocha/chai (testing)
● the classics
○ moment / async / lodash / bluebird / request

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Things I try to avoid
● Dependencies (i.e. complexity)
● Unnecessary build-steps (transpiling etc.)
● Mocks
○ If you mock a promise, chaining a mocked promise … what are you
really testing?
○ Isolate the actual logic and test it in isolation
● Really anything that makes testing, monitoring & error
handling harder
○ Hard enough to get to a “robust” application as it is

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● Containerization has some cool properties
● Node.js is great for iteration speed and starting out
● AWS EB gets you started quickly & scales well later on
● Depending on your trade-offs & experience, it actually
might be a good idea to …
… “Run containerized node.js services on AWS EB” …
… but it also might not in many cases…
Conclusion

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Focus more on
Good Practices
and less on Fancy Technology
Conclusion

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Resources
● http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/create_deploy_docker_ecs.html
● http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/Welcome.html
● https://www.docker.com/
● https://nodejs.org/en/
● https://hapijs.com/
● http://momentjs.com/
● http://bluebirdjs.com/docs/getting-started.html
● http://knexjs.org/
● https://github.com/winstonjs/winston
● https://github.com/request/request
● https://mochajs.org/
● http://chaijs.com/
● https://lodash.com/
● https://github.com/caolan/async
● https://github.com/lorenwest/node-config
● http://www.slideshare.net/AmazonWebServices/aws-elastic-beanstalk-running-microservices-and-docker

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Thank you!
Mario Zupan
Freelance & Open Source Software Developer
(starting March 1st)
You can hire me!
https://zupzup.org/
mario@zupzup.org
https://github.com/zupzup/
https://twitter.com/mzupzup
meee!!