Create a new ECS task set

Please note that this workshop has been archived and is not actively maintained. On September 30, 2026, AWS will discontinue support for AWS App Mesh. For more information, visit this blog post.

  • Register a new task definition using our epoch container, and pointing to the crystal-sd-epoch virtual node.
# Define variables #
TASK_DEF_ARN=$(aws ecs list-task-definitions | \
  jq -r ' .taskDefinitionArns[] | select( . | contains("crystal"))' | tail -1)
TASK_DEF_OLD=$(aws ecs describe-task-definition --task-definition $TASK_DEF_ARN);
TASK_DEF_NEW=$(echo $TASK_DEF_OLD \
  | jq ' .taskDefinition' \
  | jq ' .containerDefinitions[0].image |= sub("vanilla"; "epoch") ' \
  | jq ' .containerDefinitions[].environment |= map(
        if .name=="APPMESH_VIRTUAL_NODE_NAME" then 
              .value="mesh/appmesh-workshop/virtualNode/crystal-sd-epoch" 
        else . end) ' \
  | jq ' del(.status, .compatibilities, .taskDefinitionArn, .requiresAttributes, .revision, .registeredBy, .registeredAt) '
); \
TASK_DEF_FAMILY=$(echo $TASK_DEF_ARN | cut -d"/" -f2 | cut -d":" -f1);
echo $TASK_DEF_NEW > /tmp/$TASK_DEF_FAMILY.json && 
# Register ecs task definition #
aws ecs register-task-definition \
  --cli-input-json file:///tmp/$TASK_DEF_FAMILY.json
  • Create a new task set in ECS to hold our canary tasks.
# Define variables #
CLUSTER_NAME=$(jq < cfn-output.json -r '.EcsClusterName');
TASK_DEF_ARN=$(aws ecs list-task-definitions | \
  jq -r ' .taskDefinitionArns[] | select( . | contains("crystal"))' | tail -1)
SERVICE_ARN=$(aws ecs list-services --cluster $CLUSTER_NAME | \
  jq -r ' .serviceArns[] | select( . | contains("sd"))' | tail -1)
SUBNET_ONE=$(jq < cfn-output.json -r '.PrivateSubnetOne');
SUBNET_TWO=$(jq < cfn-output.json -r '.PrivateSubnetTwo');
SUBNET_THREE=$(jq < cfn-output.json -r '.PrivateSubnetThree');
SECURITY_GROUP=$(jq < cfn-output.json -r '.ContainerSecurityGroup');
CMAP_SVC_ARN=$(aws servicediscovery list-services | \
  jq -r '.Services[] | select(.Name == "crystal") | .Arn');
# Create ecs task set #
aws ecs create-task-set \
  --service $SERVICE_ARN \
  --cluster $CLUSTER_NAME \
  --external-id epoch-task-set \
  --task-definition "$(echo $TASK_DEF_ARN)" \
  --service-registries "registryArn=$CMAP_SVC_ARN" \
  --launch-type FARGATE \
  --scale value=50,unit=PERCENT \
  --network-configuration \
      "awsvpcConfiguration={subnets=[$SUBNET_ONE,$SUBNET_TWO,$SUBNET_THREE],
        securityGroups=[$SECURITY_GROUP],
        assignPublicIp=DISABLED}"
  • Wait for the service tasks to be in a running state and marked healthy for service discovery.
 # Define variables #
CLUSTER_NAME=$(jq < cfn-output.json -r '.EcsClusterName');
TASK_DEF_ARN=$(aws ecs list-task-definitions | \
  jq -r ' .taskDefinitionArns[] | select( . | contains("crystal"))' | tail -1);
CMAP_SVC_ID=$(aws servicediscovery list-services | \
  jq -r '.Services[] | select(.Name == "crystal") | .Id');
# Get task state #
_list_tasks() {
  aws ecs list-tasks \
    --cluster $CLUSTER_NAME \
    --service crystal-service-sd | \
  jq -r ' .taskArns | @text' | \
    while read taskArns; do 
     aws ecs describe-tasks --cluster $CLUSTER_NAME --tasks $taskArns;
    done | \
  jq -r --arg TASK_DEF_ARN $TASK_DEF_ARN \
    ' [.tasks[] | select( (.taskDefinitionArn == $TASK_DEF_ARN) 
                    and (.lastStatus == "RUNNING" ))] | length'
}
# Get instances health status #
_list_instances() {
  aws servicediscovery get-instances-health-status \
    --service-id $CMAP_SVC_ID | \
  jq ' [.Status | to_entries[] | select( .value == "HEALTHY")] | length'
}
until [ $(_list_tasks) == "3" ]; do
  echo "Tasks are starting ..."
  sleep 10s
  if [ $(_list_tasks) == "3" ]; then
    echo "Tasks started"
    break
  fi
done
sleep 10s
until [ $(_list_instances) == "6" ]; do
  echo "Instances are registering ..."
  sleep 10s
  if [ $(_list_instances) == "6" ]; then
    echo "Instances registered"
    break
  fi
done

Execute the following command to discover the instances (ECS tasks) registered under the service crystal.appmeshworkshop.pvt.local with attribute ECS_TASK_SET_EXTERNAL_ID equal to epoch-task-set

aws servicediscovery discover-instances --namespace-name appmeshworkshop.pvt.local \
  --service-name crystal --query-parameters ECS_TASK_SET_EXTERNAL_ID=epoch-task-set