AWS ECS vs EKS in 2024: A Comprehensive Comparison
AWS

AWS ECS vs EKS in 2024: A Comprehensive Comparison

An in-depth comparison of Amazon ECS and EKS, helping you choose the right container orchestration service for your needs in 2024

March 15, 2024
DevHub Team
6 min read

AWS ECS vs EKS in 2024: A Comprehensive Comparison

Choosing between Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) is a crucial decision for containerized applications. This guide compares both services to help you make an informed choice in 2024.

Service Overview

graph TB subgraph ECS["Amazon ECS"] direction TB EC["ECS Cluster"] TD["Task Definition"] SV["Service"] CT["Container"] end subgraph EKS["Amazon EKS"] direction TB KC["Kubernetes Cluster"] PD["Pod"] DP["Deployment"] CN["Container"] end classDef aws fill:#FF9900,stroke:#232F3E,color:#232F3E class ECS,EKS aws

Feature Comparison

FeatureECSEKS
OrchestrationAWS-specificKubernetes
Learning CurveLowerHigher
ControlAWS-managedFull K8s control
PricingLowerHigher
PortabilityAWS-specificCloud-agnostic
CommunityAWS-focusedLarge K8s community
IntegrationNative AWSRequires setup
ScalingSimpleAdvanced

Architecture Patterns

ECS Architecture

# ECS Task Definition Example { "family": "web-app", "containerDefinitions": [ { "name": "web", "image": "nginx:latest", "memory": 256, "cpu": 256, "portMappings": [ { "containerPort": 80, "hostPort": 80, "protocol": "tcp" } ] } ], "requiresCompatibilities": ["FARGATE"], "networkMode": "awsvpc", "memory": "512", "cpu": "256" }

EKS Architecture

# Kubernetes Deployment Example apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment metadata: name: web-app spec: replicas: 3 selector: matchLabels: app: web template: metadata: labels: app: web spec: containers: - name: web image: nginx:latest resources: requests: memory: "256Mi" cpu: "250m" limits: memory: "512Mi" cpu: "500m" ports: - containerPort: 80

Deployment Comparison

ECS Deployment

// AWS CDK Example for ECS import * as ecs from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ecs'; import * as ec2 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ec2'; const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', { vpc: new ec2.Vpc(this, 'Vpc') }); const taskDefinition = new ecs.FargateTaskDefinition(this, 'TaskDef'); taskDefinition.addContainer('web', { image: ecs.ContainerImage.fromRegistry('nginx:latest'), memoryLimitMiB: 512, cpu: 256, portMappings: [{ containerPort: 80 }] });

EKS Deployment

// AWS CDK Example for EKS import * as eks from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-eks'; import * as ec2 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ec2'; const cluster = new eks.Cluster(this, 'Cluster', { version: eks.KubernetesVersion.V1_27, defaultCapacity: 2, defaultCapacityInstance: ec2.InstanceType.of( ec2.InstanceClass.T3, ec2.InstanceSize.MEDIUM ) }); cluster.addManifest('web-app', { apiVersion: 'apps/v1', kind: 'Deployment', metadata: { name: 'web-app' }, spec: { replicas: 3, selector: { matchLabels: { app: 'web' } }, template: { metadata: { labels: { app: 'web' } }, spec: { containers: [{ name: 'web', image: 'nginx:latest' }] } } } });

Service Integration

ECS AWS Integration

# ECS Service with Application Load Balancer Resources: Service: Type: AWS::ECS::Service Properties: Cluster: !Ref Cluster TaskDefinition: !Ref TaskDefinition DesiredCount: 2 LaunchType: FARGATE LoadBalancers: - ContainerName: web ContainerPort: 80 TargetGroupArn: !Ref TargetGroup

EKS AWS Integration

# EKS with AWS Load Balancer Controller apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1 kind: Ingress metadata: name: web-ingress annotations: kubernetes.io/ingress.class: alb alb.ingress.kubernetes.io/scheme: internet-facing spec: rules: - http: paths: - path: / pathType: Prefix backend: service: name: web-service port: number: 80

Scaling Strategies

ECS Auto Scaling

{ "Type": "AWS::ApplicationAutoScaling::ScalingPolicy", "Properties": { "PolicyName": "CPUScaling", "PolicyType": "TargetTrackingScaling", "ScalingTargetId": { "Ref": "ScalingTarget" }, "TargetTrackingScalingPolicyConfiguration": { "TargetValue": 70.0, "PredefinedMetricSpecification": { "PredefinedMetricType": "ECSServiceAverageCPUUtilization" } } } }

EKS Auto Scaling

apiVersion: autoscaling/v2 kind: HorizontalPodAutoscaler metadata: name: web-hpa spec: scaleTargetRef: apiVersion: apps/v1 kind: Deployment name: web-app minReplicas: 2 maxReplicas: 10 metrics: - type: Resource resource: name: cpu target: type: Utilization averageUtilization: 70

Cost Analysis (2024)

ECS Pricing Model

  1. Fargate Pricing

    • vCPU per hour: $0.04048
    • Memory per GB-hour: $0.004445
    • No cluster management fee
  2. EC2 Launch Type

    • Only pay for EC2 instances
    • Additional EBS volumes
    • No additional orchestration costs

EKS Pricing Model

  1. Cluster Costs

    • $0.10 per hour per cluster
    • Control plane management fee
  2. Node Costs

    • EC2 instance costs
    • EBS volumes
    • Additional services (Load Balancer, etc.)

Security Comparison

ECS Security Features

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "ecs:CreateCluster", "ecs:DeregisterContainerInstance", "ecs:DiscoverPollEndpoint", "ecs:Poll", "ecs:RegisterContainerInstance", "ecs:StartTelemetrySession", "ecs:Submit*", "ecr:GetAuthorizationToken", "ecr:BatchCheckLayerAvailability", "ecr:GetDownloadUrlForLayer", "ecr:BatchGetImage" ], "Resource": "*" } ] }

EKS Security Features

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: Role metadata: namespace: default name: pod-reader rules: - apiGroups: [""] resources: ["pods"] verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"] --- apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1 kind: RoleBinding metadata: name: read-pods namespace: default subjects: - kind: User name: jane apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io roleRef: kind: Role name: pod-reader apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io

Monitoring and Observability

ECS Monitoring

import boto3 import datetime cloudwatch = boto3.client('cloudwatch') def get_ecs_metrics(): response = cloudwatch.get_metric_statistics( Namespace='AWS/ECS', MetricName='CPUUtilization', Dimensions=[ {'Name': 'ClusterName', 'Value': 'production'}, {'Name': 'ServiceName', 'Value': 'web-app'} ], StartTime=datetime.datetime.utcnow() - datetime.timedelta(hours=1), EndTime=datetime.datetime.utcnow(), Period=300, Statistics=['Average'] ) return response

EKS Monitoring

apiVersion: monitoring.coreos.com/v1 kind: ServiceMonitor metadata: name: web-monitor spec: selector: matchLabels: app: web endpoints: - port: web interval: 15s

Decision Matrix

RequirementECSEKS
Simple Workloads⚠️
Complex Orchestration⚠️
AWS-Native Integration⚠️
Multi-Cloud Strategy⚠️
Cost-Effectiveness⚠️
Learning Curve⚠️
Community Support⚠️
Enterprise Features⚠️

Best Practices

ECS Best Practices

  1. Task Definition Design

    • Use task definition versioning
    • Implement proper logging
    • Set appropriate resource limits
    • Use secrets management
  2. Service Configuration

    • Enable service auto scaling
    • Use appropriate deployment strategies
    • Implement health checks
    • Configure service discovery

EKS Best Practices

  1. Cluster Management

    • Use managed node groups
    • Implement proper RBAC
    • Enable cluster autoscaler
    • Use pod security policies
  2. Application Deployment

    • Use Helm charts
    • Implement pod disruption budgets
    • Configure resource requests/limits
    • Use network policies

Migration Considerations

Migrating to ECS

# Example migration script #!/bin/bash # Pull existing images docker pull old-registry/app:latest # Tag for ECR docker tag old-registry/app:latest ${AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com/app:latest # Push to ECR aws ecr get-login-password --region ${REGION} | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin ${AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com docker push ${AWS_ACCOUNT_ID}.dkr.ecr.${REGION}.amazonaws.com/app:latest # Update ECS service aws ecs update-service --cluster production --service web-app --force-new-deployment

Migrating to EKS

# Example migration script #!/bin/bash # Install required tools curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl" sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl # Update kubeconfig aws eks update-kubeconfig --name my-cluster --region ${REGION} # Apply manifests kubectl apply -f k8s/

Conclusion

Choose ECS if you:

  • Need simple container orchestration
  • Want deep AWS integration
  • Have budget constraints
  • Prefer managed services

Choose EKS if you:

  • Need Kubernetes features
  • Want cloud portability
  • Have complex orchestration needs
  • Need extensive community support

References

  1. AWS ECS Documentation
  2. AWS EKS Documentation
  3. ECS vs EKS Pricing
  4. Container Services Blog
  5. ECS Best Practices
  6. EKS Best Practices

Related Posts

ECS
EKS
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