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

Feature Comparison

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

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

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