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Fargate in detail

1 - What is Fargate?​

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that works with ECS and EKS, eliminating the need to provision and manage servers.

2 - Fargate vs EC2 Launch Type​

AspectFargateEC2
Server managementNoneYou manage
ScalingPer taskCluster + tasks
PricingPay-per-taskPay-per-instance
GPUNot supportedSupported
Spot instancesFargate SpotEC2 Spot
Instance accessNoYes
IsolationTask-levelInstance-level

3 - Fargate configuration​

3.1 Fargate Task Definition​

{
  "family": "fargate-app",
  "networkMode": "awsvpc",
  "requiresCompatibilities": ["FARGATE"],
  "cpu": "256",
  "memory": "512",
  "runtimePlatform": {
    "cpuArchitecture": "X86_64",
    "operatingSystemFamily": "LINUX"
  },
  "executionRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789:role/ecsTaskExecutionRole",
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "app",
      "image": "nginx:latest",
      "essential": true,
      "portMappings": [
        {"containerPort": 80, "protocol": "tcp"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}

3.2 Platform Versions​

VersionDescription
LATESTLatest stable version
1.4.0EFS, secrets support
1.3.0Container Insights support
ECSService:
  Properties:
    PlatformVersion: "1.4.0"

4 - Fargate Spot​

Save up to 70% with spot capacity.

4.1 Configuration​

ECSCluster:
  Type: AWS::ECS::Cluster
  Properties:
    CapacityProviders:
      - FARGATE
      - FARGATE_SPOT
    DefaultCapacityProviderStrategy:
      - CapacityProvider: FARGATE
        Base: 2           # 2 tasks minimum sur Fargate
        Weight: 1
      - CapacityProvider: FARGATE_SPOT
        Weight: 4         # 4x plus de tasks sur Spot

4.2 Placement strategy​

# 20% Fargate, 80% Fargate Spot
aws ecs create-service \
    --cluster prod-cluster \
    --service-name web \
    --task-definition web:1 \
    --desired-count 10 \
    --capacity-provider-strategy \
        capacityProvider=FARGATE,base=2,weight=1 \
        capacityProvider=FARGATE_SPOT,weight=4

4.3 Handling interruptions​

5 - ARM64 Architecture​

5.1 Advantages​

  • Up to 40% cheaper
  • Better performance per watt
  • Ideal for CPU-bound workloads

5.2 Configuration​

{
  "runtimePlatform": {
    "cpuArchitecture": "ARM64",
    "operatingSystemFamily": "LINUX"
  },
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "app",
      "image": "my-arm64-image:latest"
    }
  ]
}

5.3 Multi-architecture build​

# Dockerfile multi-arch
docker buildx create --use
docker buildx build \
    --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
    -t myapp:latest \
    --push .

6 - Ephemeral storage​

6.1 Configuration​

{
  "ephemeralStorage": {
    "sizeInGiB": 100
  }
}
Default sizeMaxAdditional cost
20 GB200 GB$0.000111/GB/hour

6.2 Use cases​

  • Temporary cache
  • Build files
  • Session data
  • Temporary logs

7 - EFS with Fargate​

7.1 Configuration​

{
  "volumes": [
    {
      "name": "efs-volume",
      "efsVolumeConfiguration": {
        "fileSystemId": "fs-12345678",
        "rootDirectory": "/",
        "transitEncryption": "ENABLED",
        "transitEncryptionPort": 2049,
        "authorizationConfig": {
          "accessPointId": "fsap-12345678",
          "iam": "ENABLED"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "mountPoints": [
        {
          "sourceVolume": "efs-volume",
          "containerPath": "/data",
          "readOnly": false
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

7.2 EFS Access Point​

EFSAccessPoint:
  Type: AWS::EFS::AccessPoint
  Properties:
    FileSystemId: !Ref EFSFileSystem
    PosixUser:
      Uid: "1000"
      Gid: "1000"
    RootDirectory:
      CreationInfo:
        OwnerUid: "1000"
        OwnerGid: "1000"
        Permissions: "755"
      Path: /app-data

8 - Pricing​

8.1 Standard Fargate​

ResourcePrice (eu-west-1)
vCPU$0.04048/hour
Memory$0.004445/GB/hour
Storage (> 20GB)$0.000111/GB/hour

8.2 Fargate Spot​

ResourcePrice (eu-west-1)
vCPU~$0.012/hour (-70%)
Memory~$0.0013/GB/hour (-70%)

8.3 Example calculation​

1 task: 1 vCPU, 2GB RAM, 24h

Standard Fargate:

  • vCPU: 0.04048×24=0.04048 × 24 = 0.97
  • Memory: 0.004445×2×24=0.004445 × 2 × 24 = 0.21
  • Total: $1.18/day

Fargate Spot:

  • Total: ~$0.35/day (-70%)

9 - Cost optimization​

9.1 Right-sizing​

# Analyser l'utilisation avec Container Insights
# CloudWatch > Insights > Container Insights > Performance Monitoring

# Métriques clés :
# - CpuUtilized vs CpuReserved
# - MemoryUtilized vs MemoryReserved

9.2 Recommendations​

  • Use Fargate Spot for non-critical workloads
  • Choose ARM64 when possible
  • Adjust CPU/Memory based on actual usage
  • Use scaling to adapt to the load

Summary​

In this chapter, we learned:

  • The advantages of Fargate vs EC2
  • The configuration of Fargate Task Definitions
  • Fargate Spot to save costs
  • The ARM64 architecture
  • Ephemeral storage and EFS
  • Pricing and cost optimization

Next step​

In the next chapter, we will look at Auto Scaling.

→ Next chapter: Auto Scaling

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