Terraform Template for ECS with NGINX

This is the only open source template for deploying containerized workloads on AWS ECS with NGINX as the reverse proxy, using Terraform. Feel free to use, modify, and share!

This repository provides an example of using Terraform to deploy an NGINX service on AWS ECS (Elastic Container Service). It includes reusable modules and a sample configuration for quick setup and experimentation.

Features

• Modular Design: Easily reusable ECS module for running NGINX or other containerized services.
• Sample Usage: Example configuration and variables for rapid deployment.
• Custom NGINX Config: Override default NGINX settings with your own nginx.conf.

Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

   git clone <this-repo-url>
   cd ecs-tf/example

2. Initialize Terraform

   terraform init

3. Review and update variables
   • Edit terraform.tfvars to set your AWS region, VPC, subnets, and other required parameters.
4. Apply the configuration

   terraform apply

Requirements

• Terraform >= 1.0.0
• AWS account credentials configured (via environment variables or AWS CLI)

Customization

• Modify nginx.conf in the example/ directory to change NGINX behavior.
• The module in modules/ecs-nginx/ can be adapted for other container images or services.

Example terraform.tfvars

Below is a sample terraform.tfvars file with demo data. Replace the values with your actual AWS resource IDs and preferences:

vpc_id             = "vpc-12345678"
public_subnet_ids  = ["subnet-11111111", "subnet-22222222"] 
private_subnet_ids = ["subnet-33333333", "subnet-44444444"] 
aws_region         = "us-east-1"
name        = "demo-ecs-nginx"
tags = {
  "Name"        = "demo-ecs-nginx"
  "Environment" = "dev"
  "Project"     = "ecs-demo"
}

Cleaning Up

To destroy the created resources:

terraform destroy

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Last updated: 2025-06-24