Running Mythical Mysfits Locally

https://github.com/aws-samples/amazon-ecs-mythicalmysfits-workshop

Mythical Myfits is constructed of 3 application tiers. In this repo, all 3 tiers are configured to run locally in containers.

Static Site <-> Python Api(s) <-> DynamoDB

When ran locally the static site is fronted by an NGINX reverse proxy. In AWS this will be a S3 Static Site.
The Python API(s) are deployed as a flask container deployed locally. This same flask container can be reused in ECS or EKS.
The DynamoDB is deployed locally following this documentation. In AWS a managed DynamoDB will be used.

Deploying the Stack

The docker-compose.yml needs to be adjusted for each environment, the Nginx container is a reverse proxy for files living on the local file system. Therefore the file path of the frontend/static files will need to be updated to the local directory where this git repo has been cloned.

Deploy the Stack:

$ docker-compose up -d --build

Loading the Dynamodb Table

There is a prerequisite that the Dynamodb table is loaded with some mysfits. Within the dynamo directory there is a create-dynamo.py and load-dynamo.py script. These scripts will create an empty table, and then populate the table with mysfits. Note, the boto3 python package will need to be installed before running the scripts pip install boto3.

If you a leverage a Local DynamoDB Instance, the variable MYSFIT_ENV=LOCAL will need to be exported before using the scripts. If you do not export this, a DynamoDB table will be created in AWS, and sample data will be loaded into the cloud.

Browse to the Frontpage

The Front Page of Mythical Misfits will be available on http://localhost:8080

Env Variables

There are a few environment variables required when running the API microservice. They are already defined in the docker-compose.yml file. However when running the API in AWS, they may need to be passed into the container.

DDB_TABLE_NAME - Required - The name of the DynamoDB table that has been pre-create and loaded with data. If you leverage the create-dynamo.py and load-dynamo.py scripts, the table name wil be mysfits. DDB_TABLE_NAME=mysfits.
MYSFIT_ENV - This is not required when running in AWS. However when running locally MYSFIT_ENV=LOCAL should be exported.
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID & AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - If the api is deployed onto AWS, then EKS IRSA or an ECS Task Role will automatically set these variables.

If the container is running locally then these variables will need to be set. A local DynamoDB container does not need real AWS credentials, so noddy values like those set in the docker-compose.yml file will do. If the API is communicating with a DynamoDB Table hosted in the cloud, then an Access Key and Secret Key with the relevant permissions is required.

API Image

The Python API Docker Image is hosted on Docker Hub too:

https://hub.docker.com/r/ollypom/mysfits

ollypom / mysfits