Deploying a simple Node JS application to AWS ElasticBeanstalk using AWS CloudFormation

This article will show you how to deploy a simple Node JS application to ElasticBeanstalk using CloudFormation. Most of the process is done using the template and CLI. You will need to have AWS command line installed and IAM credentials configured for your laptop.

First, you will need to login to the AWS console and create an S3 bucket to store your template.

Then, you will need to create an SSH key pair for the EC2 instance. For that, you will need to go to the EC2 service, and then go to the Key Pairs section under the NETWORK & SECURITY section on the left main menu. Then create a Key Pair choosing “pem” option. You will need to use the key name later.

Then you need to create a file called template.yml file with the following content.

---
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Description: 'AWS CloudFormation Sample Template ElasticBeanstalk_Nodejs_Sample: Configure
  and launch the AWS Elastic Beanstalk sample application. **WARNING** This template
  creates one or more Amazon EC2 instances. You will be billed for the AWS resources
  used if you create a stack from this template.'
Parameters:
  KeyName:
    Description: Name of an existing EC2 KeyPair to enable SSH access to the AWS Elastic
      Beanstalk instance
    Type: AWS::EC2::KeyPair::KeyName
    ConstraintDescription: must be the name of an existing EC2 KeyPair.
Mappings:
  Region2Principal:
    us-east-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    us-west-2:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    us-west-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    eu-west-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    eu-west-2:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    eu-west-3:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ap-southeast-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ap-northeast-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ap-northeast-2:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ap-northeast-3:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ap-southeast-2:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ap-south-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    us-east-2:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    ca-central-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    sa-east-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    cn-north-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com.cn
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com.cn
    cn-northwest-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com.cn
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com.cn
    eu-central-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
    eu-north-1:
      EC2Principal: ec2.amazonaws.com
      OpsWorksPrincipal: opsworks.amazonaws.com
Resources:
  WebServerRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
              Service:
                - Fn::FindInMap:
                    - Region2Principal
                    - Ref: AWS::Region
                    - EC2Principal
            Action:
              - sts:AssumeRole
      Path: "/"
  WebServerRolePolicy:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Policy
    Properties:
      PolicyName: WebServerRole
      PolicyDocument:
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            NotAction: iam:*
            Resource: "*"
      Roles:
        - Ref: WebServerRole
  WebServerInstanceProfile:
    Type: AWS::IAM::InstanceProfile
    Properties:
      Path: "/"
      Roles:
        - Ref: WebServerRole
  SampleApplication:
    Type: AWS::ElasticBeanstalk::Application
    Properties:
      Description: AWS Elastic Beanstalk Sample Node.js Application
  SampleApplicationVersion:
    Type: AWS::ElasticBeanstalk::ApplicationVersion
    Properties:
      Description: Version 1.0
      ApplicationName:
        Ref: SampleApplication
      SourceBundle:
        S3Bucket:
          Fn::Join:
            - "-"
            - - elasticbeanstalk-samples
              - Ref: AWS::Region
        S3Key: nodejs-sample.zip
  SampleConfigurationTemplate:
    Type: AWS::ElasticBeanstalk::ConfigurationTemplate
    Properties:
      ApplicationName:
        Ref: SampleApplication
      Description: SSH access to Node.JS Application
      SolutionStackName: 64bit Amazon Linux 2 v5.1.0 running Node.js 12
      OptionSettings:
        - Namespace: aws:autoscaling:launchconfiguration
          OptionName: EC2KeyName
          Value:
            Ref: KeyName
        - Namespace: aws:autoscaling:launchconfiguration
          OptionName: IamInstanceProfile
          Value:
            Ref: WebServerInstanceProfile
  SampleEnvironment:
    Type: AWS::ElasticBeanstalk::Environment
    Properties:
      Description: AWS Elastic Beanstalk Environment running Sample Node.js Application
      ApplicationName:
        Ref: SampleApplication
      TemplateName:
        Ref: SampleConfigurationTemplate
      VersionLabel:
        Ref: SampleApplicationVersion
Outputs:
  URL:
    Description: URL of the AWS Elastic Beanstalk Environment
    Value:
      Fn::Join:
        - ''
        - - http://
          - Fn::GetAtt:
              - SampleEnvironment
              - EndpointURL

Then you will need to run the following command replacing the <BucketName> with your Bucket’s name with the same folder as the template.yml.

aws cloudformation package --template-file --s3-bucket <BucketName> template.yml --output-template-file template-generated.yml

Then you need to run the following command replacing the <KeyName> with the name of the SSH Key Pair you created in the beginning. For the <StackName>, you can put the name you want for your stack.

aws cloudformation deploy --template-file template-generated.yml --stack-name <StackName> --parameter-overrides KeyName=<KeyName>  --capabilities CAPABILITY_IAM

That’s it. When the command was run successfully, you will see the CloudFormation template was created successfully in the console. You will also see an ElasticBeanstalk environment created for you.