Deploying a Backend with ECS Fargate, ALB, ECR, and GitHub Actions

Deployment Goal

The goal was to deploy a backend in a way that feels close to production: containerized builds, managed compute, load balancing, secure configuration, logs, and automated delivery.

The stack used Docker, Amazon ECR, ECS Fargate, Application Load Balancer, ACM, SSM Parameter Store, CloudWatch, Terraform, and GitHub Actions.

Deployment Flow

The high-level CI/CD path looks like this:

GitHub push
  -> Build Docker image
  -> Push image to ECR
  -> Update ECS service
  -> Route traffic through ALB
  -> Observe logs in CloudWatch

Why ECS Fargate

Fargate removes server management while still keeping the deployment model container-native. For backend APIs, it provides a good balance between operational simplicity and production structure.

Practical Lessons

SSM Parameter Store is useful for configuration, CloudWatch is essential for debugging, and ALB health checks force you to think carefully about readiness endpoints.

Terraform makes the infrastructure repeatable, which matters when rebuilding or changing environments.