Restart containers within ECS when a certain container is deployed

Question

I have a project that runs multiple GO services using ECS. For example, I have 3 containers, A, B, C, and then container D holds config and stuff for the other containers. Is there a way that when container D is updated or restarted I can then restart the other containers within ECS so they can use the new data from container D?

I was thinking of having a pub/sub type thing and telling the other containers a new version had been released but I was thinking there must be an easier way that doesn't involve any extra code.

I'd also like to do this for my local docker-compose stack if possible.

Answer 1

After a bit of searching, I found you can add container dependencies within the task definition JSON.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/APIReference/API_ContainerDependency.html

This allows you to add dependencies for the different containers running.

For example:

  "containerDefinitions": [
    {
      "name": "app",
      "image": "application_image",
      "portMappings": [
        {
          "containerPort": 9080,
          "hostPort": 9080,
          "protocol": "tcp"
        }
      ],
      "essential": true,
      "dependsOn": [
        {
          "containerName": "container-a",
          "condition": "HEALTHY"
        }
      ]
    },

Very useful.