
Run npm Enterprise on AWS with just a few clicks - tilt
http://blog.npmjs.org/post/142409778875/run-npm-enterprise-on-aws-with-just-a-few-clicks
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joombaga
From the screenshot, it appears they're running npm in a docker container
inside the EC2 instance. It's curious that they did not use Container Sevice.
I would have expected node to be running directly on the VM.

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koolba
Pure guess (no affiliation to npm) but they're probably running it within a
container to normalize the environment. If you read the docs it says they
support both RHEL and Debian based distros (specifically Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL,
and CentOS). By running in a container, all you need to set up on the host VM
is docker. After that, the app itself is the same within containers on each of
them.

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xur17
ECS does exactly that - it's a (somewhat) managed docker container service, so
it would still allow them to run containers.

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koolba
If you do it DIY then you can also use the same packaging for your on-premise
deployment as well (i.e. no AWS). ECS etc are great but not everybody is
running on AWS.

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seldo
I do work at npm, and you're right, that's why we do it. The same Docker-based
installer (from a company called Replicated) installs on all our customers'
many operating systems, so it was easiest to do the same thing to create our
AMI.

We should look at ECS though. Are you more likely to deploy if something is in
ECS than if it's a straight AMI?

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joombaga
Personally, I would never use an AMI that contained docker. I'd be more likely
to use an ECS container, OR an AMI which runs node directly.

Though I must admit (1) I am not one of your customers, and (2) our BAA with
Amazon prevents us from using ECS. We typically run node on ebs backed
m3.medium instances running Amazon Linux.

