Elastic Beanstalk preview

Elastic Beanstalk is a PaaS layer: upload your Python or Node.js app; AWS provisions load balancer, Auto Scaling, and EC2 under the hood.

What Beanstalk handles

• Platform versions (Python 3.x, Node.js)
• Deployment strategies (rolling, immutable)
• Health dashboard and log streaming
• Environment variables and SSL termination options

Developer workflow

1. Create application and environment
2. Deploy zip or connect CI pipeline
3. Monitor health; roll back bad releases
4. SSH or view logs for debugging

Django apps can deploy via WSGI platform with proper requirements.txt and static file settings.

List environments

aws elasticbeanstalk describe-environments \
  --query 'Environments[].{Name:EnvironmentName,Status:Status,Health:Health}' \
  --output table

Practice: Launch resources in the EC2 Console or CLI only in a sandbox account. Use t2.micro or t3.micro where free tier applies; terminate when done.

Trade-off

Less control than raw EC2/Terraform; faster time-to-deploy for standard web stacks. Migrate to ECS/EKS when you need custom networking or sidecars.

Important interview questions and answers

1. Q: Beanstalk vs EC2?
   A: Beanstalk automates platform provisioning; EC2 gives full OS control and manual setup.
2. Q: Immutable deployment?
   A: New instances launch with new version; old instances terminate after health checks pass.

Self-check

1. What does Elastic Beanstalk automate for you?
2. Name one reason to move from Beanstalk to ECS later.

Tip: Beanstalk is fastest path for Django/Node prototypes; migrate when you need custom VPC topology.