Next.js ECS Deployments

An AWS code pipeline is created for each Next.js application. This pipeline is responsible for deploying the infrastructure and the application code. The pipeline is triggered when a new commit is pushed to the specified branch of the application's repository.

Architectures

Next.js ECS

Next.js ECS with Database

Static Files

Static files of the Next.js application are deployed to an S3 bucket. The deployed bucket is private and all static files are served using CloudFront.

Image Optimization

An image optimization lambda handles image optimization for the Next.js application. Optimization requests are made when the Next.js <Image /> component is used. The lambda uses the sharp library to optimize images.

Load Balancing

An application load balancer is used to route traffic to the ECS service running the Next.js application. For security, the load balancer is placed in a public subnet and is only accessible from the internet through CloudFront.

ECS Servers

ECS servers handle server-side rendering, API requests, and other server-side logic for the Next.js application. The Zonké dashboard exposes the capability to scale the number of ECS servers based on application traffic. You have the option to use Fargate or EC2 instances for the ECS servers. For security, deployed ECS servers are placed in a private subnet and are not directly accessible from the internet.

Secrets

Secrets are stored in AWS Secrets Manager and are exposed to the ECS servers as environment variables. The Zonké dashboard allows you to add, update, and delete secrets for the Next.js application. Secrets are only stored in your AWS account and are encrypted at rest and in transit. The Next.js application can access these secrets using the process.env object and directly from Secrets Manager.

Database

The Next.js application can be connected to a database. The database is deployed using RDS and is accessible from the ECS servers. Database credentials are stored in AWS Secrets Manager and, just like other service secrets, they are exposed to the ECS servers as secrets. The database is placed in an isolated subnet and is only accessible from the ECS servers.

ORMs and Database Migrations

Next.js applications using an ORM (currently only Prisma is supported) can run database migrations during deployment. A migration lambda function is created and triggered by the pipeline during application deployment. You do not need to configure anything in your codebase to run migrations.