Terraform: ECS Task Definition Fails

[TravisHanna]

I am unable to create an ECS task definition due to the following error:

• aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def: Error decoding JSON: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type []*ecs.ContainerDefinition

I have manually created a task using the exact same JSON via both the web interface and CLI successfully. My JSON is:

{
    "containerDefinitions": [
        {
            "volumesFrom": [],
            "memory": 512,
            "portMappings": [
                {
                    "hostPort": 80,
                    "containerPort": 8080,
                    "protocol": "tcp"
                }
            ],
            "essential": true,
            "mountPoints": [],
            "name": "ee_ecs_spike_repo",
            "environment": [],
            "image": "897486716820.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ee_ecs_spike_repo:latest",
            "cpu": 2
        }
    ],
    "volumes": [],
    "family": "ee_ecs_spike"
}

My terraform file is:

resource "aws_ecs_task_definition" "ee_ecs_spike_task_def" {
  family = "ee_ecs_spike"
  container_definitions = "${file("spike-definition.json")}"
}

Trace/Debug output did not display any additional errors:

 aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def: Creating...
  arn:                   "" => "<computed>"
  container_definitions: "" => "0ebf6354fd0b8df80d715c3b60f1831018e2f508"
  family:                "" => "ee_ecs_spike"
  revision:              "" => "<computed>"
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalWriteState
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalApplyProvisioners
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalIf
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalWriteDiff
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalIf
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalWriteState
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] root: eval: *terraform.EvalApplyPost
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [ERROR] root: eval: *terraform.EvalApplyPost, err: 1 error(s) occurred:

* aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def: Error decoding JSON: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type []*ecs.ContainerDefinition
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [ERROR] root: eval: *terraform.EvalSequence, err: 1 error(s) occurred:

* aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def: Error decoding JSON: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type []*ecs.ContainerDefinition
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [ERROR] root: eval: *terraform.EvalOpFilter, err: 1 error(s) occurred:

* aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def: Error decoding JSON: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type []*ecs.ContainerDefinition
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [ERROR] root: eval: *terraform.EvalSequence, err: 1 error(s) occurred:

* aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def: Error decoding JSON: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go value of type []*ecs.ContainerDefinition
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [TRACE] [walkApply] Exiting eval tree: aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] vertex provider.aws (close), got dep: aws_ecs_task_definition.ee_ecs_spike_task_def
2016/03/04 16:22:32 [DEBUG] waiting for all plugin processes to complete...

[aldarund]

You are using it wrong. Task definition are only section inside containerDefinitions.
For you it would be:

[
        {
            "volumesFrom": [],
            "memory": 512,
            "portMappings": [
                {
                    "hostPort": 80,
                    "containerPort": 8080,
                    "protocol": "tcp"
                }
            ],
            "essential": true,
            "mountPoints": [],
            "name": "ee_ecs_spike_repo",
            "environment": [],
            "image": "897486716820.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ee_ecs_spike_repo:latest",
            "cpu": 2
        }
    ]

[radeksimko]

Hi @TravisHanna,
@aldarund is correct, we expect list of containers in container_definitions field as per the documentation.

Feel free to reopen this issue if you're still struggling to make your example work.

[TravisHanna]

Thanks much. That solved my problem.

[RyanBowlby-Reflektion]

I think it might be worth updating the doc examples. Makes sense after the fact though. :)

[thattommyhall]

Is it possible to improve the error message here?

[wayneworkman]

The above task definition and the Terraform documentation does not work for Fargate.

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