AWS ECS migrate to ECS service connect with ALB routing

When migrating from AWS App Mesh to Amazon ECS Service Connect, you'll need to handle path routing and prefix rewriting differently since Service Connect doesn't directly replace all App Mesh virtual gateway functionality.

For path routing and prefix rewriting that you previously handled with App Mesh virtual gateways, you'll need to use Application Load Balancer (ALB) rules directly. Here's how to approach this:

1. Configure an Application Load Balancer as your entry point for external traffic.

2. Set up ALB listener rules to handle path-based routing:

• Create different target groups for your ECS services
• Configure path patterns in your listener rules to route traffic to the appropriate target groups
• Use path-based conditions to match specific URL paths and route to different services

3. For prefix rewriting, which App Mesh virtual gateway previously handled, you have a few options:

• Implement the rewriting logic in your application code
• Use a proxy container (like NGINX) within your ECS task that can handle URL rewriting before passing requests to your application container
• Configure your application to handle different path prefixes appropriately

Unlike App Mesh which used Envoy proxies as sidecars to handle this routing logic, ECS Service Connect is primarily focused on service-to-service communication within your ECS environment. It provides service discovery and connectivity between your services but doesn't include the advanced routing features like path-based routing and prefix rewriting that App Mesh offered.

For the external-facing routing needs, you'll rely more heavily on ALB capabilities, while using Service Connect for the internal service-to-service communication patterns.
Sources
Migrating from AWS App Mesh to Amazon ECS Service Connect | Containers
AWS ECS App Mesh EOL Alternative | AWS re:Post
make connection from service running in one ECS cluster to another ECS cluster | AWS re:Post