java maven deployed in elastic bean stalk how to install 3rd party package -> wkhtmltopdf

The following is an elegant way to manage an .ebextensions directory and build with maven using the maven-assembly-plugin:

1. Create the .ebextensions directory under the root folder of your project (see screenshot)

2. Create the following wkhtmltox.config file inside

files:  
  "/tmp/wkhtmltox.amazonlinux2.rpm": 
    mode: "000600"
    owner: root
    group: root
    source: https://github.com/wkhtmltopdf/packaging/releases/download/0.12.6-1/wkhtmltox-0.12.6-1.amazonlinux2.x86_64.rpm
commands:
  install_wkhtmltox: 
    command: sudo yum localinstall -y /tmp/wkhtmltox.amazonlinux2.rpm

Note:

• adjust the URL according to the version and platform/cpu architecture
• added parameter -y to automatically confirm the installation when executed programatically
• switched from install to localinstall as we need return code 0 (success) also when the package is already installed (which will happen on the 2nd+ deployment)
• syntax see [3]

3. Extend pom.xml to use the maven-assembly-plugin to build a zip file which contains the applications jar file and the .ebextensions directory (without top level directory).

    </build>
      </plugins>
            ........
            <plugin>
                <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.5.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <descriptors>
                        <descriptor>zip-with-ebextensions.xml</descriptor>
                    </descriptors>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <id>make-assembly</id> 
                        <phase>package</phase> 
                        <goals>
                            <goal>single</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

4. In the project root directory create the corresponding configuration file for the assembly plugin named zip-with-ebextensions.xml

<assembly xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/ASSEMBLY/2.1.1"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/ASSEMBLY/2.1.1 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/assembly-2.1.1.xsd">
  <id>with-ebextensions</id>
  <includeBaseDirectory>false</includeBaseDirectory>
  <formats>
    <format>zip</format>
  </formats>
  <fileSets>
    <fileSet>
      <directory>${project.basedir}</directory>
      <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
      <includes>
        <include>.ebextensions/**/*</include>
        <!-- <include>Procfile</include> -->
      </includes>
    </fileSet>
    <fileSet>
      <directory>${project.build.directory}</directory>
      <outputDirectory></outputDirectory>
      <includes>
        <include>*.jar</include>
      </includes>
    </fileSet>
  </fileSets>
</assembly>

Note: can be extended by including a Procfile (see [2]) if needed.

5. Build your project with mvn package -Pproduction

Result: The target directory should contain a zip file named <app_name_with_version>-with-ebextensions.zip. The contents should look like:

When you login to the underlying EC2 instance, you can see that wkhtmltopdf was installed:

Final remark: The structure should also work, if you decide to deploy source code using e.g. the Elastic Beanstalk Command Line Interface (EB CLI), and build on the EC2 instance (see [1])

Related AWS Elastic Beanstalk documentation references:

1. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/applications-sourcebundle.html
2. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/java-se-procfile.html
3. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/customize-containers-ec2.html#linux-commands