Deploy the Prisma Cloud Console on Amazon ECS

Complete the steps on this page to deploy the Prisma Cloud console in an ECS cluster. This example deployment consists of a single infrastructure node and two worker nodes. The console runs on the infrastructure node. An instance of the Prisma Cloud Defender runs on every node in the cluster.

The Prisma Cloud console runs as a service in your ECS cluster to provide you a management interface. You can describe the parameters of the service in a task definition written in JSON format.

To protect the workloads in in your containerized environment, you set policies in the Prisma Cloud console. The Defender service enforces the policies you set running a service in your ECS cluster. You can automatically deploy an instance of the Defender on each node in your cluster.

This example provisions a highly available Prisma Cloud console. If the infrastructure node goes down, ECS reschedules the Prisma Cloud console service on any healthy node. You must attach storage that’s accessible from each of your infrastructure nodes to ensure high availability. The recommended option is the Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) to ensure that the Prisma Cloud console continues to have access to its state since your data persists across nodes.

When you have multiple infrastructure nodes, ECS can schedule Console on any of them. Defenders need a reliable way to connect to Console. A load balancer automatically directs traffic to the node where Console runs, and offers a stable interface that Defenders can use to connect to Console and that operators can use to access its web interface.

We assume you are deploying Prisma Cloud to the default VPC. If you are not using the default VPC, adjust your settings accordingly.

This guide assumes you know very little about AWS ECS. As such, it is extremely prescriptive, and includes step for building your cluster. If you are already familiar with AWS ECS and do not need assistance navigating the interface, simply read the section synopsis, which summarizes all key configurations. To better understand clusters, read our cluster context topic.

Get Prisma Cloud

The Prisma Cloud release tarball contains all the release artifacts.

1. Download the latest recommended release.
2. Retrieve the release tarball.

   $ wget <LINK_TO_CURRENT_RECOMMENDED_RELEASE_LINK>

3. Unpack the Prisma Cloud release tarball.

   $ mkdir twistlock
   $ tar xvzf prisma_cloud_compute_edition_<VERSION>.tar.gz  -C twistlock/

Create a cluster

Create an empty cluster named pc-ecs-cluster. Later, you will create launch configurations and auto-scaling groups to start EC2 instances in the cluster.

1. Log into the AWS Management Console.
2. Go to Services > Containers > Elastic Container Service.
3. Click Create Cluster.
4. Select Networking only, then click Next Step.
5. Enter a cluster name, such as pc-ecs-cluster.
6. Click Create.

Create a security group

Create a new security group named pc-security-group that opens the following ports. This security group will be associated with resources in your cluster.

Port	Description
8083	Prisma Cloud Console’s UI and API.
8084	Prisma Cloud secure websocket for Console-Defender communication.
2049	NFS for Prisma Cloud Console to access its state.
22	SSH for managing nodes.

You can harden this configuration as required. For example, you might want to limit access to port 22 to specific source IPs.

1. Go to Services > Compute > EC2.
2. In the left menu, click NETWORK & SECURITY > Security Groups.
3. Click Create Security Group.
4. In Security group name, enter a name, such as pc-security-group.
5. In Description, enter Prisma Cloud ports.
6. In VPC, select your default VPC.
7. Under the Inbound rules section, click Add Rule.

   1. Under Type, select Custom TCP.
   2. Under Port Range, enter 8083-8084.
   3. Under Source, select Anywhere.
8. Click Add Rule.

   1. Under Type, select NFS.
   2. Under Source, select Anywhere.
9. Click Add Rule.

   1. Under Type, select SSH.
   2. Under Source, select Anywhere.
10. Click Create security group.

Create an EFS file system for Console

Create the Console EFS file system, and then get the command that will be used to mount the file system on every infrastructure node.

The EFS file system and ECS cluster must be in the same VPC and security group.

Prerequisites: Prisma Cloud Console depends on an EFS file system with the following performance characteristics:

• Performance mode: General purpose.
• Throughput mode: Provisioned. Provision 0.1 MiB/s per deployed Defender. For example, if you plan to deploy 10 Defenders, provision 1 MiB/s of throughput.

1. Log into the AWS Management Console.
2. Go to Services > Storage > EFS.
3. Click Create File System.
4. Enter a value for Name, such as pc-efs-console
5. Select a VPC.
6. Click Customize.
7. Set throughput mode to Provisioned, and set Throughput to 0.1 MiB/s per Defender to be deployed.

   For example, if you plan to deploy ten Defenders, set throughput to 1 MiB/s (10 Defenders * 0.1 MiB/s = 1 MiB/s).
8. Click Next.
9. For each mount target, select the pc-security-group.
10. Click Next.
11. In File System Policy, click Next.
12. Review your settings and click Create.
13. Click View file system.
14. Click Attach, copy the NFS client mount command, and set it aside for later.

    You will use the mount command when setting up Console’s launch configuration.

Set up a load balancer

Set up an AWS Classic Load Balancer, and capture the Load Balancer DNS name.

You’ll create two load balancer listeners. One is used for Console’s UI and API, which are served on port 8083. Another is used for the websocket connection between Defender and Console, which is established on port 8084.

For detailed instructions on how to create a load balancer for Console, see Configure an AWS Load Balancer for ECS.

Use a private registry

For maximum control over your environment, you might want to store the Console container image in your own private registry, and then install Prisma Cloud from your private registry. When the Console service is started, ECS retrieves the image from your registry. This procedure shows you how to push the Console container image to Amazon’s Elastic Container Registry (ECR).

Prerequisites:

• AWS CLI is installed on your machine. It is required to push the Console image to your registry.

1. Go to the directory where you unpacked the Prisma Cloud release tarball.

   $ cd prisma_cloud_compute_edition/

2. Load the Console image.

   $ docker load < ./twistlock_console.tar.gz

3. Go to Services > Containers > Elastic Container Service.
4. In the left menu, click Repositories.
5. Click Create repository.
6. Follow the AWS instructions for logging in to the registry, tagging the Console image, and pushing it to your repo.

   Be sure to update your Console task definition so that the value for image points to your private registry.

Deploy Console

Launch an infrastructure node that runs in the cluster, then start Prisma Cloud Console as a service on that node.

Create a launch configuration for the infrastructure node

Launch configurations are templates that are used by an auto-scaling group to start EC2 instances in your cluster.

Create a launch configuration named pc-infra-node that:

• Creates an instance type of t2.xlarge, or higher. For more information about Console’s minimum requirements, see the system requirements.
• Runs Amazon ECS-Optimized Amazon Linux 2 AMI.
• Uses the ecsInstanceRole IAM role.
• Runs a user data script that joins the pc-ecs-cluster and defines a custom attribute named purpose with a value of infra. Console tasks will be placed to this instance.

1. Go to Services > Compute > EC2.
2. In the left menu, click Auto Scaling > Launch Configurations.
3. Click Create launch configuration.
4. In Name, enter a name for your launch configuration, such as pc-infra-node.
5. In Amazon machine image, select Amazon ECS-Optimized Amazon Linux 2 AMI.

   You can get a complete list of per-region Amazon ECS-optimized AMIs from here.
6. Under instance type, select t2.xlarge.
7. Under Additional Configuration:

   1. In IAM instance profile, select ecsInstanceRole.

      If this role doesn’t exist, create it. For complete details, see Amazon ECS Container Instance IAM Role.
   2. Under User data, select Text, and paste the following code snippet, which installs the NFS utilities and mounts the EFS file system:

      #!/bin/bash
      cat <<'EOF' >> /etc/ecs/ecs.config
      ECS_CLUSTER=pc-ecs-cluster
      ECS_INSTANCE_ATTRIBUTES={"purpose": "infra"}
      EOF
      
      yum install -y nfs-utils
      mkdir /twistlock_console
      <CONSOLE_MOUNT_COMMAND> /twistlock_console
      
      mkdir -p /twistlock_console/var/lib/twistlock
      mkdir -p /twistlock_console/var/lib/twistlock-backup
      mkdir -p /twistlock_console/var/lib/twistlock-config

      ECS_CLUSTER must match your cluster name. If you’ve named your cluster something other than pc-ecs-cluster, then update the user data script accordingly.

      <CONSOLE_MOUNT_COMMAND> is the Console mount command you copied from the AWS Management Console after creating your console EFS file system. The mount target must be /twistlock_console, not the efs mount target provided in the sample command.
   3. (Optional) In IP Address Type, select Assign a public IP address to every instance.

      With this option, you can easily SSH to this instance to troubleshoot issues.
8. Under Security groups:

   1. Select Select an existing security group.
   2. Select pc-security-group.
9. Under Key pair (login), select an existing key pair, or create a new key pair so that you can access your instances.
10. Click Create launch configuration.

Create an auto scaling group for the infrastructure node

Launch a single instance of the infrastructure node into your cluster.

1. Go to Services > Compute > EC2.
2. In the left menu, click Auto Scaling > Auto Scaling Groups.
3. Click Create an Auto Scaling group.
4. In Choose launch template or configuration:

   1. In Auto Scaling group Name, enter pc-infra-autoscaling.
   2. In Launch template, click Switch to launch configuration.
   3. Select pc-infra-node.
   4. Click Next.
5. Under Configure settings:

   1. In VPC, select your default VPC.
   2. In Subnet, select a public subnet, such as 172.31.0.0/20.
   3. Click Skip to review.
6. Review the configuration and click Create Auto Scaling Group.

   After the auto scaling group spins up (it will take some time), validate that your cluster has one container instance, where a container instance is the ECS vernacular for an EC2 instance that has joined the cluster and is ready to accept container workloads:

   • Go to Services > Containers > Elastic Container Service. The count for Container instances should be 1.
   • Click on the cluster, then click on the ECS Instances tab. In the status table, there should be a single entry. Click on the link under the EC2 Instance column. In the details page for the EC2 instance, record the Public DNS.

Copy the Prisma Cloud config file into place

The Prisma Cloud API serves the version of the configuration file used to instantiate Console. Use scp to copy twistlock.cfg from the Prisma Cloud release tarball to /twistlock_console/var/lib/twistlock-config on the infrastructure node.

1. Upload twistlock.cfg to the infrastructure node.

   1. Go to the directory where you unpacked the Prisma Cloud release tarball.
   2. Copy twistlock.cfg to the infrastructure node.

      $ scp -i <PATH-TO-KEY-FILE> twistlock.cfg ec2-user@<ECS_INFRA_NODE_DNS_NAME>:~

2. SSH to the infrastructure node.

   $ ssh -i <PATH-TO-KEY-FILE> ec2-user@<ECS_INFRA_NODE_DNS_NAME>

3. Copy the twistlock.cfg file into place.

   $ sudo cp twistlock.cfg /twistlock_console/var/lib/twistlock-config

4. Close your SSH session.

   $ exit

Create a Prisma Cloud Console task definition

Prisma Cloud provides a task definition template for Console. Download the template, then update the variables specific to your environment. Finally, load the task definition in ECS.

Prerequisites:

• The task definition provisions sufficient resources for Console to operate. The template specifies reasonable defaults. For more information, see the system requirements.

1. Download the Prisma Cloud Compute Console task definition, and open it for editing.
2. Update the value for image.

   Replace the following placeholder strings with the appropriate values:

   • <ACCESS-TOKEN> — Your Prisma Cloud access token. All characters must be lowercase.
   • <VERSION> — Version of the Console image to use. For example, for version 20.04.177, specify 20_04_177. The image and tag will look like console:console_20_04_177.
3. Update the value for`IP:<ECS_INFRA_NODE_IPADDR>` if you are using the IP address or replace it with DNS:<ECS_INFRA_NODE_DNS> to use the Load Balancer’s DNS name.
4. Go to Services > Containers > Elastic Container Service.
5. In the left menu, click Task Definitions.
6. Click Create new Task Definition.
7. Select EC2, and then click Next step.
8. In Step 2: Configure task and container definitions, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Configure via JSON.
9. Delete the default task definition, and replace it with the Prisma Cloud Compute Console task definition.
10. Click Save.
11. (Optional) Change the name of the task definition. By default, its name is pc-console.
12. Click Create.

Start the Prisma Cloud Console service

Create the Console service using the previously defined task definition. A single instance of Console will run on the infrastructure node.

1. Go to Services > Containers > Elastic Container Service.
2. In the left menu, click Clusters.
3. Click on your cluster.
4. In the Services tab, then click Create.
5. In Step 1: Configure service:

   1. For Launch type, select EC2.
   2. For Task Definition, select pc-console.
   3. In Service Name, enter pc-console.
   4. In Number of tasks, enter 1.
   5. Click Next Step.
6. In Step 2: Configure network:

   1. For Load Balancer type, select Classic Load Balancer.
   2. For Service IAM role, leave the default ecsServiceRole.
   3. For Load Balancer Name, select previously created load balancer.
   4. Unselect Enable Service discovery integration
   5. click Next Step.
7. In Step 3: Set Auto Scaling, accept the defaults, and click Next.
8. In Step 4: Review, click Create Service.
9. Wait for the service to launch, and then click View Service.
10. Wait for Last status to change to RUNNING (it can take a few minutes), and then proceed to the next step.

Configure Prisma Cloud Console

Navigate to Console’s web interface, create your first admin account, and enter your license.

1. Start a browser, then navigate to https://<LB_DNS_NAME>:8083
2. At the login page, create your first admin account. Enter a username and password.
3. Enter your license key, then click Register.

   You have successfully deployed the Prisma Cloud console on your ECS cluster. Next, deploy the Defender to protect your workloads.