Purpose

Application Auto Scaling notes for ECS, DynamoDB, custom metrics, and queue-backed services.

ECS Target Tracking Example

aws application-autoscaling register-scalable-target --service-namespace ecs --resource-id service/<cluster>/<service> --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount --min-capacity 1 --max-capacity 10
aws application-autoscaling put-scaling-policy --service-namespace ecs --resource-id service/<cluster>/<service> --scalable-dimension ecs:service:DesiredCount --policy-name sqs-backlog-target-tracking --policy-type TargetTrackingScaling --target-tracking-scaling-policy-configuration file://ecs-scaling-policy.json

Checklist

• [ ] Register scalable target before attaching a policy.
• [ ] Use target tracking for stable metrics; use step scaling for sharper thresholds.
• [ ] For queue consumers, track backlog per worker/task, not only total queue depth.
• [ ] Confirm CloudWatch metric dimensions match the service/resource exactly.

Cross-links

• EKS Operations
• Catalog Service workshop

Verified References

What is Application Auto Scaling?

Target tracking policies