What is the counterpart of a Docker host in ECS?

General Discussions
1

Beginner question:
when we use Amazon ECS to host Docker containers, what is the counterpart there for a Docker host? Which entity is serving the role of hosting the containers?

I read through the documentation, it appears that an ECS instance is closest to the “host” I know of in a on-prem environment, which ECS container instances are the actual containers running. An ECS instance can host multiple container instances.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonECS/latest/developerguide/ECS_instances.html

Is my understanding consistent with what is really happening under the hood?

Thanks!

2

Yes, your understanding is correct. Multiple ECS instances form a cluster on which the containers get hosted. Each ECS instance is a Docker host with container agent running.