Demo Integration Testing AWS EC2 Instance

In our previous guide, we deployed a Docker image to an AWS EC2 instance. Now, we’ll enhance our Jenkins pipeline with an Integration Testing stage that dynamically discovers the EC2 instance’s public endpoint and performs HTTP checks against our service.

Prerequisites

• Docker container running on EC2 (port 3000)
• AWS CLI configured with permissions to ec2:DescribeInstances
• jq and curl installed on the Jenkins agent
• Jenkins credentials (AWS Access Key & Secret) stored (e.g., ID aws-s3-ec2-lambda-creds)

1. Verify the Running Container

Log into your EC2 instance and confirm the application is up:

ubuntu@ip-172-31-25-250:~$ sudo docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                        COMMAND                  CREATED           STATUS          PORTS                    NAMES
cab88363d990   siddharth67/solar-system:5376ef094c479356f…   "docker-entrypoint.s…"   53 minutes ago    Up 53 minutes   0.0.0.0:3000->3000/tcp   solar-system

2. Create the Integration Test Script

At the root of your Git repo, add integration-testing-ec2.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "Integration test starting..."
aws --version

# Fetch instances and parse JSON
DATA=$(aws ec2 describe-instances)
echo "Raw describe-instances response: $DATA"

# Extract public DNS for tag "dev-deploy"
URL=$(echo "$DATA" \
  | jq -r '.Reservations[].Instances[]
      | select(.Tags[].Value == "dev-deploy")
      | .PublicDnsName')

echo "Discovered URL: $URL"
[[ -z "$URL" ]] && { echo "Failed to fetch URL; check AWS credentials and tags."; exit 1; }

# Define endpoints
declare -A ENDPOINTS=(
  ["/live"]="GET"
  ["/planet"]="POST"
)

# Test /live
HTTP_CODE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "http://$URL:3000/live")
echo "HTTP status code at /live: $HTTP_CODE"

# Test /planet
PLANET_DATA=$(curl -s -X POST "http://$URL:3000/planet" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id":"3"}')
echo "Response from /planet: $PLANET_DATA"

PLANET_NAME=$(echo "$PLANET_DATA" | jq -r '.name')
echo "Parsed planet name: $PLANET_NAME"

# Validate responses
if [[ "$HTTP_CODE" -eq 200 && "$PLANET_NAME" == "Earth" ]]; then
  echo "Integration tests passed."
else
  echo "One or more integration tests failed."
  exit 1
fi

Make it executable:

chmod +x integration-testing-ec2.sh

3. AWS CLI: describe-instances

We use the AWS CLI’s describe-instances to list EC2 instances and filter by tag.

Example JSON snippet:

{
  "Reservations": [
    {
      "Instances": [
        {
          "InstanceId": "i-1234567890abcdef0",
          "PublicDnsName": "ec2-34-253-223-13.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com",
          "PublicIpAddress": "34.253.223.13",
          "Tags": [
            { "Key": "Name", "Value": "dev-deploy" }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

We extract .PublicDnsName where .Tags[].Value == "dev-deploy" using jq.

4. Integrating with Jenkins Pipeline

We’ll add a new stage Integration Testing – AWS EC2 in the Jenkinsfile:

1. Trigger on feature/* branches
2. Use withAWS (AWS Pipeline Steps plugin) for credentials and region
3. Execute our shell script

Credentials Setup

Generate withAWS Snippet

Use Jenkins’ Pipeline Syntax to obtain:

Jenkinsfile Stage

stage('Integration Testing - AWS EC2') {
  when {
    branch 'feature/*'
  }
  steps {
    sh 'printenv | grep -i branch'

    withAWS(credentials: 'aws-s3-ec2-lambda-creds', region: 'us-east-2') {
      sh 'bash integration-testing-ec2.sh'
    }
  }
}

5. Pipeline Execution & Results

After pushing changes, the new stage runs automatically. Here’s a successful pipeline:

Log excerpt:

$ printenv | grep -i branch
BRANCH_NAME=feature/enabling-cicd

[Integration Testing - AWS EC2] $ bash integration-testing-ec2.sh
Integration test starting...
aws-cli/2.17.56 Python/3.10.6 Linux/...
Raw describe-instances response: { ... }
Discovered URL: ec2-3-140-244-188.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com
HTTP status code at /live: 200
Response from /planet: {"id":3,"name":"Earth"}
Parsed planet name: Earth
Integration tests passed.

6. Summary of Endpoints Tested

With this setup, each commit on a feature branch dynamically locates the EC2 instance, verifies service health, and enforces basic integration tests before completing the pipeline.

References

• AWS CLI describe-instances
• Jenkins AWS Steps Plugin
• jq Documentation
• curl Manual