AWS Elastic Beanstalk basics

When first getting started with AWS Elastic Beanstalk here are some basic things to know

1. Logging : In Java, logging is done using the Apache Commons Logging framework. Logs can be captured with Apache Log4j or any other component that supports Apache Commons Logging.

2. Custom AMIs can be used : The process is documented here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/using-features.customenv.html

3. RDS support: Amazon RDS Oracle, MySQL and SQL Server databases can deployed as part of you Elastic Beanstalk application. 

4. Launch New Environment to get OS patches : Amazon periodically updates the AMIs that were used to build the server instances, but servers can’t be updated while their running. When you launch a new environment, you get the updates.
5. Load Balancing : The Elastic Beanstalk service creates the load balancer for you.
6. Auto Scaling : The service creates the auto scaling configuration and group for you.

7..Custom configuration : Example Uses for YAML Configuration 

• Define custom environment variables beyond PARAMx
• Identify files to be downloaded to hosts 
• Can automatically unpack downloaded archive files
• Specify software to install Specify which services should run on hosts 
• Create and run scripts 
• Create and configure AWS resources

More on Elastic Beanstalk here: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/Welcome.html