A Python 3 command line script with arguments to create AWS EC2 Instances in your account
This article is a guide on using the EC2 Instance Launcher Python script to create AWS instances.
There is some setup work to be done before being able to use the script. You may refer to the getting started guide, but specifics are covered below:
-
You must install Python 3
-
You must install the
botoPython package. You can do this by executing the following command:
pip3 install boto
- You must configure boto, by creating a configuration file. The configuration must contain the following:
[Credentials]
aws_access_key_id = YOURACCESSKEY
aws_secret_access_key = YOURSECRETKEY
Your access_key_id and aws_secret_access_key are provided to you when you first create your account. You cannot retrieve the values again, but can regenerate them in the AWS console.
On Mac/Unix computers, the boto config file must be created in the the file ~/.boto
On Windows computers, create any file but set a user environment variable named BOTO_CONFIG to the full path of that file.
You can read up further about boto config
When you clone the repository you will see a file entitled Ec2InstanceLauncher.py in the aws folder.
You can see how to use this script by running the script with the -h or --help flag to understand its usage
$ python3 Ec2InstanceLauncher.py -h
usage: Ec2InstanceLauncher.py [-h] [-r REGION] [-i IMAGE_ID]
[-t INSTANCE_TYPE] [-d DISK_SIZE]
[-v VOLUME_DIRECTORY]
keyname security_group_name
Create an AWS instance with the specified key name and security groups.
positional arguments:
keyname The key name to use as created in AWS console
security_group_name The security group name to use as created in AWS
console
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-r REGION, --region REGION
Specify the global region to create instance in
(default: eu-west-1)
-i IMAGE_ID, --image-id IMAGE_ID
Specify the image ID to create instance from (default:
ami-5f2f5528)
-t INSTANCE_TYPE, --instance-type INSTANCE_TYPE
Specify the instance type to create instance from
(default: t2.micro)
-d DISK_SIZE, --disk-size DISK_SIZE
Specify the disk size in GB (default: 30)
-v VOLUME_DIRECTORY, --volume-directory VOLUME_DIRECTORY
Specify the directory to create volume mount in
(default: /dev/xvda)
There are 2 mandatory arguments you must provide: keyname and security_group_name. the keyname is the AWS key you would like to use to create the ssh key access of the primary account for the instances to be created. the security_group_name is the AWS security group that you would like to use to apply security settings on the instance to be created.
There are several optional arguments you can provide aswell. These optional arguments have default values set that will be used unless you specify other values for them. Currently the opitonal values are set to create a CoreOS 681.2.0 server with 30 GB of disk space in volume mount folder /dev/xda. The instance type is the t2.micro, creating this instance in Ireland (eu-west-1).
(Note: If you do want to proceed with CoreOS instance creation, your security group must have ports 4001 and 7001 open)
You can now run the script to create an instance, which will output information on the console as it executes:
$ python3 Ec2InstanceLauncher.py hakanozbay-key-pair-ireland hakanozbay_SG_euireland
Attempting to create an AWS Instance using the following parameters:
{'disk_size': 30,
'image_id': 'ami-5f2f5528',
'instance_type': 't2.micro',
'keyname': 'hakanozbay-key-pair-ireland',
'region': 'eu-west-1',
'security_group_name': 'hakanozbay_SG_euireland',
'volume_directory': '/dev/xvda'}
====================
Attempting to conenct to region: eu-west-1
Connection to region eu-west-1 made succesfully!
====================
Creating block device volume size 30 GB of type gp2 in volume directory /dev/xvda
Block device created successfully!
====================
Attempting to create and run instance using the following details -
Image ID : ami-5f2f5528, Key name: hakanozbay-key-pair-ireland, Security group: hakanozbay_SG_euireland, Instance type: t2.micro, User data: #cloud-config
coreos:
etcd:
discovery: https://discovery.etcd.io/abcdef
addr: $private_ipv4:4001
peer-addr: $private_ipv4:7001
units:
- name: etcd.service
command: start
- name: fleet.service
command: start
Reservation created succesfully! Details - Reservation ID: r-1ec482b4, Owner ID: 824654475944, Security Groups: [], Instances: [Instance:i-570e9df6]
====================
Getting created instance from reservation...
Instance details:
{'_in_monitoring_element': False,
'_placement': eu-west-1b,
'_previous_state': None,
'_state': pending(0),
'ami_launch_index': '0',
'architecture': 'x86_64',
'block_device_mapping': {},
'client_token': '',
'connection': EC2Connection:ec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com,
'dns_name': '',
'ebs_optimized': False,
'eventsSet': None,
'group_name': None,
'groups': [<boto.ec2.group.Group object at 0x1032d8160>],
'hypervisor': 'xen',
'id': 'i-570e9df6',
'image_id': 'ami-5f2f5528',
'instance_profile': None,
'instance_type': 't2.micro',
'interfaces': [NetworkInterface:eni-96d858df],
'ip_address': None,
'item': '\n ',
'kernel': None,
'key_name': 'hakanozbay-key-pair-ireland',
'launch_time': '2015-08-19T20:16:18.000Z',
'monitored': False,
'monitoring': '\n ',
'monitoring_state': 'disabled',
'persistent': False,
'platform': None,
'private_dns_name': 'ip-172-31-42-223.eu-west-1.compute.internal',
'private_ip_address': '172.31.42.223',
'product_codes': [],
'public_dns_name': '',
'ramdisk': None,
'reason': '',
'region': RegionInfo:eu-west-1,
'requester_id': None,
'root_device_name': '/dev/xvda',
'root_device_type': 'ebs',
'sourceDestCheck': 'true',
'spot_instance_request_id': None,
'state_reason': {'code': 'pending', 'message': 'pending'},
'subnet_id': 'subnet-2a62d15d',
'tags': {},
'virtualization_type': 'hvm',
'vpc_id': 'vpc-53f62b36'}
====================
Instance created and launched successfully!
After this is done, you can check on the AWS console to verify that the volume and instance has been created.