Updating the Bid Price for the Spot Instances

Auto Scaling launch configurations cannot be changed. If you want to modify your bid price for Spot Instances, you must create a new launch configuration.

If, for example, you want to launch a set of Spot Instances that have a higher likelihood of running uninterrupted for a long time, you can use a higher bid price. To do this, you must create a new launch configuration, using the same procedure that you followed earlier in this walkthrough. (For more information, go to Step 1: Create a Launch Configuration.)

Specify the following values:

Your command should look similar to the following example:

as-create-launch-config spotlc-7cents --image-id ami-e565ba8c --instance-type m1.small --spot-price "0.07"
    

You should get a confirmation like the following example:

OK-Created launch config

After you have created the new launch configuration successfully, create a new Auto Scaling group specifying the new launch configuration.

Your command should look similar to the following example:

as-create-auto-scaling-group spotasg-7cents --launch-configuration spotlc-7cents --availability-zones "us-east-1a,us-east-1b" --max-size 5 --min-size 10 --desired-capacity 3
    

You should get a confirmation like the following example:

OK-Created AutoScalingGroup

You can view the status of your Spot bid and a list of the bids that Auto Scaling placed for you by running as-describe-scaling-activities soon after you create your Auto Scaling group.

Your command should look similar to the following example:

as-describe-scaling-activities --headers

If not all your bids are fulfilled, you will get information that looks like the following example:

ACTIVITY  ACTIVITY-ID                           END-TIME              GROUP-NAME      CODE                      MESSAGE
ACTIVITY  5879cc50-1e40-4539-a754-1cb084f1aecd                        spotasg-7cents  WaitingForSpotInstanceId  Placed Spot instance request: sir-93828812. Waiting for instance(s)
ACTIVITY  777fbe1b-7a24-4aaf-b7a9-d368d0511878                        spotasg-7cents  WaitingForSpotInstanceId  Placed Spot instance request: sir-016cf812. Waiting for instance(s)
ACTIVITY  f4b00f81-eaea-4421-80b4-a2e3a35cc782                        spotasg-7cents  WaitingForSpotInstanceId  Placed Spot instance request: sir-cf60ea12. Waiting for instance(s)
ACTIVITY  31bcbb67-7f50-4b88-ae7e-e564a8c80a90                        spotasg         WaitingForSpotInstanceId  Placed Spot instance request: sir-fc8a3014. Waiting for instance(s)
ACTIVITY  770bbeb5-407c-404c-a826-856f65db1c57                        spotasg         WaitingForSpotInstanceId  Placed Spot instance request: sir-69101014. Waiting for instance(s)
ACTIVITY  597e4ebd-220e-42bc-8ac9-2bae4d20b8d7  2012-05-23T17:40:22Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  eca158b4-a6f9-4ec5-a813-78d42c1738e2  2012-05-23T17:40:22Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  1a5bd6c6-0b0a-4917-8cf0-eee1044a179f  2012-05-23T17:22:19Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  c285bf16-d2c4-4ae8-acad-7450655facb5  2012-05-23T17:22:19Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  127e3608-5911-4111-906e-31fb16d43f2e  2012-05-23T15:38:06Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  bfb548ad-8bc7-4a78-a7db-3b41f73501fc  2012-05-23T15:38:07Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  82d2b9bb-3d64-46d9-99b6-054a9ecf5ac2  2012-05-23T15:30:28Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  95b7589b-f8ac-49bc-8c83-514bf664b4ee  2012-05-23T15:30:28Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  57bbf77a-99d6-4d94-a6db-76b2307fb9de  2012-05-23T15:16:34Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  cdef758e-0be2-416e-b402-0ef521861039  2012-05-23T15:16:17Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  d7e0a3ed-7067-4583-8a87-1561b3de2aed  2012-05-23T14:51:46Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  da5471ab-482c-4680-b430-99e4173d2bd7  2012-05-23T14:52:48Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  78701f3d-a747-46e1-8b0f-8aff22834f46  2012-05-23T14:38:17Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  274d4772-3614-4f5c-8858-026b33635be3  2012-05-23T14:38:16Z  spotasg         Successful                                                                                   
ACTIVITY  1024abb2-bf84-4fae-b717-a398bac91c4f  2012-05-23T14:22:39Z  spotasg         Successful             

Bids are represented by values such as sir-93828812 and sir-016cf812.

When you create a new launch configuration that sets a new bid price for Spot Instances, and you have Spot Instances already running based on a different price, these instances will continue running and will only be terminated if the Spot market price goes above the bid price on which it was based.

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