Create a Spot Instance request - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

Create a Spot Instance request

To use Spot Instances, you create a Spot Instance request that includes the desired number of instances, the instance type, and the Availability Zone. If capacity is available, Amazon EC2 fulfills your request immediately. Otherwise, Amazon EC2 waits until your request can be fulfilled or until you cancel the request.

You can use the launch instance wizard in the Amazon EC2 console or the run-instances AWS CLI command to request a Spot Instance in the same way that you can launch an On-Demand Instance. This method is only recommended for the following reasons:

  • You're already using the launch instance wizard or run-instances command to launch On-Demand Instances, and you simply want to change to launching Spot Instances by changing a single parameter.

  • You do not need multiple instances with different instance types.

This method is generally not recommended for launching Spot Instances because you can't specify multiple instance types, and you can't launch Spot Instances and On-Demand Instances in the same request. For the preferred methods for launching Spot Instances, which include launching a fleet that includes Spot Instances and On-Demand Instances with multiple instance types, see Which is the best Spot request method to use?

If you request multiple Spot Instances at one time, Amazon EC2 creates separate Spot Instance requests so that you can track the status of each request separately. For more information about tracking Spot Instance requests, see Get the status of a Spot Instance request.

Console
To create a Spot Instance request using the launch instance wizard

Steps 1–9 are the same steps you'd use to launch an On-Demand Instance. At Step 10, you configure the Spot Instance request.

  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. In the navigation bar at the top of the screen, select a Region.

  3. From the Amazon EC2 console dashboard, choose Launch instance.

  4. (Optional) Under Name and tags, you can name your instance, and tag the Spot Instance request, the instance, the volumes, and the elastic graphics. For information about tags, see Tag your Amazon EC2 resources.

    1. For Name, enter a descriptive name for your instance.

      The instance name is a tag, where the key is Name, and the value is the name that you specify. If you don't specify a name, the instance can be identified by its ID, which is automatically generated when you launch the instance.

    2. To tag the Spot Instance request, the instance, the volumes, and the elastic graphics, choose Add additional tags. Choose Add tag, and then enter a key and value, and select the resource type to tag. Choose Add tag again for each additional tag to add.

  5. Under Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image), choose the operating system (OS) for your instance, and then select an AMI. For more information, see Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image).

  6. Under Instance type, select the instance type that meets your requirements for the hardware configuration and size of your instance. For more information, see Instance type.

  7. Under Key pair (login), choose an existing key pair, or choose Create new key pair to create a new one. For more information, see Amazon EC2 key pairs and Amazon EC2 instances.

    Important

    If you choose the Proceed without key pair (Not recommended) option, you won't be able to connect to the instance unless you choose an AMI that is configured to allow users another way to log in.

  8. Under Network settings, use the default settings, or choose Edit to configure the network settings as necessary.

    Security groups form part of the network settings, and define firewall rules for your instance. These rules specify which incoming network traffic is delivered to your instance.

    For more information, see Network settings.

  9. The AMI you selected includes one or more volumes of storage, including the root device volume. Under Configure storage, you can specify additional volumes to attach to the instance by choosing Add new volume. For more information, see Configure storage.

  10. Under Advanced details, configure the Spot Instance request as follows:

    1. Under Purchasing option, select the Request Spot Instances check box.

    2. You can either keep the default configuration for the Spot Instance request, or choose Customize (at the right) to specify custom settings for your Spot Instance request.

      When you choose Customize, the following fields appear.

      1. Maximum price: You can request Spot Instances at the Spot price, capped at the On-Demand price, or you can specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay.

        Warning

        If you specify a maximum price, your instances will be interrupted more frequently than if you choose No maximum price.

        • No maximum price: Your Spot Instance will launch at the current Spot price. The price will never exceed the On-Demand price. (Recommended)

        • Set your maximum price (per instance/hour): You can specify the maximum amount you're willing pay.

          • If you specify a maximum price that is less than the current Spot price, your Spot Instance will not launch.

          • If you specify a maximum price that is more than the current Spot price, your Spot Instance will launch and be charged at the current Spot price. After your Spot Instance is running, if the Spot price rises above your maximum price, Amazon EC2 interrupts your Spot Instance.

          • Regardless of the maximum price you specify, you will always be charged the current Spot price.

          To review Spot price trends, see Spot Instance pricing history.

      2. Request type: The Spot Instance request type that you choose determines what happens if your Spot Instance is interrupted.

        • One-time: Amazon EC2 places a one-time request for your Spot Instance. If your Spot Instance is interrupted, the request is not resubmitted.

        • Persistent request: Amazon EC2 places a persistent request for your Spot Instance. If your Spot Instance is interrupted, the request is resubmitted to replenish the interrupted Spot Instance.

        If you do not specify a value, the default is a one-time request.

      3. Valid to: The expiration date of a persistent Spot Instance request.

        This field is not supported for one-time requests. A one-time request remains active until all the instances in the request launch or you cancel the request.

        • No request expiry date: The request remains active until you cancel it.

        • Set your request expiry date: The persistent request remains active until the date that you specify, or until you cancel it.

      4. Interruption behavior: The behavior that you choose determines what happens when a Spot Instance is interrupted.

        • For persistent requests, valid values are Stop and Hibernate. When an instance is stopped, charges for EBS volume storage apply.

          Note

          Spot Instances now use the same hibernation functionality as On-Demand Instances. To enable hibernation, you can either choose Hibernate here, or you can choose Enable from the Stop - Hibernate behavior field, which appears lower down in the launch instance wizard. For the hibernation prerequisites, see Prerequisites for Amazon EC2 instance hibernation.

        • For one-time requests, only Terminate is valid.

        If you do not specify a value, the default is Terminate, which is not valid for a persistent Spot Instance request. If you keep the default and try to launch a persistent Spot Instance request, you'll get an error.

        For more information, see Behavior of Spot Instance interruptions.

  11. On the Summary panel, for Number of instances, enter the number of instances to launch.

    Note

    Amazon EC2 creates a separate request for each Spot Instance.

  12. On the Summary panel, review the details of your instance, and make any necessary changes. After you submit your Spot Instance request, you can't change the parameters of the request. You can navigate directly to a section in the launch instance wizard by choosing its link in the Summary panel. For more information, see Summary.

  13. When you're ready to launch your instance, choose Launch instance.

    If the instance fails to launch or the state immediately goes to terminated instead of running, see Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 instance launch issues.

AWS CLI
To create a Spot Instance request using run-instances

Use the run-instances command and specify the Spot Instance options in the --instance-market-options parameter.

aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type t2.micro \
    --count 5 \
    --subnet-id subnet-08fc749671b2d077c \
    --key-name MyKeyPair \
    --security-group-ids sg-0b0384b66d7d692f9 \
    --instance-market-options file://spot-options.json

The following is the data structure to specify in the JSON file for --instance-market-options. You can also specify ValidUntil and InstanceInterruptionBehavior. If you do not specify a field in the data structure, the default value is used.

The following example creates a persistent request. 

{
  "MarketType": "spot",
  "SpotOptions": {
    "SpotInstanceType": "persistent"
  }
}

 

To create a Spot Instance request using request-spot-instances

Note

We strongly discourage using the request-spot-instances command to request a Spot Instance because it is a legacy API with no planned investment. For more information, see Which is the best Spot request method to use?

Use the request-spot-instances command to create a one-time request.

aws ec2 request-spot-instances \
    --instance-count 5 \
    --type "one-time" \
    --launch-specification file://specification.json

Use the request-spot-instances command to create a persistent request.

aws ec2 request-spot-instances \
    --instance-count 5 \
    --type "persistent" \
    --launch-specification file://specification.json

For example launch specification files to use with these commands, see Spot Instance request example launch specifications. If you download a launch specification file from the Spot Requests console, you must use the request-spot-fleet command instead (the Spot Requests console specifies a Spot Instance request using a Spot Fleet).