Creating a Spot Instance Request

To create a Spot Instance request

1. From the Amazon EC2 console, click Spot Requests in the navigation pane.

2. Click the Request Spot Instances button.

   The Request Instances Wizard starts.

3. In the Request Instances Wizard, choose an AMI, and click Select.

4. On the INSTANCE DETAILS page, specify the number and type of instances you want. Then in the Request Spot Instances section, choose and specify the options you want to configure your Spot Instance settings, and click Continue.

   

   Note

   Amazon EC2 supports the following platforms: EC2-Classic and EC2-VPC. Your AWS account is capable of launching instances either into both platforms or only into EC2-VPC, on a region-by-region basis. If your account is capable of launching instances into both platforms, you will see the EC2-Classic and EC2-VPC tabs. If your account can launch instances only into EC2-VPC, you will not see any tab. Instead, you will see a Subnet drop-down box that lets you select where to launch your Spot Instance. For information, see Supported Platforms.

   Option	Description
   Current Price	Displays the price for the Availability Zone you specified, or the lowest price across all Availability Zones if you do not specify an Availability Zone.
   Max Price	Specifies the maximum price you are willing to pay per instance hour.
   Request Valid From and Request Valid Until	Defines the validity period of a Spot request. The validity period, beginning with Request Valid From through Request Valid Until, specifies the length of time that your request will remain valid. By default, a Spot request will be considered for fulfillment from the time it is created until it is either fulfilled or canceled by you. However, you can constrain the validity period using these options. Note The end time you specify doesn't apply to the Spot Instances launched by this request. This end time only applies to the Spot Instance request.
   Persistent Request?	Determines whether your request is one-time or persistent. By default, it is one-time. A one-time request can only be fulfilled once. A persistent request is considered for fulfillment whenever there is no Spot Instance running for the same request.
   Launch Group	Groups a set of requests together in the same launch group. All requests in a launch group have their instances started and terminated together. For more information about using Launch Group in your Spot request, see Launching Spot Instances in Launch Groups and Availability Zones.
   Availability Zone Group	Groups a set of requests together in the same Availability Zone. All requests that share an Availability Zone group will launch Spot Instances in the same Availability Zone. For more information about using Availability Zone Group in your Spot request, see Launching Spot Instances in Launch Groups and Availability Zones.

5. Continue with the wizard as you normally would when launching instances.

   If your request specified multiple instances, Amazon EC2 creates a separate Spot Instance request for each instance. The requests are displayed on the Spot Requests page.

To create a Spot price request

• Enter the following command:

  PROMPT> ec2-request-spot-instances
  --price price
  --user-data data
  --instance-count count
  --type one-time | persistent
  [--valid-from timestamp]
  [--valid-until timestamp]
  [--launch-group launchgroup]
  (run-instances-arguments)
  

  For example:

  PROMPT> ec2-request-spot-instances --price 0.32 ami-1234abcd --key MyKeypair --group websrv --instance-type m1.small --instance-count 10 --type one-time

  Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

  SPOTINSTANCEREQUEST     sir-09fb0a04    0.32    one-time        Linux/UNIX     open     2010-04-06T10:03:09+0200   ami-1234abc     m1.small        MyKeypair     websrv      monitoring-disabled
  ...

  If your request specified multiple instances, Amazon EC2 creates a separate Spot Instance request for each instance; each instance has a different ID (e.g., sir-09fb0a04).

To create a Spot price request

• Construct a Query request similar to the following.

  https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
  ?Action=RequestSpotInstances
  &SpotPrice.1=0.50
  &InstanceCount.1=10
  &Type.1=one-time
  &AvailabilityZoneGroup.1=MyAzGroup
  &LaunchSpecification.ImageId.1=ami-43a4412a
  &LaunchSpecification.KeyName.1=MyKeypair
  &LaunchSpecification.GroupSet.1=websrv
  &LaunchSpecification.InstanceType.1=m1.small
  &...auth parameters...

  Following is an example response.

  <RequestSpotInstancesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
     <spotInstanceRequestSet>
        <item>
           <spotInstanceRequestId>sir-876aff12</spotInstanceRequestId>
           <spotPrice>0.32</spotPrice>
           <type>one-time</type>
           <state>open</state>
           <fault/>
           <validFrom/>
           <validUntil/>
           <launchGroup/>
           <availabilityZoneGroup>MyAzGroup</availabilityZoneGroup>
           <launchSpecification>
              <imageId>ami-43a4412a</imageId>
              <keyName>MyKeypair</keyName>
              <groupSet>
                 <item>
                    <groupId>websrv</groupId>
                 </item>
              </groupSet>
              <instanceType>m1.small</instanceType>
              ...
           </launchSpecification>
           <instanceId/>
           <createTime>2009-10-19T00:00:00+0000</createTime>
           <productDescription>Linux/UNIX</productDescription>
           <tagSet/>
        </item>
        ...
     </spotInstanceRequestSet>
  </RequestSpotInstancesResponse>

  If your request specified multiple instances, Amazon EC2 creates a separate Spot Instance request for each instance; each instance has a different ID (e.g., sir-876aff12).