Finding Running Spot Instances

To find running Spot Instances

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

   The console displays a list of running instances.

   

2. To identify which of the instances were launched as a result of Spot requests, match the Instance IDs in the Instances page— where the Lifecycle column lists the instance as spot—with Instance IDs in the Spot Requests page. (You might need to turn on the display of the column by clicking Show/Hide in the top right corner.)

   

To find running Spot Instances

1. Use ec2-describe-spot-instance-requests. If your Spot Instance request has been fulfilled (an instance has been launched), the instance ID appears in the response.

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-spot-instance-requests
   SPOTINSTANCEREQUEST     sir-e1471206    0.09    one-time        Linux/UNIX      active  2010-09-13T16:50:44-0800
   i-992cf7dd      ami-813968c4    m1.small        MyKey   default                         monitoring-disabled

2. Alternatively, you can use ec2-describe-instances with the following filter: --filter instance-lifecycle=spot. If you're using the command line tools on a Windows system, you might need to use quotation marks (--filter "instance-lifecycle=spot"). For more information about filters, see Listing and Filtering Your Resources.

   PROMPT>  ec2-describe-instances --filter instance-lifecycle=spot

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

   RESERVATION     r-b58651f1      111122223333    default
   INSTANCE        i-992cf7dd      ami-813968c4    ec2-184-72-8-111.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com    ip-10-166-105-139.us-west-1.compute.internal
     running    MyKey   0               m1.small        2010-09-13T23:54:40+0000        us-west-1a      aki-a13667e4    ari-a33667e6            
     monitoring-disabled   184.72.8.111    10.166.105.139                  ebs     spot    sir-e1471206                paravirtual

To find running Spot Instances

1. Construct a DescribeInstances Query request and use a filter to look for instances where instance-lifecycle=spot. For more information about filters, see Listing and Filtering Your Resources.

   https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
   ?Action=DescribeInstances
   &Filter.1.Name=instance-lifecycle
   &Filter.1.Value.1=spot
   &...auth parameters...

   Following is an example response. It includes an instanceLifecycle element with spot as the value.

   <DescribeInstancesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
     ...
      <instancesSet>
      <item>
        <instanceId>i-992cf7dd</instanceId>
        <imageId>ami-813968c4</imageId>
        <instanceState>
          <code>16</code>
          <name>running</name>
        </instanceState>
        <privateDnsName>ip-10-166-105-139.us-west-1.compute.internal</privateDnsName>
        <dnsName>ec2-184-72-8-111.us-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com</dnsName>
        <reason/>
        <keyName>MyKey</keyName>
        <amiLaunchIndex>0</amiLaunchIndex>
        <productCodes/>
        <instanceType>m1.small</instanceType>
        <launchTime>2010-09-13T23:54:40.000Z</launchTime>
        <placement>
          <availabilityZone>us-west-1a</availabilityZone>
          <groupName/>
        </placement>
        <kernelId>aki-a13667e4</kernelId>
        <ramdiskId>ari-a33667e6</ramdiskId>
        <monitoring>
          <state>disabled</state>
        </monitoring>
        <privateIpAddress>10.166.105.139</privateIpAddress>
        <ipAddress>184.72.8.111</ipAddress>
        <architecture>i386</architecture>
        <rootDeviceType>ebs</rootDeviceType>
        <rootDeviceName>/dev/sda1</rootDeviceName>
        <blockDeviceMapping>
          <item>
            <deviceName>/dev/sda1</deviceName>
            <ebs>
              <volumeId>vol-61088f0a</volumeId>
              <status>attached</status>
              <attachTime>2010-09-13T23:54:42.000Z</attachTime>
              <deleteOnTermination>true</deleteOnTermination>
            </ebs>
          </item>
        </blockDeviceMapping>
        <instanceLifecycle>spot</instanceLifecycle>
        <spotInstanceRequestId>sir-e1471206</spotInstanceRequestId>
        <virtualizationType>paravirtual</virtualizationType>
      </item>
    </instancesSet>
   </DescribeInstancesResponse>

2. Alternatively, you can use DescribeSpotInstanceRequests. If your Spot Instance request has been fulfilled (an instance has been launched), the instance ID appears in the response. Following is an excerpt from a response.

   ...
   <spotInstanceRequestSet>
      <item>
         <spotInstanceRequestId>sir-e1471206</spotInstanceRequestId>
         <spotPrice>0.09</spotPrice>
         <type>one-time</type>
         <state>active</state>
         <launchSpecification>
            <imageId>ami-813968c4</imageId>
            <keyName>MyKey</keyName>
            <groupSet>
               <item>
                  <groupId>default</groupId>
               </item>
            </groupSet>
            <instanceType>m1.small</instanceType>
            <blockDeviceMapping/>
            <monitoring>
               <enabled>false</enabled>
            </monitoring>
         </launchSpecification>
         <instanceId>i-992cf7dd</instanceId>
         <createTime>2010-09-13T23:50:44.000Z</createTime>
         <productDescription>Linux/UNIX</productDescription>
         <launchedAvailabilityZone>us-east-1c</launchedAvailabilityZone>
      </item>
   <spotInstanceRequestSet/>
   ...