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Tagging Auto Scaling Groups and Amazon EC2 Instances

You can use Auto Scaling group tags to organize your Auto Scaling resources and provide additional information for your Auto Scaling group such as software version, role, or location information. Like Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) tags, Auto Scaling group tags provide search, group, and filter functionality. These tags have a key and value that can be modified. You can also remove Auto Scaling group tags any time. For more information about Amazon EC2 tags, see Using Tags.

Additional Features

Optionally, you can propagate Auto Scaling group tags to the Amazon EC2 instances launched by Auto Scaling. The Auto Scaling group tags that you propagate to Amazon EC2 instances can be used like any other Amazon EC2 instance tag, including cost allocation. For more information about cost allocation, see Cost Allocation and Tagging in the AWS Account Billing.

When you use the PropagateAtLaunch flag with the as-create-or-update-tags command, the tag you create will be applied to new Amazon EC2 instances launched by the Auto Scaling group. Likewise, when you modify a tag, the updated version will be applied to new instances launched by the Auto Scaling group after the change. Tags created or modified with the as-create-or-update-tags command will not apply to instances that are already running at the time you used the command. For an example, go to Change the Tag.

Note

When you launch instances in an Auto Scaling group, Auto Scaling automatically tags each one with the group name. This tag can be identified by its key, aws:autoscaling:groupName. Tags containing the prefix aws: have been created by AWS, cannot be edited or deleted, and do not count against your limit of 10 tags per instance.

In this section, we will use the Auto Scaling command line interface (CLI) commands to create and update tags. We will use Amazon EC2 CLI commands to confirm that the new and updated tags are applied to instances launched after the tags are created. In this scenario, we will perform the following tasks:

Create a launch configuration.
Create an Auto Scaling group with a tag.
Confirm that the Auto Scaling group has a tag and that the tag is applied to instances that the Auto Scaling group launches.
Change the tag and the Auto Scaling group, and confirm that the changes are propagated to the new instances that the Auto Scaling group launches.
Clean up.

Tools You Will Use

You will use the following Auto Scaling and Amazon EC2 command line interface (CLI) commands.

Note

We will discuss in detail the Auto Scaling CLI commands. For more information on specific Amazon EC2 CLI commands that we use in this walkthrough, go to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud CLI Reference.

Command	Description
`as-create-launch-config`	Creates a new launch configuration with specified attributes.
`as-create-auto-scaling-group`	Creates a new Auto Scaling group with specified name and other attributes.
`as-create-or-update-tags`	Creates new tags or updates existing tags.
`as-describe-auto-scaling-groups`	Describes the Auto Scaling groups, if the groups exist.
`as-describe-auto-scaling-instances`	Describes the Auto Scaling instances, if the instances exist.
`as-describe-tags`	Lists your tags. You can filter the list to return only the tags you specify.
`as-update-auto-scaling-group`	Updates specified Auto Scaling group.
`ec2-describe-instances`	Returns information about EC2 instances that you own.
`as-delete-auto-scaling-group`	Deletes the specified auto scaling group, if the group has no instances and no scaling activities are in progress.

For common conventions the documentation uses to represent command symbols, see Document Conventions.

Create a Launch Configuration

If you're not familiar with how to create a launch configuration or an Auto Scaling group, we recommend that you go through the steps in the Basic Auto Scaling Configuration. Use the basic scenario to get started with the infrastructure that you need in most Auto Scaling scenarios.

For this tagging walkthrough, the following values will be specified for the as-create-launch-config command:

Launch configuration name = MyTagLC
Image ID = ami-31814f58
If you don't have an AMI, and you want to find a suitable one, see Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).
Instance type = m1.small

Your command should look similar to the following example:

as-create-launch-config MyTagLC --image-id ami-31814f58 --instance-type m1.small

You should get a confirmation like the following example:

OK-Created launch config

Create a Tag for Your Auto Scaling Group

Create your Auto Scaling group with a tag and specify that the tag also applies to the instances launched by the Auto Scaling group. You use the --tag option to define the tag for your Auto Scaling group and instances. For more detailed information on the syntax of the as-create-auto-scaling-group command, go to Create an Auto Scaling Group.

Specify these values for the command:

Auto Scaling Group name = MyTagASG
Launch configuration name = MyTagLC
Availability Zone = us-east-1a
Max size = 10
Min size = 1

In addition, the --tag parameter should be specified this way:

--tag "k=value, [id=value], [t=value], [v=value], [p=value]" [--tag "k=value, [id=value], [t=value], [v=value], [p=value]"...]

Provide these values for the following tag options:

Option	Description	Example value
`k`	Tag's key, as part of key-value pair. Always required.	`version`
`v`	Tag's value, as part of key-value pair. Optional.	`1.0`
`t`	The type of resource to which the tag is applied. Not required with `as-create-auto-scaling-group` because the tag is being created with the Auto Scaling group resource.	Not specified with the `as-create-auto-scaling-group` command.
`id`	The name of the resource to which the tag is applied. Not required with `as-create-auto-scaling-group` because the tag is being created with the Auto Scaling group resource.	Not specified with the `as-create-auto-scaling-group` command.
`p`	The propagate-at-launch flag. Specify this flag only if you want the tags to be applied to newly launched Amazon EC2.	`true`

Your command should look like the following example:

as-create-auto-scaling-group MyTagASG --launch-configuration MyTagLC --availability-zones us-east-1a --min-size 1 --max-size 10 --tag "k=version, v=1.0, p=true"

You should get confirmation like the following example:

OK-Created AutoScalingGroup

Confirm Tag Creation

To verify that the tag is created, applied to the Auto Scaling group, and that the instance is launched, use the following Auto Scaling commands:

as-describe-tags
as-describe-auto-scaling-groups
as-describe-auto-scaling-instances

In addition, use the ec2-describe-instances EC2 command to get detailed information about the instances that the Auto Scaling group launched.

Use the as-describe-tags command to verify that the tag is created. The command takes the following arguments:
as-describe-tags [--filter "key1=value1,key2=value2..." [--filter "key1=value1,key2=value2..." ...]] [General Options]
The key1, key2 filter options are the resource name, resource type, tag key, tag value, and the propagate flag that you used to define your tag. For this walkthrough, specify the following:
- Tag key: key=version
- Tag value: value=1.0
Your command should look like the following example:
```
as-describe-tags --filter "key=version, value=1.0"
```
You should receive a confirmation that Auto Scaling created the tag, like the following example response:
```
TAG MyTagASG auto-scaling-group version 1.0 true
```
Use the as-describe-auto-scaling-groups command to confirm that the tag is applied to the Auto Scaling group MyTagASG. The command describes the Auto Scaling group, if the group exists, and takes the following arguments:
as-describe-auto-scaling-groups [AutoScalingGroupNames[AutoScalingGroupNames...]][--max-records value] [General Options]
Your command should look like the following example:
```
as-describe-auto-scaling-groups MyTagASG
```
You should receive a response that includes information confirming that Auto Scaling applied the tag to the Auto Scaling group MyTagASG. The response should look like the following example:
```
AUTO-SCALING-GROUP  MyTagASG  MyTagLC  us-east-1a   1  10   5               
INSTANCE  INSTANCE-ID  AVAILABILITY-ZONE  STATE      STATUS   LAUNCH-CONFIG
TAG  RESOURCE-ID  RESOURCE-TYPE       KEY      VALUE  PROPAGATE-AT-LAUNCH
TAG  MyTagASG     auto-scaling-group  version  1.0    true
```
Use the as-describe-auto-scaling-instances command to get a list of EC2 instance that the Auto Scaling group launched. This command describes the specified Auto Scaling instances, if they exist, or lists all the Auto Scaling instances if no instance is specified. The command takes the following arguments:
as-describe-auto-scaling-instances [InstanceIds[InstanceIds...]][--max-records value] [General Options]
For this walkthrough, do not specify any of the optional parameters, so your command should look like the following example:
```
as-describe-auto-scaling-instances
```
You should get a listing that looks like the following example:
```
INSTANCE  i-33698556   MyTagASG   us-east-1b    InService  Healthy  MyTagLC
```
From the result, get the instance ID of the instance that the MyTagASG launched. You will use it for the next command.

Use the ec2-describe-instances command to get specific information about EC2 instances. This command returns information about instances you own. For more information about this CLI command, see ec2-describe-instances.

In the ec2-describe-instances command, specify the instance ID of the EC2 instance to which the tag was propagated. Your command should look like the following example:

ec2-describe-instances i-33698556

Your result should show that the tag was applied to the instance, as in the following example:

RESERVATION	r-45253524	629715795501	default
INSTANCE	i-33698556	ami-31814f58	ec2-23-20-37-36.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-32-153-166.ec2.internal	running		0		m1.small	2012-01-23T21:41:44+0000	us-east-1a	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-enabled	23.20.37.36	10.32.153.166			ebs					paravirtual	xen	29849241-1242-4524-ba07-09248cd29652	sg-286ee441	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-2f303942	2012-01-23T21:42:12.000Z	
TAG	instance	i-33698556	version	1.0
TAG	instance	i-33698556	aws:autoscaling:groupName	MyTagASG

Change the Tag

Now you can update the tag and modify the Auto Scaling group. Use the as-create-or-update-tags command and the as-update-auto-scaling-group command to make the changes.

The as-create-or-update-tags command takes the following arguments:

as-create-or-update-tags --tag "id=value,t=value, k=value, [v=value], [p=value]" [--tag "id=value, t=value, k=value, [v=value], [p=value]]" ...] [General Options]

Update the tag value to 2.0, so your command should look like the following example:

as-create-or-update-tags --tag "id=MyTagASG, t=auto-scaling-group, k=version, v=2.0, p=true"

Note

You must specify the resource name and resource type so that Auto Scaling knows to which Auto Scaling resource the tag applies. Resource name is the id (in the example it's id=MyTagASG) and resource type is t (in the example, it's t=auto-scaling-group).

You should receive a confirmation similar to the following example:

OK-Created/Updated tags

Now, you can use the as-update-auto-scaling-group command to modify the Auto Scaling group by increasing the number of EC2 instances to be launched. Change the min-size value to 5.

The as-update-auto-scaling-group command takes the following arguments:

as-update-auto-scaling-group AutoScalingGroupName [--availability-zones value[,value...]] [--default-cooldown value] [--desired-capacity value] [--grace-period value] [--health-check-type value] [--launch-configuration value] [--max-size value] [--min-size value] [--placement-group value] [--vpc-zone-identifier value] [General Options]

Your command should look similar to the following example:

as-update-auto-scaling-group MyTagASG --min-size 5

The confirmation should look like the following example:

OK-Updated AutoScalingGroup

To verify that Auto Scaling updated the Auto Scaling Group MyTagASG and that Auto Scaling launched four additional instances to meet the new minimum size of 5, run the as-describe-auto-scaling-instances command with no arguments, like the following example:

as-describe-auto-scaling-instances

Your results should be similar to the following example:

INSTANCE  i-2346af46  MyTagASG            us-east-1a  InService  HEALTHY  MyTagLC
INSTANCE  i-2546af40  MyTagASG            us-east-1a  InService  HEALTHY  MyTagLC
INSTANCE  i-33698556  MyTagASG            us-east-1a  InService  HEALTHY  MyTagLC
INSTANCE  i-5346af36  MyTagASG            us-east-1a  InService  HEALTHY  MyTagLC
INSTANCE  i-566da836  MyAutoScalingGroup  us-east-1b  InService  HEALTHY  MyLCwebapp
INSTANCE  i-5946af3c  MyTagASG            us-east-1a  InService  HEALTHY  MyTagLC

To verify that tag value 2.0 was applied to instances launched after the tag was updated, run the ec2-describe-instances command.

You should get a result set similar to the following example:

RESERVATION	r-45253524	629715795501	default
INSTANCE	i-33698556	ami-31814f58	ec2-23-20-37-36.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-32-153-166.ec2.internal	running		0		m1.small	2012-01-23T21:41:44+0000	us-east-1a	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-enabled	23.20.37.36	10.32.153.166			ebs					paravirtual	xen	29849241-1242-4524-ba07-09248cd29652	sg-286ee441	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-2f303942	2012-01-23T21:42:12.000Z	
TAG	instance	i-33698556	version	1.0
TAG	instance	i-33698556	aws:autoscaling:groupName	MyTagASG
RESERVATION	r-b1ebf9d0	629715795501	default
INSTANCE	i-5346af36	ami-31814f58	ec2-107-22-159-5.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-204-54-176.ec2.internal	running		0		m1.small	2012-01-24T07:17:50+0000	us-east-1a	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-enabled	107.22.159.5	10.204.54.176			ebs					paravirtual	xen	a848fb19-703f-4579-9ee4-930b2f1e5a9f	sg-286ee441	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-b3aea6de	2012-01-24T07:18:10.000Z	
TAG	instance	i-5346af36	aws:autoscaling:groupName	MyTagASG
TAG	instance	i-5346af36	version	2.0
RESERVATION	r-b7ebf9d6	629715795501	default
INSTANCE	i-5946af3c	ami-31814f58	ec2-50-16-11-77.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-118-54-85.ec2.internal	running		0		m1.small	2012-01-24T07:17:52+0000	us-east-1a	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-enabled	50.16.11.77	10.118.54.85			ebs					paravirtual	xen	bfa8068e-a3a9-4374-8db0-7550010f477f	sg-286ee441	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-8daea6e0	2012-01-24T07:18:15.000Z	
TAG	instance	i-5946af3c	version	2.0
TAG	instance	i-5946af3c	aws:autoscaling:groupName	MyTagASG
RESERVATION	r-bbebf9da	629715795501	default
INSTANCE	i-2546af40	ami-31814f58	ec2-50-19-152-11.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-116-241-173.ec2.internal	running		0		m1.small	2012-01-24T07:17:53+0000	us-east-1a	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-enabled	50.19.152.11	10.116.241.173			ebs					paravirtual	xen	7d419c3a-0527-4970-80f5-b6467ce44849	sg-286ee441	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-89aea6e4	2012-01-24T07:18:18.000Z	
TAG	instance	i-2546af40	version	2.0
TAG	instance	i-2546af40	aws:autoscaling:groupName	MyTagASG
RESERVATION	r-bfebf9de	629715795501	default
INSTANCE	i-2346af46	ami-31814f58	ec2-184-72-167-153.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-203-54-74.ec2.internal	running		0		m1.small	2012-01-24T07:17:54+0000	us-east-1a	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-enabled	184.72.167.153	10.203.54.74			ebs					paravirtual	xen	ec0221df-0274-44e1-aa13-04b7f17442ef	sg-286ee441	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-8baea6e6	2012-01-24T07:18:15.000Z	
TAG	instance	i-2346af46	aws:autoscaling:groupName	MyTagASG
TAG	instance	i-2346af46	version	2.0

Clean-up

After you're finished using your instances and your Auto Scaling group, it is a good practice to clean up. Run the as-delete-auto-scaling-group command with the optional --force-delete parameter. Force delete specifies that EC2 instances that are part of the Auto Scaling group will be deleted with the Auto Scaling group, even if the instances are still running. If you don't specify the --force-delete parameter, then you cannot delete your Auto Scaling group until you have manually stopped and terminated all instances of that Auto Scaling group.

Run the command with the following values:

Auto Scaling group name = MyTagASG
Force delete (optional parameter) = --force-delete

Your command should look like the following example:

as-delete-auto-scaling-group MyTagASG --force-delete

Confirm that you want to delete the Auto Scaling group. After you confirm that you want to delete the Auto Scaling group, Auto Scaling deletes the group, as the following example shows:

Are you sure you want to delete this AutoScalingGroup? [Ny]
OK-Deleted AutoScalingGroup

Tasks Completed

You just performed the following tasks:

Created a launch configuration.
Created an Auto Scaling group with a tag.
Confirmed that the Auto Scaling group has a tag and that the tag is applied to instances that the Auto Scaling group launched.
Changed the tag and Auto Scaling group, and confirmed that the changes are propagated to new instances launched.
Cleaned up.

Following is the complete snippet used to perform these tasks. You can copy the snippet, replace the values with your own, and use the code to get started.

Note

The instance associated with the Auto Scaling group you just created is not launched immediately. So, if you run the snippet as a single code block, it could take a few minutes before you see the instance information.

as-create-launch-config MyTagLC --image-id ami-31814f58 --instance-type m1.small
as-create-auto-scaling-group MyTagASG --launch-configuration MyTagLC --availability-zones us-east-1a --min-size 1 --max-size 10 --tag "k=version, v=1.0, p=true"
as-describe-tags --filter "key1=version, key2=1.0"
as-describe-auto-scaling-groups MyTagASG
as-describe-auto-scaling-instances
ec2-describe-instances i-33698556
as-create-or-update-tags --tag "id=MyTagASG, t=auto-scaling-group, k=version, v=2.0, p=true"
as-update-auto-scaling-group MyTagASG --min-size 5
as-describe-auto-scaling-instances
ec2-describe-instances
as-delete-auto-scaling-group MyTagASG --force-delete

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