Launch configurations - Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Launch configurations

Important

You can not call CreateLaunchConfiguration with new Amazon EC2 instance types that are released after December 31, 2022. In addition, any new accounts created on or after June 1, 2023 will not have the option to create new launch configurations through the console. However, API, CLI, and CloudFormation access will be available to new accounts created between June 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 to support customers with automation use cases. New accounts created on or after January 1, 2024 will not be able to create new launch configurations by using the console, API, CLI, and CloudFormation. For information about migrating your Auto Scaling groups to launch templates, see Migrate to launch templates.

A launch configuration is an instance configuration template that an Auto Scaling group uses to launch EC2 instances. When you create a launch configuration, you specify information for the instances. Include the ID of the Amazon Machine Image (AMI), the instance type, a key pair, one or more security groups, and a block device mapping. If you've launched an EC2 instance before, you specified the same information in order to launch the instance.

You can specify your launch configuration with multiple Auto Scaling groups. However, you can only specify one launch configuration for an Auto Scaling group at a time, and you can't modify a launch configuration after you've created it. To change the launch configuration for an Auto Scaling group, you must create a launch configuration and then update your Auto Scaling group with it.