Work with Spot Instances
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.
The following illustration shows how Spot Instance requests work. Notice that the request type (one-time or persistent) determines whether the request is opened again when Amazon EC2 interrupts a Spot Instance or if you stop a Spot Instance. If the request is persistent, the request is opened again after your Spot Instance is interrupted. If the request is persistent and you stop your Spot Instance, the request only opens after you start your Spot Instance.
Contents
- Spot Instance request states
- Specify a tenancy for your Spot Instances
- Service-linked role for Spot Instance requests
- Create a Spot Instance request
- Find running Spot Instances
- Tag Spot Instance requests
- Cancel a Spot Instance request
- Stop a Spot Instance
- Start a Spot Instance
- Terminate a Spot Instance
- Spot Instance request example launch specifications
Spot Instance request states
A Spot Instance request can be in one of the following states:
-
open– The request is waiting to be fulfilled. -
active– The request is fulfilled and has an associated Spot Instance. -
failed– The request has one or more bad parameters. -
closed– The Spot Instance was interrupted or terminated. -
disabled– You stopped the Spot Instance. -
cancelled– You canceled the request, or the request expired.
The following illustration represents the transitions between the request states. Notice that the transitions depend on the request type (one-time or persistent).
A one-time Spot Instance request remains active until Amazon EC2 launches the Spot Instance, the request expires, or you cancel the request. If capacity is not available, your Spot Instance is terminated and the Spot Instance request is closed.
A persistent Spot Instance request remains active until it expires or you cancel it, even if the request is fulfilled. If capacity is not available, your Spot Instance is interrupted. After your instance is interrupted, when capacity becomes available again, the Spot Instance is started if stopped or resumed if hibernated. You can stop a Spot Instance and start it again if capacity is available. If the Spot Instance is terminated (irrespective of whether the Spot Instance is in a stopped or running state), the Spot Instance request is opened again and Amazon EC2 launches a new Spot Instance. For more information, see Stop a Spot Instance, Start a Spot Instance, and Terminate a Spot Instance.
You can track the status of your Spot Instance requests, as well as the status of the Spot Instances launched, through the status. For more information, see Spot request status.
Specify a tenancy for your Spot Instances
You can run a Spot Instance on single-tenant hardware. Dedicated Spot Instances are physically
isolated from instances that belong to other AWS accounts. For more information, see
Dedicated Instances and the
Amazon
EC2 Dedicated Instances
To run a Dedicated Spot Instance, do one of the following:
-
Specify a tenancy of
dedicatedwhen you create the Spot Instance request. For more information, see Create a Spot Instance request. -
Request a Spot Instance in a VPC with an instance tenancy of
dedicated. For more information, see Create a VPC with a dedicated instance tenancy. You cannot request a Spot Instance with a tenancy ofdefaultif you request it in a VPC with an instance tenancy ofdedicated.
All instance families support Dedicated Spot Instances except T instances. For each supported instance family, only the largest instance size or metal size supports Dedicated Spot Instances.
Service-linked role for Spot Instance requests
Amazon EC2 uses service-linked roles for the permissions that it requires to call other AWS services on your behalf. A service-linked role is a unique type of IAM role that is linked directly to an AWS service. Service-linked roles provide a secure way to delegate permissions to AWS services because only the linked service can assume a service-linked role. For more information, see Using Service-Linked Roles in the IAM User Guide.
Amazon EC2 uses the service-linked role named AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot to launch and manage Spot Instances on your behalf.
Permissions granted by AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot
Amazon EC2 uses AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot to complete the following actions:
-
ec2:DescribeInstances– Describe Spot Instances -
ec2:StopInstances– Stop Spot Instances -
ec2:StartInstances– Start Spot Instances
Create the service-linked role
Under most circumstances, you don't need to manually create a service-linked role. Amazon EC2 creates the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot service-linked role the first time you request a Spot Instance using the console.
If you had an active Spot Instance request before October 2017, when Amazon EC2 began supporting this service-linked role, Amazon EC2 created the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot role in your AWS account. For more information, see A New Role Appeared in My Account in the IAM User Guide.
If you use the AWS CLI or an API to request a Spot Instance, you must first ensure that this role exists.
To create AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot using the console
Open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/
. -
In the navigation pane, choose Roles.
-
Choose Create role.
-
On the Select type of trusted entity page, choose EC2, EC2 - Spot Instances, Next: Permissions.
-
On the next page, choose Next:Review.
-
On the Review page, choose Create role.
To create AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot using the AWS CLI
Use the create-service-linked-role command as follows.
aws iam create-service-linked-role --aws-service-name spot.amazonaws.com
If you no longer need to use Spot Instances, we recommend that you delete the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot role. After this role is deleted from your account, Amazon EC2 will create the role again if you request Spot Instances.
Grant access to customer managed keys for use with encrypted AMIs and EBS snapshots
If you specify an encrypted AMI or an encrypted Amazon EBS snapshot for your Spot Instances and you use a customer managed key for encryption, you must grant the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot role permission to use the customer managed key so that Amazon EC2 can launch Spot Instances on your behalf. To do this, you must add a grant to the customer managed key, as shown in the following procedure.
When providing permissions, grants are an alternative to key policies. For more information, see Using Grants and Using Key Policies in AWS KMS in the AWS Key Management Service Developer Guide.
To grant the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot role permissions to use the customer managed key
-
Use the create-grant command to add a grant to the customer managed key and to specify the principal (the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot service-linked role) that is given permission to perform the operations that the grant permits. The customer managed key is specified by the
key-idparameter and the ARN of the customer managed key. The principal is specified by thegrantee-principalparameter and the ARN of the AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot service-linked role.aws kms create-grant \ --regionus-east-1\ --key-id arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:444455556666:key/1234abcd-12ab-34cd-56ef-1234567890ab\ --grantee-principal arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/AWSServiceRoleForEC2Spot \ --operations "Decrypt" "Encrypt" "GenerateDataKey" "GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlaintext" "CreateGrant" "DescribeKey" "ReEncryptFrom" "ReEncryptTo"
Create a Spot Instance 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 Spot request status.
Find running Spot Instances
Amazon EC2 launches a Spot Instance when capacity is available. A Spot Instance runs until it is interrupted or you terminate it yourself.
To find running Spot Instances (console)
-
Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/
. -
In the navigation pane, choose Spot Requests. You can see both Spot Instance requests and Spot Fleet requests. If a Spot Instance request has been fulfilled, Capacity is the ID of the Spot Instance. For a Spot Fleet, Capacity indicates how much of the requested capacity has been fulfilled. To view the IDs of the instances in a Spot Fleet, choose the expand arrow, or select the fleet and choose Instances.
Note For Spot Instance requests that are created by a Spot Fleet, the requests are not tagged instantly with the system tag that indicates the Spot Fleet to which they belong, and for a period of time may appear separate from Spot Fleet request.
Alternatively, in the navigation pane, choose Instances. In the top right corner, choose the settings icon (
), and then under Attribute
columns, select Instance lifecycle. For
each instance, Instance lifecycle is either
normal,spot, orscheduled.
To find running Spot Instances (AWS CLI)
To enumerate your Spot Instances, use the describe-spot-instance-requests command with the
--query option.
aws ec2 describe-spot-instance-requests \ --query "SpotInstanceRequests[*].{ID:InstanceId}"
The following is example output:
[
{
"ID": "i-1234567890abcdef0"
},
{
"ID": "i-0598c7d356eba48d7"
}
]Alternatively, you can enumerate your Spot Instances using the describe-instances
command with the --filters option.
aws ec2 describe-instances \ --filters "Name=instance-lifecycle,Values=spot"
To describe a single Spot Instance instance, use the describe-spot-instance-requests command with the
--spot-instance-request-ids option.
aws ec2 describe-spot-instance-requests \ --spot-instance-request-idssir-08b93456
Tag Spot Instance requests
To help categorize and manage your Spot Instance requests, you can tag them with custom metadata. You can assign a tag to a Spot Instance request when you create it, or afterward. You can assign tags using the Amazon EC2 console or a command line tool.
When you tag a Spot Instance request, the instances and volumes that are launched by the Spot Instance request are not automatically tagged. You need to explicitly tag the instances and volumes launched by the Spot Instance request. You can assign a tag to a Spot Instance and volumes during launch, or afterward.
For more information about how tags work, see Tag your Amazon EC2 resources.
Contents
Prerequisites
Grant the user the permission to tag resources. For more information about IAM policies and example policies, see Example: Tag resources.
The IAM policy you create is determined by which method you use for creating a Spot Instance request.
-
If you use the launch instance wizard or
run-instancesto request Spot Instances, see To grant a user the permission to tag resources when using the launch instance wizard or run-instances. -
If you use the
request-spot-instancescommand to request Spot Instances, see To grant a user the permission to tag resources when using request-spot-instances.
To grant a user the permission to tag resources when using the launch instance wizard or run-instances
Create a IAM policy that includes the following:
-
The
ec2:RunInstancesaction. This grants the user permission to launch an instance. -
For
Resource, specifyspot-instances-request. This allows users to create Spot Instance requests, which request Spot Instances. -
The
ec2:CreateTagsaction. This grants the user permission to create tags. -
For
Resource, specify*. This allows users to tag all resources that are created during instance launch.
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "AllowLaunchInstances", "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "ec2:RunInstances" ], "Resource": [ "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1::image/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:subnet/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:network-interface/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:security-group/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:key-pair/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:volume/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:instance/*", "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:*:spot-instances-request/*" ] }, { "Sid": "TagSpotInstanceRequests", "Effect": "Allow", "Action": "ec2:CreateTags", "Resource": "*" } ] }
When you use the RunInstances action to create Spot Instance requests and tag the
Spot Instance requests on create, you need to be aware of how Amazon EC2 evaluates the
spot-instances-request resource in the RunInstances
statement.
The spot-instances-request resource is evaluated in the IAM
policy as follows:
-
If you don't tag a Spot Instance request on create, Amazon EC2 does not evaluate the
spot-instances-requestresource in the RunInstances statement. -
If you tag a Spot Instance request on create, Amazon EC2 evaluates the
spot-instances-requestresource in the RunInstances statement.
Therefore, for the spot-instances-request resource, the following
rules apply to the IAM policy:
-
If you use RunInstances to create a Spot Instance request and you don't intend to tag the Spot Instance request on create, you don’t need to explicitly allow the
spot-instances-requestresource; the call will succeed. -
If you use RunInstances to create a Spot Instance request and intend to tag the Spot Instance request on create, you must include the
spot-instances-requestresource in the RunInstances allow statement, otherwise the call will fail. -
If you use RunInstances to create a Spot Instance request and intend to tag the Spot Instance request on create, you must specify the
spot-instances-requestresource or include a*wildcard in the CreateTags allow statement, otherwise the call will fail.
For example IAM policies, including policies that are not supported for Spot Instance requests, see Work with Spot Instances.
To grant a user the permission to tag resources when using request-spot-instances
Create a IAM policy that includes the following:
-
The
ec2:RequestSpotInstancesaction. This grants the user permission to create a Spot Instance request. -
The
ec2:CreateTagsaction. This grants the user permission to create tags. -
For
Resource, specifyspot-instances-request. This allows users to tag only the Spot Instance request.
{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Sid": "TagSpotInstanceRequest", "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "ec2:RequestSpotInstances", "ec2:CreateTags" ], "Resource": "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:111122223333:spot-instances-request/*" }
Tag a new Spot Instance request
To tag a new Spot Instance request using the console
-
Follow the Create a Spot Instance request procedure.
-
To add a tag, on the Add Tags page, choose Add Tag, and enter the key and value for the tag. Choose Add another tag for each additional tag.
For each tag, you can tag the Spot Instance request, the Spot Instances, and the volumes with the same tag. To tag all three, ensure that Instances, Volumes, and Spot Instance Requests are selected. To tag only one or two, ensure that the resources you want to tag are selected, and the other resources are cleared.
-
Complete the required fields to create a Spot Instance request, and then choose Launch. For more information, see Create a Spot Instance request.
To tag a new Spot Instance request using the AWS CLI
To tag a Spot Instance request when you create it, configure the Spot Instance request configuration as follows:
-
Specify the tags for the Spot Instance request using the
--tag-specificationparameter. -
For
ResourceType, specifyspot-instances-request. If you specify another value, the Spot Instance request will fail. -
For
Tags, specify the key-value pair. You can specify more than one key-value pair.
In the following example, the Spot Instance request is tagged with two tags: Key=Environment and Value=Production, and Key=Cost-Center and Value=123.
aws ec2 request-spot-instances \ --instance-count5\ --type "one-time" \ --launch-specification file://specification.json\ --tag-specification 'ResourceType=spot-instances-request,Tags=[{Key=Environment,Value=Production},{Key=Cost-Center,Value=123}]'
Tag an existing Spot Instance request
To tag an existing Spot Instance request using the console
After you have created a Spot Instance request, you can add tags to the Spot Instance request using the console.
Open the Amazon EC2 console at
https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/
-
In the navigation pane, choose Spot Requests.
-
Select your Spot Instance request.
-
Choose the Tags tab and choose Create Tag.
To tag an existing Spot Instance using the console
After your Spot Instance request has launched your Spot Instance, you can add tags to the instance using the console. For more information, see Add and delete tags on an individual resource.
To tag an existing Spot Instance request or Spot Instance using the AWS CLI
Use the create-tags command to tag existing resources. In the following example, the existing Spot Instance request and the Spot Instance are tagged with Key=purpose and Value=test.
aws ec2 create-tags \ --resourcessir-08b93456i-1234567890abcdef0\ --tags Key=purpose,Value=test
View Spot Instance request tags
To view Spot Instance request tags using the console
Open the Amazon EC2 console at
https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/
-
In the navigation pane, choose Spot Requests.
-
Select your Spot Instance request and choose the Tags tab.
To describe Spot Instance request tags
Use the describe-tags command to view the tags for the specified resource. In the following example, you describe the tags for the specified request.
aws ec2 describe-tags \ --filters "Name=resource-id,Values=sir-11112222-3333-4444-5555-66666EXAMPLE"
{
"Tags": [
{
"Key": "Environment",
"ResourceId": "sir-11112222-3333-4444-5555-66666EXAMPLE",
"ResourceType": "spot-instances-request",
"Value": "Production"
},
{
"Key": "Another key",
"ResourceId": "sir-11112222-3333-4444-5555-66666EXAMPLE",
"ResourceType": "spot-instances-request",
"Value": "Another value"
}
]
} You can also view the tags of a Spot Instance request by describing the Spot Instance request.
Use the describe-spot-instance-requests command to view the configuration of the specified Spot Instance request, which includes any tags that were specified for the request.
aws ec2 describe-spot-instance-requests \ --spot-instance-request-idssir-11112222-3333-4444-5555-66666EXAMPLE
{
"SpotInstanceRequests": [
{
"CreateTime": "2020-06-24T14:22:11+00:00",
"InstanceId": "i-1234567890EXAMPLE",
"LaunchSpecification": {
"SecurityGroups": [
{
"GroupName": "launch-wizard-6",
"GroupId": "sg-1234567890EXAMPLE"
}
],
"BlockDeviceMappings": [
{
"DeviceName": "/dev/xvda",
"Ebs": {
"DeleteOnTermination": true,
"VolumeSize": 8,
"VolumeType": "gp2"
}
}
],
"ImageId": "ami-1234567890EXAMPLE",
"InstanceType": "t2.micro",
"KeyName": "my-key-pair",
"NetworkInterfaces": [
{
"DeleteOnTermination": true,
"DeviceIndex": 0,
"SubnetId": "subnet-11122233"
}
],
"Placement": {
"AvailabilityZone": "eu-west-1c",
"Tenancy": "default"
},
"Monitoring": {
"Enabled": false
}
},
"LaunchedAvailabilityZone": "eu-west-1c",
"ProductDescription": "Linux/UNIX",
"SpotInstanceRequestId": "sir-1234567890EXAMPLE",
"SpotPrice": "0.012600",
"State": "active",
"Status": {
"Code": "fulfilled",
"Message": "Your spot request is fulfilled.",
"UpdateTime": "2020-06-25T18:30:21+00:00"
},
"Tags": [
{
"Key": "Environment",
"Value": "Production"
},
{
"Key": "Another key",
"Value": "Another value"
}
],
"Type": "one-time",
"InstanceInterruptionBehavior": "terminate"
}
]
} Cancel a Spot Instance request
If you no longer want your Spot Instance request, you can cancel it. You can only cancel Spot Instance
requests that are open, active, or
disabled.
-
Your Spot Instance request is
openwhen your request has not yet been fulfilled and no instances have been launched. -
Your Spot Instance request is
activewhen your request has been fulfilled and Spot Instances have launched as a result. -
Your Spot Instance request is
disabledwhen you stop your Spot Instance.
If your Spot Instance request is active and has an associated running Spot Instance, canceling
the request does not terminate the instance. For more information about terminating
a Spot Instance, see Terminate a Spot Instance.
To cancel a Spot Instance request (console)
-
Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/
. -
In the navigation pane, choose Spot Requests and select the Spot Instance request.
-
Choose Actions, Cancel request.
-
(Optional) If you are finished with the associated Spot Instances, you can terminate them. In the Cancel Spot request dialog box, select Terminate instances, and then choose Confirm.
To cancel a Spot Instance request (AWS CLI)
-
Use the cancel-spot-instance-requests command to cancel the specified Spot Instance request.
aws ec2 cancel-spot-instance-requests --spot-instance-request-idssir-08b93456
Stop a Spot Instance
If you don’t need your Spot Instances now, but you want to restart them later without losing the data persisted in the Amazon EBS volume, you can stop them. The steps for stopping a Spot Instance are similar to the steps for stopping an On-Demand Instance.
While a Spot Instance is stopped, you can modify some of its instance attributes, but not the instance type.
We don't charge usage for a stopped Spot Instance, or data transfer fees, but we do charge for the storage for any Amazon EBS volumes.
Limitations
-
You can only stop a Spot Instance if the Spot Instance was launched from a
persistentSpot Instance request. -
You can't stop a Spot Instance if the associated Spot Instance request is cancelled. When the Spot Instance request is cancelled, you can only terminate the Spot Instance.
-
You can't stop a Spot Instance if it is part of a fleet or launch group, or Availability Zone group.
Start a Spot Instance
You can start a Spot Instance that you previously stopped. The steps for starting a Spot Instance are similar to the steps for starting an On-Demand Instance.
Prerequisites
You can only start a Spot Instance if:
-
You manually stopped the Spot Instance.
-
The Spot Instance is an EBS-backed instance.
-
Spot Instance capacity is available.
-
The Spot price is lower than your maximum price.
Limitations
-
You can't start a Spot Instance if it is part of fleet or launch group, or Availability Zone group.
Terminate a Spot Instance
If you terminate a running or stopped Spot Instance that was launched by a persistent Spot Instance request,
the Spot Instance request transitions to the open state so that a new Spot Instance can
be launched. To ensure that no new Spot Instance is launched, you must first cancel the Spot Instance
request.
If you cancel an active Spot Instance request that has a running Spot Instance, the running Spot Instance
is not automatically terminated; you must manually terminate the Spot Instance.
If you cancel a disabled Spot Instance request that has a stopped Spot Instance, the stopped
Spot Instance is automatically terminated by the Amazon EC2 Spot service. There might be a
short lag between when you cancel the Spot Instance request and when the Spot service
terminates the Spot Instance.
For information about canceling a Spot Instance request, see Cancel a Spot Instance request.
