Retrieving Amazon ECS-Optimized AMI metadata

The AMI ID, image name, operating system, container agent version, and runtime version for each variant of the Amazon ECS-optimized AMIs can be programmatically retrieved by querying the Systems Manager Parameter Store API. For more information about the Systems Manager Parameter Store API, see GetParameters and GetParametersByPath.

Note

Your user account must have the following IAM permissions to retrieve the Amazon ECS-optimized AMI metadata. These permissions have been added to the AmazonECS_FullAccess IAM policy.

• ssm:GetParameters

• ssm:GetParameter

• ssm:GetParametersByPath

Systems Manager Parameter Store parameter format

The following is the format of the parameter name for each Amazon ECS-optimized AMI variant.

• Windows Server 2022 Full AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2022-English-Full-ECS_Optimized

• Windows Server 2022 Core AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2022-English-Core-ECS_Optimized

• Windows Server 2019 Full AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2019-English-Full-ECS_Optimized

• Windows Server 2019 Core AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2019-English-Core-ECS_Optimized

• Windows Server 20H2 Core AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-20H2-English-Core-ECS_Optimized

• Windows Server 2016 Full AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2016-English-Full-ECS_Optimized

The following parameter name format retrieves the metadata of the latest stable Amazon ECS-optimized Amazon Linux 2 AMI by using recommended.

/aws/service/ecs/optimized-ami/amazon-linux-2/recommended

The following is an example of the JSON object that is returned for the parameter value.

{
	"schema_version": 1,
	"image_name": "amzn2-ami-ecs-hvm-2.0.20181017-x86_64-ebs",
	"image_id": "ami-04a4fb062c609f55b",
	"os": "Amazon Linux 2",
	"ecs_runtime_version": "Docker version 18.06.1-ce",
	"ecs_agent_version": "1.21.0"
}

Each of the fields in the output above are available to be queried as sub-parameters. Construct the parameter path for a sub-parameter by appending the sub-parameter name to the path for the selected AMI. The following sub-parameters are available:

• schema_version

• image_id

• image_name

• os

• ecs_agent_version

• ecs_runtime_version

The following parameter name format retrieves the image ID of the latest stable Amazon ECS-optimized Amazon Linux 2 AMI by using the sub-parameter image_id.

/aws/service/ecs/optimized-ami/amazon-linux-2/recommended/image_id

The following parameter name format retrieves the metadata of a specific Amazon ECS-optimized AMI version by specifying the AMI name.

• Amazon ECS-optimized Amazon Linux 2 AMI metadata:

  /aws/service/ecs/optimized-ami/amazon-linux-2/amzn2-ami-ecs-hvm-2.0.20181112-x86_64-ebs

Note

All versions of the Amazon ECS-optimized Amazon Linux 2 AMI are available for retrieval. Only Amazon ECS-optimized AMI versions amzn-ami-2017.09.l-amazon-ecs-optimized (Linux) and later can be retrieved. For more information, see Amazon ECS-optimized AMI versions.

Examples

The following examples show ways in which you can retrieve the metadata for each Amazon ECS-optimized AMI variant.

Retrieving the metadata of the latest stable Amazon ECS-optimized AMI

You can retrieve the latest stable Amazon ECS-optimized AMI using the AWS CLI with the following AWS CLI commands.

• For the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server 2022 Full AMI:

  aws ssm get-parameters --names /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2022-English-Full-ECS_Optimized --region us-east-1

• For the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server 2022 Core AMI:

  aws ssm get-parameters --names /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2022-English-Core-ECS_Optimized --region us-east-1

• For the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server 2019 Full AMI:

  aws ssm get-parameters --names /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2019-English-Full-ECS_Optimized --region us-east-1

• For the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server 2019 Core AMI:

  aws ssm get-parameters --names /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2019-English-Core-ECS_Optimized --region us-east-1

• For the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server 20H2 Core AMI:

  aws ssm get-parameters --names /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-20H2-English-Core-ECS_Optimized --region us-east-1

• For the Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server 2016 Full AMI:

  aws ssm get-parameters --names /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2016-English-Full-ECS_Optimized --region us-east-1

Using the latest recommended Amazon ECS-optimized AMI in an AWS CloudFormation template

You can reference the latest recommended Amazon ECS-optimized AMI in an AWS CloudFormation template by referencing the Systems Manager parameter store name.

Parameters:
  LatestECSOptimizedAMI:
    Description: AMI ID
    Type: AWS::SSM::Parameter::Value<AWS::EC2::Image::Id>
    Default: /aws/service/ami-windows-latest/Windows_Server-2019-English-Full-ECS_Optimized/image_id