Create an Auto Scaling group using the Amazon EC2 launch wizard - Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Create an Auto Scaling group using the Amazon EC2 launch wizard

The following procedure shows how to create an Auto Scaling group by using the Launch instance wizard in the Amazon EC2 console. This option automatically populates a launch template with certain configuration details from the Launch instance wizard.

Note

The wizard does not populate the Auto Scaling group with the number of instances you specify; it only populates the launch template with the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID and instance type. Use the Create Auto Scaling group wizard to specify the number of instances to launch.

An AMI provides the information required to configure an instance. You can launch multiple instances from a single AMI when you need multiple instances with the same configuration. We recommend using a custom AMI that already has your application installed on it to avoid having your instances terminated if you reboot an instance belonging to an Auto Scaling group. To use a custom AMI with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, you must first create your AMI from a customized instance, and then use the AMI to create a launch template for your Auto Scaling group.

Prerequisites
  • You must have created a custom AMI in the same AWS Region where you plan to create the Auto Scaling group. For more information, see Create an AMI in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances.

Use a custom AMI as a template

In this section, you use the Amazon EC2 launch wizard to automatically populate a launch template with your custom AMI. Alternatively, to set up the launch template from scratch or for more description of the parameters you can configure for your launch template, see Create your launch template (console).

To use a custom AMI as a template
  1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

  2. On the navigation bar at the top of the screen, the current AWS Region is displayed. Select a Region in which to launch your Auto Scaling group.

  3. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

  4. Choose Launch instance, and then do the following:

    1. Under Name and tags, leave Name blank. The name isn't part of the data that's used to create a launch template.

    2. Under Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image), choose Browse more AMIs to browse the full AMI catalog.

    3. Choose My AMIs, find the AMI that you created, and then choose Select.

    4. Under Instance type, choose an instance type.

      Note

      Choose the same instance type that you used when you created the AMI or a more powerful one.

    5. On the right side of the screen, under Summary, for Number of instances, enter any number. The number that you enter here isn't important. You will specify the number of instances that you want to launch when you create the Auto Scaling group.

      Under the Number of instances field, a message displays that says When launching more than 1 instance, consider EC2 Auto Scaling.

    6. Choose the consider EC2 Auto Scaling hyperlink text.

    7. On the Launch into Auto Scaling Group confirmation dialogue, choose Continue to go to the Create launch template page with the AMI and instance type you selected in the launch instance wizard already populated.

After you choose Continue, the Create launch template page opens. Follow this procedure to finish creating a launch template.

To create a launch template
  1. Under Launch template name and description, enter a name and description for the new launch template.

  2. (Optional) Under Key pair (login), for Key pair name, choose the name of the previously created key pair to use when connecting to instances, for example, using SSH.

  3. (Optional) Under Network settings, for Security groups, choose one or more previously created security groups.

  4. (Optional) Under Configure storage, update the storage configuration. The default storage configuration is determined by the AMI and the instance type.

  5. When you are done configuring the launch template, choose Create launch template.

  6. On the confirmation page, choose Create Auto Scaling group.

Create an Auto Scaling group

Note

The rest of this topic describes the basic procedure for creating an Auto Scaling group. For more description of the parameters you can configure for your Auto Scaling group, see Create an Auto Scaling group using a launch template.

After you choose Create Auto Scaling group, the Create Auto Scaling group wizard opens. Follow this procedure to create an Auto Scaling group.

To create an Auto Scaling group
  1. On the Choose launch template or configuration page, enter a name for the Auto Scaling group.

  2. The launch template that you created is already selected for you.

    For Launch template version, choose whether the Auto Scaling group uses the default, the latest, or a specific version of the launch template when scaling out.

  3. Choose Next to continue to the next step.

  4. On the Choose instance launch options page, if you're not using multiple instance types, you can skip the Instance type requirements section to use the EC2 instance type that is specified in the launch template.

    To use multiple instance types, see Auto Scaling groups with multiple instance types and purchase options.

  5. Under Network, for VPC, choose a VPC. The Auto Scaling group must be created in the same VPC as the security group you specified in your launch template.

    Tip

    If you didn't specify a security group in your launch template, your instances are launched with a default security group from the VPC that you specify. By default, this security group doesn't allow inbound traffic from external networks.

  6. For Availability Zones and subnets, choose one or more subnets in the specified VPC.

  7. Choose Next twice to go to the Configure group size and scaling policies page.

  8. Under Group size, define the Desired capacity (initial number of instances to launch immediately after the Auto Scaling group is created).

  9. In the Scaling section, under Scaling limits, if your new value for Desired capacity is greater than Min desired capacity and Max desired capacity, the Max desired capacity is automatically increased to the new desired capacity value. You can change these limits as needed. For more information, see Set scaling limits for your Auto Scaling group.

  10. Choose Skip to review.

  11. On the Review page, choose Create Auto Scaling group.

Next steps

You can check that the Auto Scaling group has been created correctly by viewing the activity history. On the Activity tab, under Activity history, the Status column shows whether your Auto Scaling group has successfully launched instances. If the instances fail to launch or they launch but then immediately terminate, see the following topics for possible causes and resolutions:

You can now attach a load balancer in the same Region as your Auto Scaling group, if desired. For more information, see Use Elastic Load Balancing to distribute traffic across the instances in your Auto Scaling group.