Launch Amazon EC2 instances on an Amazon EC2 Dedicated Host

After you have allocated a Dedicated Host, you can launch instances onto it. You can't launch instances with host tenancy if you do not have active Dedicated Hosts with enough available capacity for the instance type that you are launching.

Tip

For Dedicated Hosts that support multiple instance sizes, we recommend that you launch the larger instance sizes first, and then fill the remaining instance capacity with the smaller instance sizes as needed.

Before you launch your instances, take note of the limitations. For more information, see Dedicated Hosts restrictions.

You can launch an instance onto a Dedicated Host using the following methods.

Console

To launch an instance onto a specific Dedicated Host from the Dedicated Hosts page

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. Choose Dedicated Hosts in the navigation pane.

3. On the Dedicated Hosts page, select a host and choose Actions, Launch Instance(s) onto host.

4. In the Application and OS Images section, select an AMI from the list.

   Note

   SQL Server, SUSE, and RHEL AMIs provided by Amazon EC2 can't be used with Dedicated Hosts.

5. In the Instance type section, select the instance type to launch.

   Note

   If the Dedicated Host supports a single instance type only, the supported instance type is selected by default and can't be changed.

   If the Dedicated Host supports multiple instance types, you must select an instance type within the supported instance family based on the available instance capacity of the Dedicated Host. We recommend that you launch the larger instance sizes first, and then fill the remaining instance capacity with the smaller instance sizes as needed.

6. In the Key pair section, select the key pair to associate with the instance.

7. In the Advanced details section, for Tenancy affinity, choose one of the following:

   • Off — Host affinity disabled. The instance launches onto the specified host, but it is not guaranteed to restart on the same Dedicated Host if stopped.

   • A Dedicated Host ID — Host affinity enabled. If stopped, the instance always restarts on this specified host if it has capacity. If the host does not have capacity, the instance can't be restarted; you must estabilish affinity with a different host.

   For more information about Affinity, see Amazon EC2 Dedicated Host auto-placement and host affinity.

   Note

   The Tenancy and Host options are pre-configured based on the host that you selected.

8. Configure the remaining instance options as needed. For more information, see Launch an instance using defined parameters.

9. Choose Launch instance.

To launch an instance onto a Dedicated Host using the Launch Instance wizard

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Instances, Launch instance.

3. In the Application and OS Images section, select an AMI from the list.

   Note

   SQL Server, SUSE, and RHEL AMIs provided by Amazon EC2 can't be used with Dedicated Hosts.

4. In the Instance type section, select the instance type to launch.

5. In the Key pair section, select the key pair to associate with the instance.

6. In the Advanced details section, do the following:

   1. For Tenancy, select Dedicated Host.

   2. For Target host by, select Host ID.

   3. For Target host ID, select the host onto which to launch the instance.

   4. For Tenancy affinity, choose one of the following:

      • Off — Host affinity disabled. The instance launches onto the specified host, but it is not guaranteed to restart on the same Dedicated Host if stopped.

      • A Dedicated Host ID — Host affinity enabled. If stopped, the instance always restarts on this specified host if it has capacity. If the host does not have capacity, the instance can't be restarted; you must estabilish affinity with a different host.

      For more information about Affinity, see Amazon EC2 Dedicated Host auto-placement and host affinity.

7. Configure the remaining instance options as needed. For more information, see Launch an instance using defined parameters.

8. Choose Launch instance.

AWS CLI

To launch an instance onto a Dedicated Host

Use the run-instances AWS CLI command and specify the instance affinity, tenancy, and host in the Placement request parameter.

PowerShell

To launch an instance onto a Dedicated Host

Use the New-EC2Instance AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell command and specify the instance affinity, tenancy, and host in the Placement request parameter.