File: //usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/awscli/examples/ec2/describe-instances.rst
**Example 1: To describe an instance**
The following ``describe-instances`` example describes the specified instance. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--instance-ids i-1234567890abcdef0
Output::
{
"Instances": [
{
"AmiLaunchIndex": 0,
"ImageId": "ami-0abcdef1234567890,
"InstanceId": "i-1234567890abcdef0,
"InstanceType": "t2.micro",
"KeyName": "MyKeyPair",
"LaunchTime": "2018-05-10T08:05:20.000Z",
"Monitoring": {
"State": "disabled"
},
"Placement": {
"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-2a",
"GroupName": "",
"Tenancy": "default"
},
"PrivateDnsName": "ip-10-0-0-157.us-east-2.compute.internal",
"PrivateIpAddress": "10.0.0.157",
"ProductCodes": [],
"PublicDnsName": "",
"State": {
"Code": 0,
"Name": "pending"
},
"StateTransitionReason": "",
"SubnetId": "subnet-04a636d18e83cfacb",
"VpcId": "vpc-1234567890abcdef0",
"Architecture": "x86_64",
"BlockDeviceMappings": [],
"ClientToken": "",
"EbsOptimized": false,
"Hypervisor": "xen",
"NetworkInterfaces": [
{
"Attachment": {
"AttachTime": "2018-05-10T08:05:20.000Z",
"AttachmentId": "eni-attach-0e325c07e928a0405",
"DeleteOnTermination": true,
"DeviceIndex": 0,
"Status": "attaching"
},
"Description": "",
"Groups": [
{
"GroupName": "MySecurityGroup",
"GroupId": "sg-0598c7d356eba48d7"
}
],
"Ipv6Addresses": [],
"MacAddress": "0a:ab:58:e0:67:e2",
"NetworkInterfaceId": "eni-0c0a29997760baee7",
"OwnerId": "123456789012",
"PrivateDnsName": "ip-10-0-0-157.us-east-2.compute.internal",
"PrivateIpAddress": "10.0.0.157"
"PrivateIpAddresses": [
{
"Primary": true,
"PrivateDnsName": "ip-10-0-0-157.us-east-2.compute.internal",
"PrivateIpAddress": "10.0.0.157"
}
],
"SourceDestCheck": true,
"Status": "in-use",
"SubnetId": "subnet-04a636d18e83cfacb",
"VpcId": "vpc-1234567890abcdef0",
"InterfaceType": "interface"
}
],
"RootDeviceName": "/dev/xvda",
"RootDeviceType": "ebs",
"SecurityGroups": [
{
"GroupName": "MySecurityGroup",
"GroupId": "sg-0598c7d356eba48d7"
}
],
"SourceDestCheck": true,
"StateReason": {
"Code": "pending",
"Message": "pending"
},
"Tags": [],
"VirtualizationType": "hvm",
"CpuOptions": {
"CoreCount": 1,
"ThreadsPerCore": 1
},
"CapacityReservationSpecification": {
"CapacityReservationPreference": "open"
},
"MetadataOptions": {
"State": "pending",
"HttpTokens": "optional",
"HttpPutResponseHopLimit": 1,
"HttpEndpoint": "enabled"
}
}
],
"OwnerId": "123456789012"
"ReservationId": "r-02a3f596d91211712",
}
**Example 2: To describe instances based on filters**
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses filters to scope the results to instances of the specified type. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters Name=instance-type,Values=m5.large
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses multiple filters to scope the results to instances with the specified type that are also in the specified Availability Zone. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters Name=instance-type,Values=t2.micro,t3.micro Name=availability-zone,Values=us-east-2c
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses a JSON input file to perform the same filtering as the previous example. When filters get more complicated, they can be easier to specify in a JSON file. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters file://filters.json
Contents of ``filters.json``::
[
{
"Name": "instance-type",
"Values": ["t2.micro", "t3.micro"]
},
{
"Name": "availability-zone",
"Values": ["us-east-2c"]
}
]
For an example of the output for ``describe-instances``, see Example 1.
**Example 3: To describe instances based on tags**
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses tag filters to scope the results to instances that have a tag with the specified tag key (Owner), regardless of the tag value. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters "Name=tag-key,Values=Owner"
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses tag filters to scope the results to instances that have a tag with the specified tag value (my-team), regardless of the tag key. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters "Name=tag-value,Values=my-team"
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses tag filters to scope the results to instances that have the specified tag (Owner=my-team). ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters "Name=tag:Owner,Values=my-team"
For an example of the output for ``describe-instances``, see Example 1.
**Example 4: To display only specific output**
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses the ``--query`` parameter to display only the instance and subnet IDs for all instances, in JSON format.
Linux command::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].{Instance:InstanceId,Subnet:SubnetId}' \
--output json
Windows command::
aws ec2 describe-instances ^
--query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].{Instance:InstanceId,Subnet:SubnetId}" ^
--output json
Output::
[
{
"Instance": "i-057750d42936e468a",
"Subnet": "subnet-069beee9b12030077"
},
{
"Instance": "i-001efd250faaa6ffa",
"Subnet": "subnet-0b715c6b7db68927a"
},
{
"Instance": "i-027552a73f021f3bd",
"Subnet": "subnet-0250c25a1f4e15235"
}
...
]
The following ``describe-instances`` example uses filters to scope the results to instances of the specified type and the ``--query`` parameter to display only the instance IDs. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters Name=instance-type,Values=t2.micro \
--query Reservations[*].Instances[*].[InstanceId] \
--output text
Output::
i-031c0dc19de2fb70c
i-00d8bff789a736b75
i-0b715c6b7db68927a
i-0626d4edd54f1286d
i-00b8ae04f9f99908e
i-0fc71c25d2374130c
The following ``describe-instances`` example displays the instance ID, Availability Zone, and the value of the ``Name`` tag for instances that have a tag with the name ``tag-key``, in table format.
Linux command::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters Name=tag-key,Values=Name \
--query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].{Instance:InstanceId,AZ:Placement.AvailabilityZone,Name:Tags[?Key==`Name`]|[0].Value}' \
--output table
Windows command::
aws ec2 describe-instances ^
--filters Name=tag-key,Values=Name ^
--query "Reservations[*].Instances[*].{Instance:InstanceId,AZ:Placement.AvailabilityZone,Name:Tags[?Key=='Name']|[0].Value}" ^
--output table
Output::
-------------------------------------------------------------
| DescribeInstances |
+--------------+-----------------------+--------------------+
| AZ | Instance | Name |
+--------------+-----------------------+--------------------+
| us-east-2b | i-057750d42936e468a | my-prod-server |
| us-east-2a | i-001efd250faaa6ffa | test-server-1 |
| us-east-2a | i-027552a73f021f3bd | test-server-2 |
+--------------+-----------------------+--------------------+
**Example 5: To describe instances in a partition placement group**
The following ``describe-instances`` example describes the specified instance. The output includes the placement information for the instance, which contains the placement group name and the partition number for the instance. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--instance-id i-0123a456700123456
The following shows only the placement information from the output. ::
"Placement": {
"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c",
"GroupName": "HDFS-Group-A",
"PartitionNumber": 3,
"Tenancy": "default"
}
The following ``describe-instances`` example filters the results to only those instances with the specified placement group and partition number. ::
aws ec2 describe-instances \
--filters "Name = placement-group-name, Values = HDFS-Group-A" "Name = placement-partition-number, Values = 7"
The following shows only the relevant information from the output. ::
"Instances": [
{
"InstanceId": "i-0123a456700123456",
"InstanceType": "r4.large",
"Placement": {
"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c",
"GroupName": "HDFS-Group-A",
"PartitionNumber": 7,
"Tenancy": "default"
}
},
{
"InstanceId": "i-9876a543210987654",
"InstanceType": "r4.large",
"Placement": {
"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1c",
"GroupName": "HDFS-Group-A",
"PartitionNumber": 7,
"Tenancy": "default"
}
],
For more information, see `Describing instances in a placement group <https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/placement-groups.html#describe-instance-placement>`__ in the *Amazon EC2 Users Guide*.