AWS CLI v2 — EC2 & Auto Scaling (ECS-Relevant)

Overview

Reference for aws ec2 and aws autoscaling subcommands relevant to deploying ECS on EC2. Scoped to infrastructure commands needed for ECS clusters — not the full 400+ EC2 command set.

Quick Reference — Common Workflows

Find latest ECS-optimized AMI

bash

aws ec2 describe-images \
  --owners amazon \
  --filters "Name=name,Values=amzn2-ami-ecs-hvm-*-x86_64-ebs" \
  --query 'Images | sort_by(@, &CreationDate) | [-1].[ImageId,Name]' \
  --output text

Create VPC + subnet for ECS

bash

aws ec2 create-vpc --cidr-block 10.0.0.0/16 --query 'Vpc.VpcId' --output text
aws ec2 create-subnet --vpc-id vpc-xxx --cidr-block 10.0.1.0/24 --availability-zone us-east-1a
aws ec2 create-internet-gateway --query 'InternetGateway.InternetGatewayId' --output text
aws ec2 attach-internet-gateway --internet-gateway-id igw-xxx --vpc-id vpc-xxx

Create security group for ECS

bash

aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name ecs-sg --description "ECS instances" --vpc-id vpc-xxx
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-xxx --protocol tcp --port 80 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

Create launch template for ECS instances

bash

aws ec2 create-launch-template --launch-template-name ecs-lt \
  --launch-template-data '{
    "ImageId":"ami-xxx",
    "InstanceType":"t3.medium",
    "IamInstanceProfile":{"Name":"ecsInstanceRole"},
    "UserData":"#!/bin/bash\necho ECS_CLUSTER=my-cluster >> /etc/ecs/ecs.config"
  }'

Covered Command Groups

Group	Commands	CLI Service
Instances	run, describe, terminate, start, stop, reboot	`aws ec2`
Security Groups	create, delete, describe, authorize/revoke ingress/egress	`aws ec2`
VPC	vpc, subnet, igw, route-table, nat-gateway, elastic-ip	`aws ec2`
Key Pairs	create, delete, describe, import	`aws ec2`
AMIs	describe-images	`aws ec2`
Launch Templates	create, delete, describe, versions, modify	`aws ec2`
Auto Scaling	create/delete/describe/update ASG, launch configurations	`aws autoscaling`

Command Reference

See references/index.md for the quick reference table and global options.

Group	File	Commands
Instances	`instances.md`	run-instances, describe-instances, terminate-instances, start-instances, stop-instances, reboot-instances
Security Groups	`security-groups.md`	create-security-group, delete-security-group, describe-security-groups, authorize-security-group-ingress, authorize-security-group-egress, revoke-security-group-ingress, revoke-security-group-egress
VPC	`vpc.md`	create-vpc, delete-vpc, describe-vpcs, modify-vpc-attribute, create-subnet, delete-subnet, describe-subnets, create-internet-gateway, delete-internet-gateway, attach-internet-gateway, detach-internet-gateway, describe-internet-gateways, create-route-table, delete-route-table, describe-route-tables, create-route, delete-route, associate-route-table, disassociate-route-table, create-nat-gateway, delete-nat-gateway, describe-nat-gateways, allocate-address, release-address, describe-addresses
Key Pairs	`key-pairs.md`	create-key-pair, delete-key-pair, describe-key-pairs, import-key-pair
AMIs	`amis.md`	describe-images
Launch Templates	`launch-templates.md`	create-launch-template, delete-launch-template, describe-launch-templates, describe-launch-template-versions, create-launch-template-version, modify-launch-template
Auto Scaling	`auto-scaling.md`	create-auto-scaling-group, delete-auto-scaling-group, describe-auto-scaling-groups, update-auto-scaling-group, create-launch-configuration, delete-launch-configuration, describe-launch-configurations