Amazon EC2 - List Images

Declaration

<AMAWSEC2 ACTIVITY="list_images" RESULTDATASET="text" 
IMAGEID="text" EXECUTEBY="text" OWNER="text" 
ACCESSKEY="text" SECRETKEY="text (encrypted)" 
SERVICEURL="text" PROXYHOST="text" USERAGENT="text" 
PROXYPORT="number" PROXYUSER="text" 
PROXYPWD="text (encrypted)" 
MAXERRORRETRY="text" SIGNMETHOD="text" 
SIGNVERSION="number" />

Description: Returns information about AMIs (Amazon Machine Images) and populates a dataset with the results. This includes image type, product codes and architecture. Images available to you include public images, private images that you own, and private images owned by other users for which you have explicit launch permissions.

Launch permissions fall into three categories:

Public - The owner of the AMI granted launch permissions for the AMI to the all group. All users have launch permissions for these AMIs.

Explicit - The owner of the AMI granted launch permissions to a specific user.

Implicit - A user has implicit launch permissions for all AMIs he or she owns.

IMPORTANT: The AWS EC2 activities are performed using Amazon's EC2 engine, therefore, launching and administering Amazon EC2 instances requires a valid Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

Practical Usage

Used to get a list of AMIs. The information retrieved can be referenced in subsequent EC2 steps with the use of the Loop Dataset action.

Connection Parameters

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Connection

 

 

 

 

Indicates where user credentials and preferences should originate from. This is a design mode parameter used only during task construction and configuration, thus, comprises no markup. The available options are:

  • Host (default) - Specifies that user credentials and/or advanced preferences are configured individually for this activity. Normally chosen if only a single activity is required to complete an operation.

  • Session - Specifies that user credentials and/or advanced preferences are obtained from a pre-configured session created in an earlier step with the use of the EC2 - Create session activity. Normally chosen if a combination of activities within the same action group are required. Linking several activities to a single session eliminates redundancy and improves efficiency. Several sessions can exist in a single task. Multiple sessions can run simultaneously without interference.

Session

Text

Yes if connection is session-based

EC2Session1

SESSION="EC2Session1"

The name of an existing session to attach this activity to. This parameter is active only if the Connection parameter is set to Session.

Access key

Text

Yes if connection is host-based

(Empty)

ACCESSKEY=

"022QF06E7MXBSH9DHM02"

A 20-character alphanumeric string that uniquely identifies the owner of the AWS service account, similar to a username. This key along with a corresponding secret access key forms a secure information set that AWS uses to confirm a valid user's identity. This parameter is active only if the Connection parameter is set to Host.

Secret Access key

Text

Yes if connection is host-based

(Empty)

SECRETKEY=

"kWcrlUX5JEDGM/LtmEENI/

aVmYvHNif5zB+d9+ct"

A 40-character string that serves the role as password to access the AWS service account. This along with an associated access key forms a secure information set that EC2 uses to confirm a valid user's identity. This parameter is active only if the Connection parameter is set to Host.

User agent

Text

No

AutoMate

USERAGENT="AutoMate"

The name of the client or application initiating requests to AWS. The default value is 'AutoMate'. 

Service URL

Text

No

(Empty)

SERVICEURL=

"https://ec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com"

The URL that provides the service endpoint. To make the service call to a different region, you can pass the region-specific endpoint URL. For example, entering  https://ec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com points to US West (Northern California) region. A complete list of EC2 regions, accompanying endpoints and valid protocols can be found below under EC2 Regions and Endpoints.

Maximum retry on error

Number

No

(Empty)

MAXERRORRETRY="4"

The total amount of instances this activity should retry the request before returning an error. Network components can generate errors anytime in the life of a request, thus, implementing retries can increase reliability. 

Proxy host

Text

No

(Empty)

  1. PROXYHOST="proxy.host.com"

  2. PROXYHOST="193.118.431.52"

The host name (e.g., server.domain.com) or IP address (e.g., xxx.xxx.xxx.xx) of the proxy server to use when connecting to AWS.  

Proxy port

Number

No

(Empty)

PROXYPORT="1028"

The port that should be used to connect to the proxy server.

Signature method

Text

No

(Empty)

SIGNMETHOD="HmacSHA256"

The signature method to use for signing the request. This provides a valid hashing algorithm for signature calculation. Valid AWS signature methods are HmacSHA1 and HmacSHA256.

Signature version

Number

No

(Empty)

SIGNVERSION="2"

The signature version for signing the request. Valid AWS signature versions are 2 and 4. The difference with version 4 is that it allows you to sign your message using a key that is derived from your secret access key rather than using the secret access key itself.

Image Parameters

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Create and populate dataset with Amazon Machine Image (AMI) information

Text

Yes

(Empty)

RESULTDATASET="mydataset"

The name of a dataset in which to create and populate information regarding the list of AMIs returned. More details regarding the fields that this dataset creates can be found below under Datasets.

Advanced Parameters

Property

Type

Required

Default

Markup

Description

Image ID

Text

No

(Empty)

IMAGEID="ami-78a54011"

Specifies the unique ID of an individual Amazon Machine Image (AMI) to retrieve. If this field is left blank, information about all AMIs are retrieved.

Executable by (optional)

Text

No

(Empty)

EXECUTEDBY="-x self"

Returns AMIs for which the specified user has explicit launch permissions. The user ID can be a user's account ID, self to return AMIs for which the sender of the request has explicit launch permissions, or all to return AMIs with public launch permissions.

Owner (optional)

Text

No

Self

OWNER="157SZTMZQT516NA"

Returns AMIs owned by the specified owner. Multiple owners can be specified. The IDs 'amazon', 'self', and 'explicit' can be used to include AMIs owned by Amazon, by a specific user or AMIs for which the user has explicit launch permissions, respectively.

Description tab - A custom description can be provided on the Description tab to convey additional information or share special notes about a task step.

Error Causes tab - Specify how this step should behave upon the occurrence of an error. (Refer to Task Builder > Error Causes Tab for details.)

On Error tab - Specify what AWE should do if this step encounters an error as defined on the Error Causes tab. (Refer to Task Builder > On Error Tab for details.)

EC2 Regions and Endpoints

This table contains a complete list of EC2 endpoints, accompanying regions and supported protocols.

Endpoint

Region

Protocol

ec2.us-east-1.amazonaws.com

US East (Northern Virginia) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

US West (Oregon) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.us-west-1.amazonaws.com  

US West (Northern California) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com

EU (Ireland) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com

Asia Pacific (Singapore) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

Asia Pacific (Sydney) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com

Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

ec2.sa-east-1.amazonaws.com  

South America (Sao Paulo) Region

HTTP and HTTPS

Datasets

A dataset is a multiple column, multiple row container object. This activity creates and populates a dataset containing a specific set of fields in addition to the standard dataset fields. The table below describes these fields (assuming the dataset assigned is named theDataset).

Name

Type

Return Value

theDataset.Architecture

Text

Returns the image architecture (e.g., i386 or x86_64)

theDataset.Description

Text

Returns the description of the AMI.

theDataset.ImageId

Text

Returns the unique ID of the AMI.

theDataset.ImageLocation

Text

Returns the location of the AMI.

theDataset.ImageOwnerAlias

Text

Returns the AWS account alias (e.g., "amazon") or AWS account ID that owns the AMI.

theDataset.ImageState

Text

Returns the current state of the AMI.

theDataset.ImageType

Text

Returns the Image type (e.g., machine, kernel, or ramdisk)

theDataset.KernelId

Text

Returns the kernel associated with the image, if any. Only applicable for machine images.

theDataset.Name

Text

Returns the name of the AMI.

theDataset.OwnerId

Text

Returns the AWS Access Key ID of the image owner.

theDataset.Platform

Text

Returns the operating platform of the instance.

theDataset.ProductCode

Text

Returns the product codes, if any, that are attached to the instance.

theDataset.RamdiskId

Text

Returns the RAM disk associated with the image, if any.  Only applicable for machine images.

theDataset.RootDeviceName

Text

Returns the root device name (e.g., /dev/sda1).

theDataset.RootDeviceType

Text

Returns the root device type used by the AMI. The AMI can use an Amazon EBS or instance store root device.

theDataset.StateReason

Text

Returns the reason for the state change.

theDataset.Visibility

Text

Returns the image visibility (e.g., public or private)

Example

The sample AML code below can be copied and pasted directly into the Steps panel of the Task Builder.

Description: Get list of Amazon Machine Image(s) (AMI) and store it into dataset "results". Image id is "ami-78a54011". Image can be executed by "-x self". Image owner is "-o 157SZTMZQT516NAZ7CR2". Use default EC2 session.

<AMAWSEC2 ACTIVITY="list_images" 
IMAGEID="ami-78a54011" OWNER="-o 157SZTMZQT516NAZ7CR2" 
EXECUTEDBY="-x self" RESULTDATASET="results" />