I wrote a shell script that will automate the creation of EC2 instances. Really, all it does is glue together the existing command line tools that Amazon provides in a fairly crude manner. However, it works and it makes my life easier, so I like it. Hopefully it can do the same for you ….

Things You MUST Understand

• Every time you run this script you will be charged for at least one hour’s worth of time by Amazon, even if you shut things down immediately. These aren’t my rules, I have complained about them previously.
• Make sure you use the ec2-terminate-instances script after running this script. If you don’t, you will be charged by Amazon until you shut it down.
• You have to have the EC2 API Tools installed for this script to work.
• You have to have an active EC2 account for this script to work.

Caveats

• This script hasn’t been tested by anyone other than me. It works just fine for me, and I am able to use it on a regular basis. However, if you are looking for a polished, documented, or commercial product then this is the wrong place for you (unless you are willing to pay, of course).
• The script is for UNIX, and was developed under Mac OS X. It may run under Windows with Cygwin, although I haven’t tried (and don’t really want to).
• The script is in Korn. It doesn’t use any particularly odd syntax, so my guess is that it would run under other shells. To be honest I haven’t tried, simply because I use KSH so much with my current work that I am far more efficient with it than any other shell. If anyone wants to test it and/or clean it up to run more universally it would be most appreciated.
• Every time you run this script you will be charged for at least one hour’s worth of time by Amazon. These aren’t my rules, I have complained about them previously.
• Make sure you use the ec2-terminate-instances script after running this script. If you don’t, you will be charged by Amazon until you shut it down.

Licensing

This script is provide it under the MIT license. To summarize, it is provided as-is and can be used free of charge. I am not liable for your screw-ups.

OK, with all that being said, if you still want to use it you can download the script here.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 8:55 pm and is filed under Systems Integration, Automation, Over the Horizon, AWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.