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AWS CloudFormation
User Guide (API Version 2010-05-15)

AWS Documentation » AWS CloudFormation » User Guide » Template Reference » AWS Resource and Property Types Reference » Auto Scaling Resource Types Reference » AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration

AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration

Creates an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling launch configuration that can be used by an Auto Scaling group to configure Amazon EC2 instances.

Important

When you update a property of the LaunchConfiguration resource, AWS CloudFormation deletes that resource and creates a new launch configuration with the updated properties and a new name. This update action does not deploy any change across the running Amazon EC2 instances in the Auto Scaling group. In other words, an update simply replaces the LaunchConfiguration so that when the Auto Scaling group launches new instances, they will get the updated configuration, but existing instances continue to run with the configuration that they were originally launched with. This works the same way as if you made similar changes manually to an Auto Scaling group.

If you want to update existing instances when you update the LaunchConfiguration resource, you must specify an update policy attribute for the AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup resource. For more information, see UpdatePolicy Attribute.

Syntax

To declare this entity in your AWS CloudFormation template, use the following syntax:

JSON


{
   "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
   "Properties" : {
      "AssociatePublicIpAddress" : Boolean,
      "BlockDeviceMappings" : [ BlockDeviceMapping, ... ],
      "ClassicLinkVPCId" : String,
      "ClassicLinkVPCSecurityGroups" : [ String, ... ],
      "EbsOptimized" : Boolean,
      "IamInstanceProfile" : String,
      "ImageId" : String,
      "InstanceId" : String,
      "InstanceMonitoring" : Boolean,
      "InstanceType" : String,
      "KernelId" : String,
      "KeyName" : String,
      "LaunchConfigurationName" : String,
      "PlacementTenancy" : String,
      "RamDiskId" : String,
      "SecurityGroups" : [ SecurityGroup, ... ],
      "SpotPrice" : String,
      "UserData" : String
   }
}

YAML

Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
Properties:
  AssociatePublicIpAddress: Boolean
  BlockDeviceMappings:
    - BlockDeviceMapping
  ClassicLinkVPCId: String
  ClassicLinkVPCSecurityGroups:
    - String
  EbsOptimized: Boolean
  IamInstanceProfile: String
  ImageId: String
  InstanceId: String
  InstanceMonitoring: Boolean
  InstanceType: String
  KernelId: String
  KeyName: String
  LaunchConfigurationName: String
  PlacementTenancy: String
  RamDiskId: String
  SecurityGroups:
    - SecurityGroup
  SpotPrice: String
  UserData: String

Properties

AssociatePublicIpAddress

For Amazon EC2 instances in a VPC, indicates whether instances in the Auto Scaling group receive public IP addresses. If you specify true, each instance in the Auto Scaling group receives a unique public IP address.

Note

If this resource has a public IP address and is also in a VPC that is defined in the same template, you must use the DependsOn attribute to declare a dependency on the VPC-gateway attachment. For more information, see DependsOn Attribute.

Required: No

Type: Boolean

Update requires: Replacement

BlockDeviceMappings

Specifies how block devices are exposed to the instance. You can specify virtual devices and EBS volumes.

Required: No

Type: A list of BlockDeviceMappings.

Update requires: Replacement

ClassicLinkVPCId

The ID of a ClassicLink-enabled VPC to link your EC2-Classic instances to. You can specify this property only for EC2-Classic instances. For more information, see ClassicLink in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

ClassicLinkVPCSecurityGroups

The IDs of one or more security groups for the VPC that you specified in the ClassicLinkVPCId property.

Required: Conditional. If you specified the ClassicLinkVPCId property, you must specify this property.

Type: List of String values

Update requires: Replacement

EbsOptimized

Specifies whether the launch configuration is optimized for EBS I/O. This optimization provides dedicated throughput to Amazon EBS and an optimized configuration stack to provide optimal EBS I/O performance.

Additional fees are incurred when using EBS-optimized instances. For more information about fees and supported instance types, see EBS-Optimized Instances in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances.

Required: No If this property is not specified, "false" is used.

Type: Boolean

Update requires: Replacement

IamInstanceProfile

Provides the name or the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the instance profile associated with the IAM role for the instance. The instance profile contains the IAM role.

Required: No

Type: String (1–1600 chars)

Update requires: Replacement

ImageId

Provides the unique ID of the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that was assigned during registration.

Required: Yes

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

InstanceId

The ID of the Amazon EC2 instance you want to use to create the launch configuration. Use this property if you want the launch configuration to use settings from an existing Amazon EC2 instance.

When you use an instance to create a launch configuration, all properties are derived from the instance with the exception of BlockDeviceMapping and AssociatePublicIpAddress. You can override any properties from the instance by specifying them in the launch configuration.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

InstanceMonitoring

Indicates whether detailed instance monitoring is enabled for the Auto Scaling group. By default, this property is set to true (enabled).

When detailed monitoring is enabled, Amazon CloudWatch generates metrics every minute and your account is charged a fee. When you disable detailed monitoring, CloudWatch generates metrics every 5 minutes. For more information, see Monitor Your Auto Scaling Groups and Instances Using Amazon CloudWatch in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide.

Required: No

Type: Boolean

Update requires: Replacement

InstanceType

Specifies the instance type of the EC2 instance.

Required: Yes

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

KernelId

Provides the ID of the kernel associated with the EC2 AMI.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

KeyName

Provides the name of the EC2 key pair.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

LaunchConfigurationName

The name of the launch configuration. This name must be unique within the scope of your AWS account.

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 255.

Pattern: [\u0020-\uD7FF\uE000-\uFFFD\uD800\uDC00-\uDBFF\uDFFF\r\n\t]*

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

PlacementTenancy

The tenancy of the instance. An instance with a tenancy of dedicated runs on single-tenant hardware and can only be launched in a VPC. You must set the value of this parameter to dedicated if want to launch dedicated instances in a shared tenancy VPC (a VPC with the instance placement tenancy attribute set to default). For more information, see CreateLaunchConfiguration in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API Reference.

If you specify this property, you must specify at least one subnet in the VPCZoneIdentifier property of the AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup resource.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

RamDiskId

The ID of the RAM disk to select. Some kernels require additional drivers at launch. Check the kernel requirements for information about whether you need to specify a RAM disk. To find kernel requirements, refer to the AWS Resource Center and search for the kernel ID.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

SecurityGroups

A list that contains the EC2 security groups to assign to the instances in the Auto Scaling group. The list can contain the IDs of existing EC2 security groups or references to AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup resources created in the template.

Required: No

Type: A list of security groups.

Update requires: Replacement

SpotPrice

The spot price for this Auto Scaling group. If a spot price is set, then the Auto Scaling group will launch when the current spot price is less than the amount specified in the template.

When you have specified a spot price for an Auto Scaling group, the group will only launch when the spot price has been met, regardless of the setting in the Auto Scaling group's DesiredCapacity.

For more information about configuring a spot price for an Auto Scaling group, see Launching Spot Instances in your Auto Scaling Group in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

Note

When you change your bid price by creating a new launch configuration, running instances will continue to run as long as the bid price for those running instances is higher than the current Spot price.

UserData

The user data available to the launched EC2 instances.

Required: No

Type: String

Update requires: Replacement

Return Value

When the logical ID of this resource is provided to the Ref intrinsic function, Ref returns the resource name. For example: 

{ "Ref": "LaunchConfig" }

For the resource with the logical ID LaunchConfig, Ref will return the Auto Scaling launch configuration name, such as mystack-mylaunchconfig-1DDYF1E3B3I.

For more information about using the Ref function, see Ref.

Template Examples

Launch Configuration with Block Device

This example shows a launch configuration that describes two Amazon Elastic Block Store mappings.

JSON

"LaunchConfig" : {
   "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
   "Properties" : {
      "KeyName" : { "Ref" : "KeyName" },
      "ImageId" : {
         "Fn::FindInMap" : [
            "AWSRegionArch2AMI",
            { "Ref" : "AWS::Region" },
            {
               "Fn::FindInMap" : [
                  "AWSInstanceType2Arch", { "Ref" : "InstanceType" }, "Arch"
               ]
            }
         ]
      },
      "UserData" : { "Fn::Base64" : { "Ref" : "WebServerPort" }},
      "SecurityGroups" : [ { "Ref" : "InstanceSecurityGroup" } ],
      "InstanceType" : { "Ref" : "InstanceType" },
      "BlockDeviceMappings" : [
         {
           "DeviceName" : "/dev/sda1",
           "Ebs" : { "VolumeSize" : "50", "VolumeType" : "io1", "Iops" : 200 } 
         },
         {
           "DeviceName" : "/dev/sdm",
           "Ebs" : { "VolumeSize" : "100", "DeleteOnTermination" : "true"}
         }
      ]
   }
}

YAML

LaunchConfig: 
  Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
  Properties: 
    KeyName: 
      Ref: "KeyName"
    ImageId: 
      Fn::FindInMap: 
        - "AWSRegionArch2AMI"
        - Ref: "AWS::Region"
        - Fn::FindInMap: 
            - "AWSInstanceType2Arch"
            - Ref: "InstanceType"
            - "Arch"
    UserData: 
      Fn::Base64: 
        Ref: "WebServerPort"
    SecurityGroups: 
      - Ref: "InstanceSecurityGroup"
    InstanceType: 
      Ref: "InstanceType"
    BlockDeviceMappings: 
      - DeviceName: "/dev/sda1"
        Ebs: 
          VolumeSize: "50"
          VolumeType: "io1"
          Iops: 200
      - DeviceName: "/dev/sdm"
        Ebs: 
          VolumeSize: "100"
          DeleteOnTermination: "true"

Launch Configuration with Spot Price

This example shows a launch configuration that features a spot price in the Auto Scaling group. This launch configuration will only be active if the current spot price is less than the amount in the template specification (0.05).

JSON


"LaunchConfig" : {
   "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
   "Properties" : {
      "KeyName" : { "Ref" : "KeyName" },
      "ImageId" : {
         "Fn::FindInMap" : [
            "AWSRegionArch2AMI",
            { "Ref" : "AWS::Region" },
            {
               "Fn::FindInMap" : [
                  "AWSInstanceType2Arch", { "Ref" : "InstanceType" }, "Arch"
               ]
            }
         ]
      },
      "SecurityGroups" : [ { "Ref" : "InstanceSecurityGroup" } ],
      "SpotPrice" :  "0.05",
      "InstanceType" : { "Ref" : "InstanceType" }
   }
}

YAML

LaunchConfig: 
  Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
  Properties: 
    KeyName: 
      Ref: "KeyName"
    ImageId: 
      Fn::FindInMap: 
        - "AWSRegionArch2AMI"
        - Ref: "AWS::Region"
        - Fn::FindInMap: 
            - "AWSInstanceType2Arch"
            - Ref: "InstanceType"
            - "Arch"
    SecurityGroups: 
      - Ref: "InstanceSecurityGroup"
    SpotPrice: "0.05"
    InstanceType: 
      Ref: "InstanceType"

Launch Configuration with IAM Instance Profile

Here's a launch configuration using the IamInstanceProfile property.

Only the AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration specification is shown. For the full template, including the definition of, and further references from the AWS::IAM::InstanceProfile object referenced here as "RootInstanceProfile", see: auto_scaling_with_instance_profile.template.

JSON


"myLCOne": {
   "Type": "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
   "Properties": {
      "ImageId": {
         "Fn::FindInMap": [
            "AWSRegionArch2AMI",
            { "Ref": "AWS::Region" },
            {
               "Fn::FindInMap": [
                  "AWSInstanceType2Arch", { "Ref": "InstanceType" }, "Arch"
               ]
            }
         ]
      },
      "InstanceType": { "Ref": "InstanceType" },
      "IamInstanceProfile": { "Ref": "RootInstanceProfile" }
   }
}

YAML

myLCOne: 
  Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
  Properties: 
    ImageId: 
      Fn::FindInMap: 
        - "AWSRegionArch2AMI"
        - Ref: "AWS::Region"
        - Fn::FindInMap: 
            - "AWSInstanceType2Arch"
            - Ref: "InstanceType"
            - "Arch"
    InstanceType: 
      Ref: "InstanceType"
    IamInstanceProfile: 
      Ref: "RootInstanceProfile"

EBS-Optimized Volume with Specified PIOPS

You can create an AWS CloudFormation stack with auto scaled instances that contain EBS-optimized volumes with a specified PIOPS. This can increase the performance of your EBS-backed instances as explained in Increasing EBS Performance in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide.

When you create a launch configuration such as this one, be sure to set the InstanceType to at least m1.large and set EbsOptimized to true. Your launched instances will contain optimized EBS root volumes with the PIOPS that you selected when creating the AMI.

Warning

Additional fees are incurred when using EBS-optimized instances. For more information, see EBS-Optimized Instances in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide.

Because you cannot override PIOPS settings in an Auto Scaling launch configuration, the AMI in your launch configuration must have been configured with a block device mapping that specifies the desired PIOPS. You can do this by creating your own EC2 AMI with the following characteristics:

  • An instance type of m1.large or greater. This is required for EBS optimization.

  • An EBS-backed AMI with a volume type of "io1" and the number of IOPS you want for the Auto Scaling-launched instances.

  • The size of the EBS volume must accommodate the IOPS you need. There is a 10 : 1 ratio between IOPS and Gibibytes (GiB) of storage, so for 100 PIOPS, you need at least 10 GiB storage on the root volume.

Use this AMI in your Auto Scaling launch configuration. For example, an EBS-optimized AMI with PIOPS that has the AMI ID ami-7430ba44 would be used in your launch configuration like this:

JSON

"LaunchConfig" : {
   "Type" : "AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration",
   "Properties" : {
      "KeyName" : { "Ref" : "KeyName" },
      "ImageId" : "ami-7430ba44",
      "UserData" : { "Fn::Base64" : { "Ref" : "WebServerPort" } },
      "SecurityGroups" : [ { "Ref" : "InstanceSecurityGroup" } ],
      "InstanceType" : "m1.large",
      "EbsOptimized" : "true"
   }
}

YAML

LaunchConfig: 
  Type: AWS::AutoScaling::LaunchConfiguration
  Properties: 
    KeyName: 
      Ref: "KeyName"
    ImageId: "ami-7430ba44"
    UserData: 
      Fn::Base64: 
        Ref: "WebServerPort"
    SecurityGroups: 
      - Ref: "InstanceSecurityGroup"
    InstanceType: "m1.large"
    EbsOptimized: "true"

See Also