Generating instance types lists for CloudFormation
The instance type is a required parameter when building EC2 instances. While the AWS documentation provides a list of allowed values, it's not presented in a format that can be easily consumed by your own CloudFormation templates.
In this post, you learn how to build a parameter with a complete list of instance types as allowed values, to copy and paste into your own templates.
Getting started
The script requires jq.
The jq download page includes instructions for installing the tool for major Linux distributions.
The lookup script
The script below returns a YAML block defining a CloudFormation parameter with a sorted list of all available instance types:
echo "Parameters:"
echo " InstanceTypeParameter:"
echo " Type: String"
echo " Default: t3.micro"
echo " AllowedValues:"
instances=$(aws ec2 describe-instance-types | jq -r '.InstanceTypes |= sort_by(.InstanceType) | .InstanceTypes[].InstanceType')
for row in $instances; do
echo " - $row"
done
Save the script to a file called instancetypes.sh and make it executable with the command:
chmod +x instancetypes.sh
Run the script with the command:
./instancetypes.sh
The output looks something like this:
Parameters:
InstanceTypeParameter:
Type: String
Default: t3.micro
AllowedValues:
- c1.medium
- c1.xlarge
- c3.2xlarge
- c3.4xlarge
- c3.8xlarge
- c3.large
- c3.xlarge
- c4.2xlarge
- c4.4xlarge
- c4.8xlarge
- c4.large
- c4.xlarge
- c5.12xlarge
- c5.18xlarge
- c5.24xlarge
- c5.2xlarge
- c5.4xlarge
- c5.9xlarge
- c5.large
- c5.metal
- c5.xlarge
- c5a.12xlarge
- c5a.16xlarge
- c5a.24xlarge
- c5a.2xlarge
- c5a.4xlarge
- c5a.8xlarge
- c5a.large
- c5a.xlarge
- c5d.12xlarge
- c5d.18xlarge
- c5d.24xlarge
- c5d.2xlarge
- c5d.4xlarge
- c5d.9xlarge
- c5d.large
- c5d.metal
- c5d.xlarge
- c5n.18xlarge
- c5n.2xlarge
- c5n.4xlarge
- c5n.9xlarge
- c5n.large
- c5n.metal
- c5n.xlarge
- c6g.12xlarge
- c6g.16xlarge
- c6g.2xlarge
- c6g.4xlarge
- c6g.8xlarge
- c6g.large
- c6g.medium
- c6g.metal
- c6g.xlarge
- c6gd.12xlarge
- c6gd.16xlarge
- c6gd.2xlarge
- c6gd.4xlarge
- c6gd.8xlarge
- c6gd.large
- c6gd.medium
- c6gd.metal
- c6gd.xlarge
- d2.2xlarge
- d2.4xlarge
- d2.8xlarge
- d2.xlarge
- g2.2xlarge
- g2.8xlarge
- g3.16xlarge
- g3.4xlarge
- g3.8xlarge
- g4dn.12xlarge
- g4dn.16xlarge
- g4dn.2xlarge
- g4dn.4xlarge
- g4dn.8xlarge
- g4dn.metal
- g4dn.xlarge
- i2.2xlarge
- i2.4xlarge
- i2.8xlarge
- i2.xlarge
- i3.16xlarge
- i3.2xlarge
- i3.4xlarge
- i3.8xlarge
- i3.large
- i3.metal
- i3.xlarge
- i3en.12xlarge
- i3en.24xlarge
- i3en.2xlarge
- i3en.3xlarge
- i3en.6xlarge
- i3en.large
- i3en.metal
- i3en.xlarge
- inf1.24xlarge
- inf1.2xlarge
- inf1.6xlarge
- inf1.xlarge
- m1.large
- m1.medium
- m1.small
- m1.xlarge
- m2.2xlarge
- m2.4xlarge
- m2.xlarge
- m3.2xlarge
- m3.large
- m3.medium
- m3.xlarge
- m4.10xlarge
- m4.16xlarge
- m4.2xlarge
- m4.4xlarge
- m4.large
- m4.xlarge
- m5.12xlarge
- m5.16xlarge
- m5.24xlarge
- m5.2xlarge
- m5.4xlarge
- m5.8xlarge
- m5.large
- m5.metal
- m5.xlarge
- m5a.12xlarge
- m5a.16xlarge
- m5a.24xlarge
- m5a.2xlarge
- m5a.4xlarge
- m5a.8xlarge
- m5a.large
- m5a.xlarge
- m5ad.12xlarge
- m5ad.16xlarge
- m5ad.24xlarge
- m5ad.2xlarge
- m5ad.4xlarge
- m5ad.8xlarge
- m5ad.large
- m5ad.xlarge
- m5d.12xlarge
- m5d.16xlarge
- m5d.24xlarge
- m5d.2xlarge
- m5d.4xlarge
- m5d.8xlarge
- m5d.large
- m5d.metal
- m5d.xlarge
- m5zn.12xlarge
- m5zn.2xlarge
- m5zn.3xlarge
- m5zn.6xlarge
- m5zn.large
- m5zn.metal
- m5zn.xlarge
- m6g.12xlarge
- m6g.16xlarge
- m6g.2xlarge
- m6g.4xlarge
- m6g.8xlarge
- m6g.large
- m6g.medium
- m6g.metal
- m6g.xlarge
- m6gd.12xlarge
- m6gd.16xlarge
- m6gd.2xlarge
- m6gd.4xlarge
- m6gd.8xlarge
- m6gd.large
- m6gd.medium
- m6gd.metal
- m6gd.xlarge
- m6i.12xlarge
- m6i.16xlarge
- m6i.24xlarge
- m6i.2xlarge
- m6i.32xlarge
- m6i.4xlarge
- m6i.8xlarge
- m6i.large
- m6i.metal
- m6i.xlarge
- r3.2xlarge
- r3.4xlarge
- r3.8xlarge
- r3.large
- r3.xlarge
- r4.16xlarge
- r4.2xlarge
- r4.4xlarge
- r4.8xlarge
- r4.large
- r4.xlarge
- r5.12xlarge
- r5.16xlarge
- r5.24xlarge
- r5.2xlarge
- r5.4xlarge
- r5.8xlarge
- r5.large
- r5.metal
- r5.xlarge
- r5a.12xlarge
- r5a.16xlarge
- r5a.24xlarge
- r5a.2xlarge
- r5a.4xlarge
- r5a.8xlarge
- r5a.large
- r5a.xlarge
- r5ad.12xlarge
- r5ad.16xlarge
- r5ad.24xlarge
- r5ad.2xlarge
- r5ad.4xlarge
- r5ad.8xlarge
- r5ad.large
- r5ad.xlarge
- r5d.12xlarge
- r5d.16xlarge
- r5d.24xlarge
- r5d.2xlarge
- r5d.4xlarge
- r5d.8xlarge
- r5d.large
- r5d.metal
- r5d.xlarge
- r5n.12xlarge
- r5n.16xlarge
- r5n.24xlarge
- r5n.2xlarge
- r5n.4xlarge
- r5n.8xlarge
- r5n.large
- r5n.metal
- r5n.xlarge
- r6g.12xlarge
- r6g.16xlarge
- r6g.2xlarge
- r6g.4xlarge
- r6g.8xlarge
- r6g.large
- r6g.medium
- r6g.metal
- r6g.xlarge
- r6gd.12xlarge
- r6gd.16xlarge
- r6gd.2xlarge
- r6gd.4xlarge
- r6gd.8xlarge
- r6gd.large
- r6gd.medium
- r6gd.metal
- r6gd.xlarge
- t1.micro
- t2.2xlarge
- t2.large
- t2.medium
- t2.micro
- t2.nano
- t2.small
- t2.xlarge
- t3.2xlarge
- t3.large
- t3.medium
- t3.micro
- t3.nano
- t3.small
- t3.xlarge
- t3a.2xlarge
- t3a.large
- t3a.medium
- t3a.micro
- t3a.nano
- t3a.small
- t3a.xlarge
- t4g.2xlarge
- t4g.large
- t4g.medium
- t4g.micro
- t4g.nano
- t4g.small
- t4g.xlarge
- z1d.12xlarge
- z1d.2xlarge
- z1d.3xlarge
- z1d.6xlarge
- z1d.large
- z1d.metal
- z1d.xlarge
When this parameter is included in a template deployed by Octopus, the list of available options is displayed in a drop down list:
Conclusion
EC2s have dozens of instance types, and providing a list of options to those deploying a CloudFormation template removes the need to refer to external documentation.
In this post, you learned how to build a CloudFormation parameter in YAML with a complete list of instance types, ready to be copied into your CloudFormation templates.
We have other posts about CloudFormation you might find helpful too.
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