AWS EC2 Launch Templates

AWS EC2 Launch Template Features, Use Cases and Sample API Requests

Launch Template Support must be enabled in order to use the features described in this page. Follow guidelines here to enable the feature set.

Note: The features supported in the UI (Deck) come with tool tips that can help you learn the new features. Consider trying them out in Deck, especially if they are new to you.

Feature Configuration

Once launch templates support is enabled in Clouddriver, a new set of features are unlocked. Some of them are tied to the EC2 launch template directly like IMDSV2 and others require a launch template to be used in order to support features like SpotAllocationStrategy ( MixedInstancesPolicy features).

Review the sections below for details about the features and sample use cases along with Spinnaker API requests.

Launch Template Only Parameters

Review the sections below to determine which features you want to enable in the Spinnaker UI / Deck. Users will see enabled features as options when configuring a Server Group.

Additional Features

Enabling launch template support also unlocks additional features offered by Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling that facilitate diversified server groups:

• Multiple instance types
• Multiple purchase options (On-Demand / Spot) with proportion control
• Allocation strategies
• Capacity rebalancing

Follow AWS recommended best practices for EC2 Spot to improve your experience with EC2 Spot.

Motivation to diversify instances in your Server Group:

• Reduce costs by diversifying instances across purchase options and Spot allocation strategies. See AWS docs to learn more about how to use Spot .
• Reduce costs and optimize resources with instance weighting.
• Enhance availability by deploying your application across multiple instance types running in multiple Availability Zones.
• Enhance availability by proactively augmenting your fleet with a new Spot instance from an optimal pool, before a running instance is interrupted by EC2, by enabling capacity rebalance .
• Reduce probability of InsufficientInstanceCapacity exceptions with flexible instance configuration.

Using one or more parameters in the table below will automatically create Server Groups with the instance diversification configuration specified, and will use AWS defaults for the parameters not specified. Note that a number of these parameters complement each other. So, combining them can greatly enhance your AWS experience.

Use Cases & Sample API Requests

Create a Server Group with launch template

After enabling the launch template feature set is Clouddriver and/or Deck, set setLaunchTemplate to true in order to indicate Spinnaker to create your Server Group with an EC2 launch template.

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{ "job": [
  {
    "type": "createServerGroup",
    "cloudProvider": "aws",
    "account": "my_aws_account",
    "application": "myAwsApp",
    "stack": "myStack",
    "credentials": "my_aws_account",
    "subnetType": "public-subnet",
    "availabilityZones": {"us-west-1": ["us-west-1a","us-west-1b","us-west-1c"]},
    "amiName": "ami-12345",
    "capacity": {"desired": 5,"max": 7,"min": 5},
    "iamRole":"BaseInstanceProfile",
    "instanceType":"t3.large",
    "setLaunchTemplate": true,
    "requireIMDSv2": true,
    "unlimitedCpuCredits": true
  }], "application": "myAwsApp", "description": "Create New Server Group in cluster myAwsApp"}' -X POST http://localhost:8084/tasks

Let’s say, the Server Group created was named myAwsApp-myStack-v005. It is backed by EC2 launch template with IMDSv2 enabled and unlimited CPU credits.

Convert a Server Group with launch template to use mixed instances policy, with multiple instance types and capacity weighting

The Spinnaker operation, modifyServerGroupLaunchTemplate/ updateLaunchTemplate also supports updating a Server Group backed by launch template to use mixed instances policy when one or more mixed instances policy parameters listed above is specified.

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{ "job": [ 
  {
    "type": "updateLaunchTemplate",
    "cloudProvider": "aws",
    "account": "my_aws_account",
    "application": "myAwsApp",
    "stack": "myStack",
    "credentials": "my_aws_account",
    "region": "eu-central-1",
    "asgName": "myAwsApp-myStack-v005",
    "launchTemplateOverridesForInstanceType": [
      {"instanceType":"t2.large","weightedCapacity":"1"},
      {"instanceType":"t3.large","weightedCapacity":"1"},
      {"instanceType":"t2.xlarge","weightedCapacity":"2"},
      {"instanceType":"t3.xlarge","weightedCapacity":"2"}] 
  }], "application": "myAwsApp", "description": "Modify Server Group in cluster myAwsApp"}' -X POST http://localhost:8084/tasks

Note: instance weighting is requested by vCPUs.

AWS docs:

• multiple instance types
• instance weighting

Diversify instances in a Server Group across purchase options (On-Demand and Spot), multiple instance types with priority assignment:

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{ "job": [ 
  {
    "type": "createServerGroup",
    "cloudProvider": "aws",
    "account": "my_aws_account",
    "application": "myAwsApp",
    "stack": "myStack",
    "credentials": "my_aws_account",
    "availabilityZones": {"us-west-1": ["us-west-1a","us-west-1b","us-west-1c"]},
    "amiName": "ami-12345",
    "capacity": {"desired": 5,"max": 7,"min": 5},
    "iamRole":"BaseInstanceProfile",
    "instanceType":"m4.large",
    "setLaunchTemplate": true,
    "onDemandBaseCapacity":1,
    "onDemandPercentageAboveBaseCapacity":50,
    "spotAllocationStrategy":"lowest-price",
    "spotInstancePools": 2,
    "launchTemplateOverridesForInstanceType": [
      {"instanceType":"m5.large","weightedCapacity":"1","priority": 2},
      {"instanceType":"m5.xlarge","weightedCapacity":"2","priority": 1}] 
  }], "application": "myAwsApp", "description": "Create New Server Group in cluster myAwsApp"}' -X POST http://localhost:8084/tasks

See capacity type for instances in Deck:

AWS docs:

• instance diversification in ASG
• allocation strategies

Create a Server Group with AWS recommended best practices for EC2 Spot

The best practices followed in the example:

• use multiple instance types
• use capacity-optimized Spot allocation strategy to indicate AWS to provision instances from the most-available Spot capacity pools
• use default maximum price for Spot i.e. On-Demand price
• mix in previous generation instance types
• use proactive capacity rebalancing (works best with capacity-optimized spotAllocationStrategy)

curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{ "job": [ 
  {
    "type": "createServerGroup",
    "cloudProvider": "aws",
    "account": "my_aws_account",
    "application": "myAwsApp",
    "stack": "myStack",
    "credentials": "my_aws_account",
    "subnetType": "public-subnet",
    "availabilityZones": {"us-west-1": ["us-west-1a","us-west-1b","us-west-1c"]},
    "amiName": "ami-12345",
    "capacity": {"desired": 5,"max": 7,"min": 5},
    "iamRole":"BaseInstanceProfile",
    "instanceType":"m4.large",
    "setLaunchTemplate": true,
    "onDemandPercentageAboveBaseCapacity":50,
    "onDemandBaseCapacity":1,
    "spotAllocationStrategy":"capacity-optimized",
    "capacityRebalance": true,
    "launchTemplateOverridesForInstanceType": [
      {"instanceType":"m4.large","weightedCapacity":"1"},
      {"instanceType":"m5.large","weightedCapacity":"1"},
      {"instanceType":"m4.xlarge","weightedCapacity":"2"},
      {"instanceType":"m5.xlarge","weightedCapacity":"2"}] 
  }], "application": "myAwsApp", "description": "Create New Server Group in cluster myAwsApp"}' -X POST http://localhost:8084/tasks

Note: instance weighting requested by vCPUs

AWS docs:

• Best practices for ASG with Spot instances
• Best practices for EC2 Spot

Last modified December 22, 2021: Update launch-templates.md (#163) (cf2dd67)