This is a small python script, which makes extensive use of boto, to provide human-readable out similar to ec2-describe-instances (ec2din). fec2din can be run with no arguments or a single argument of an instance ID, instance type, security group, etc. Simply named "f" + "ec2din", the command can easily be run after viewing the horrific ec2din output by simply typing "f!!" in a modern shell. This simple shortcut is why I left the standard ".py" extension off.

This script requires boto to be installed

$ easy_install boto

or

$ pip install boto

Simple Example

$ ec2din
RESERVATION	r-57192e11	103757199432	production
INSTANCE	i-89ba1299	ami-a7f539ce	ec2-50-99-41-60.compute-1.amazonaws.com	ip-10-99-241-197.ec2.internal	running	production	0		t1.micro	2011-11-09T07:16:45+0000	us-east-1c	aki-805ea7e9			monitoring-disabled	50.99.41.60	10.99.241.197			ebs					paravirtual	xen	sg-c129fe91	default
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sda1	vol-938be057	2011-11-09T07:17:07.000Z	
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sdj	vol-c47fb1a9	2011-11-09T07:36:06.000Z	
BLOCKDEVICE	/dev/sdk	vol-604da915	2011-11-09T17:18:37.000Z	

$ f!!
fec2din
= i-f1d4da85 =
AMI:	ami-37493714
Type:	m2.2xlarge (x86_64)
Public:	122.91.39.189 (ec2-122-91-39-189.compute-1.amazonaws.com)
PrivIP:	10.92.16.121
PubKey:	my-pub-key
Days:	9 (2012-06-15)
AZ:	us-east-1b
Group:	my-security-group, web-server, memcache
	ROOT  ( ephemeral )
	/dev/sdl
	/dev/sdk

Advanced Examples

fec2din can take an argument to filter your ec2 instance result set. This filter can be:

• Instance ID
• Instance Type
• Public IP
• Private IP
• Tag "Name"
• Security Group

When passing this argument, you don't need to specify which of these you are specifying, it will use pattern matching to figure it out, using several API queries only when necessary

$ fec2din web-servers
= web1 (i-84913311) =
AMI:  ami-7d78cd04
Type:  m1.medium (i386)
Public:  173.112.242.16 (ec2-173-112-242-16.compute-1.amazonaws.com)
PrivIP:  10.50.37.201
PubKey:  my-pub-key
Days:  98 (2012-09-22)
AZ:  us-east-1b
Group:  web-servers
Disks:  *ROOT  (ephemeral)

= web2 (i-465e2e21) =
AMI:  ami-7d78cd04
Type:  m1.medium (i386)
Public:  173.202.145.67 (ec2-173-202-145-67.compute-1.amazonaws.com)
PrivIP:  10.178.15.98
PubKey:  my-pub-key
Days:  98 (2012-09-22)
AZ:  us-east-1d
Group:  web-servers
Disks:  *ROOT  (ephemeral)


$ fec2din m2.2xlarge
= pgsql-master (i-5fed9c1e) =
AMI:  ami-7d78cd04
Type:  m2.2xlarge (x86_64)
Public:  204.22.88.162 (ec2-204-22-99-162.compute-1.amazonaws.com)
PrivIP:  10.129.95.27
PubKey:  secret
Days:  181 (2012-07-01)
AZ:  us-east-1a
Group:  db
Disks:  *ROOT  (ephemeral)
        /dev/sdk (vol-996c10fe)
        /dev/sdl (vol-61eb0128)
        /dev/sdm (vol-105c449d)
        /dev/sdn (vol-62155f02)

Installation

Put fec2din in your path, chmod +x. Ensure boto is installed and your access & secret key are exported as environment variables:

 export AWS_ACCESS_KEY=JFIOQNAKEIFJJAKDLIJA
 export AWS_SECRET_KEY=3jfioajkle+OnfAEV5OIvj5nLnRy2jfklZRop3nn

If you are not using the us-east-1 region, you can set alternate endpoints in two ways:

 export EC2_REGION=us-west-1

or

 export EC2_URL=https://ec2.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com

Theoretically, you could set the EC2_URL endpoint to any EC2 compatible endpoint, such as Eucalyptus, using:

 export EC2_URL=https://localhost/services/Eucalyptus

but I have not tried it yet.

These variables could also be set at the top of the script if you want to hard-code them, but you'll have to reset them everytime you upgrade. I recommend putting them in your ~/.bashrc or wherever your shell wants them.