Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Getting Started

How to get started

There are several ways to get started with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling. This page provides resources that can help you manage and scale your EC2 fleets quickly and easily.

AWS Management Console

1

Sign into the AWS Management Console

Create an account and sign into the console. With Amazon EC2, you pay only for what you use. If you are a new AWS customer, you can get started with Amazon EC2 for free. For more information, see AWS Free Tier.

2

Create a launch template

In the Amazon EC2 Dashboard, choose "Launch Templates" to create a launch template, specifying a name, AMI, instance type, and other details. Below are some guidelines on setting up your first launch template.

  • Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI): We recommend the Amazon Linux 2 AMI (free-tier eligible). 
  • Choose an instance type: We recommend the t2.micro (free-tier eligible).
  • Security group: You have the option to configure your virtual firewall.
3

Create an Auto Scaling group

Using the Auto Scaling wizard, create an Auto Scaling group specifying a name, size, and network for your Auto Scaling group.

4

Add Elastic Load Balancers (Optional)

When you set up Auto Scaling with Elastic Load Balancing, you can automatically distribute incoming application traffic across Amazon EC2 instances within your Auto Scaling groups to build highly available, fault-tolerant applications.

Associate your load balancer with your Auto Scaling group to distribute traffic for your application across a fleet of EC2 instances that can scale with demand.

You must first create a load balancer.

5

Configure Scaling Policies (Optional)

Configure scaling policies for your Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group.

AWS Command Line Tools (CLI)

You can access the features of Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling using the AWS CLI, which provides commands for a broad set of AWS products, including Amazon EC2 and Amazon CloudWatch. For more information about the commands for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, see the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling section of the AWS Command Line Interface Reference.

AWS Software Development Kits (SDKs)

Get started with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling by using APIs tailored to your programming language or platform, or AWS Mobile SDK to help you build high-quality mobile apps quickly and easily. See Tools for Amazon Web Services for more information.

Set it and Forget it Auto Scaling Target Tracking Policies

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Target Tracking Policies.

Automating Management of Amazon EC2 Instances

Automating Management of Amazon EC2 Instances.

Auto Scaling Lifecycle Hooks Made Easier

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Lifecycle Hooks Made Easier.

Additional resources

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