Tutorial: Create your first Auto Scaling group

To create a launch template

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console and go to the Launch templates page.

2. On the top navigation bar, select an AWS Region. The launch template and Auto Scaling group that you create are tied to the Region that you specify.

3. Choose Create launch template.

4. For Launch template name, enter my-template-for-auto-scaling.

5. Under Auto Scaling guidance, select the check box.

6. For Application and OS Images (Amazon Machine Image), choose a version of Amazon Linux 2 (HVM) from the Quick Start list. The AMI serves as a basic configuration template for your instances.

7. For Instance type, choose a hardware configuration that is compatible with the AMI that you specified.

8. (Optional) For Key pair (login), choose an existing key pair. You use key pairs to connect to an Amazon EC2 instance with SSH. Connecting to an instance is not included as part of this tutorial. Therefore, you don't need to specify a key pair unless you intend to connect to your instance using SSH.

9. For Network settings, expand Advanced network configuration and do the following:

   1. Choose Add network interface to configure the primary network interface.

   2. For Auto-assign public IP, specify whether your instance receives a public IPv4 address. By default, Amazon EC2 assigns a public IPv4 address if the EC2 instance is launched into a default subnet or if the instance is launched into a subnet that's been configured to automatically assign a public IPv4 address. If you don't need to connect to your instance, choose Disable.

   3. For Security group ID, choose a security group in the same VPC that you plan to use as the VPC for your Auto Scaling group. If you don't specify a security group, your instance is automatically associated with the default security group for the VPC.

   4. For Delete on termination, choose Yes to delete the network interface when the instance is deleted.

10. Choose Create launch template.

11. On the confirmation page, choose Create Auto Scaling group.

To create an Auto Scaling group

1. On the Choose launch template or configuration page, for Auto Scaling group name, enter my-first-asg.

2. Choose Next.

   The Choose instance launch options page appears, allowing you to choose the VPC network settings you want the Auto Scaling group to use and giving you options for launching On-Demand and Spot Instances.

3. In the Network section, keep VPC set to the default VPC for your chosen AWS Region, or select your own VPC. The default VPC is automatically configured to provide internet connectivity to your instance. This VPC includes a public subnet in each Availability Zone in the Region.

4. For Availability Zones and subnets, choose a subnet from each Availability Zone that you want to include. Use subnets in multiple Availability Zones for high availability. For more information, see Considerations when choosing VPC subnets.

5. In the Instance type requirements section, use the default setting to simplify this step. (Do not override the launch template.) For this tutorial, you will launch only one On-Demand Instance using the instance type specified in your launch template.

6. Keep the rest of the defaults for this tutorial and choose Skip to review.

   Note

   The initial size of the group is determined by its desired capacity. The default value is 1 instance.

7. On the Review page, review the information for the group, and then choose Create Auto Scaling group.

To verify that your Auto Scaling group has launched an EC2 instance

1. Open the Auto Scaling groups page of the Amazon EC2 console.

2. Select the check box next to the Auto Scaling group that you just created.

   A split pane opens up in the bottom of the Auto Scaling groups page. The first tab available is the Details tab, showing information about the Auto Scaling group.

3. Choose the second tab, Activity. Under Activity history, you can view the progress of activities that are associated with the Auto Scaling group. The Status column shows the current status of your instance. While your instance is launching, the status column shows Not yet in service. The status changes to Successful after the instance is launched. You can also use the refresh button to see the current status of your instance.

4. On the Instance management tab, under Instances, you can view the status of the instance.

5. Verify that your instance launched successfully. It takes a short time for an instance to launch.

   • The Lifecycle column shows the state of your instance. Initially, your instance is in the Pending state. After an instance is ready to receive traffic, its state is InService.

   • The Health status column shows the result of the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling health checks on your instance.

1. Open the Auto Scaling groups page of the Amazon EC2 console.

2. Select the check box next to your Auto Scaling group.

3. On the Instance management tab, under Instances, select the ID of the instance.

   This takes you to the Instances page of the Amazon EC2 console, where you can terminate the instance.

4. Choose Actions, Instance State, Terminate. When prompted for confirmation, choose Yes, Terminate.

5. On the navigation pane, under Auto Scaling, choose Auto Scaling Groups. Select your Auto Scaling group and choose the Activity tab.

   When you terminate an instance from the Instances page, it takes a minute or two after you terminate the instance before a new instance launches. In the activity history, when the scaling activity starts, you see an entry for the termination of the first instance and an entry for the launch of a new instance. Use the refresh button until you see the new entries.

6. On the Instance management tab, the Instances section shows the new instance only.

7. On the navigation pane, under Instances, choose Instances. This page shows both the terminated instance and the new running instance.

To delete your Auto Scaling group

1. Open the Auto Scaling groups page of the Amazon EC2 console.

2. Select the check box next to your Auto Scaling group (my-first-asg).

3. Choose Delete.

4. When prompted for confirmation, type delete to confirm deleting the specified Auto Scaling group and then choose Delete.

   A loading icon in the Name column indicates that the Auto Scaling group is being deleted. When the deletion has occurred, the Desired, Min, and Max columns show 0 instances for the Auto Scaling group. It takes a few minutes to terminate the instance and delete the group. Refresh the list to see the current state.

To delete your launch template

1. Open the Launch templates page of the Amazon EC2 console.

2. Select your launch template (my-template-for-auto-scaling).

3. Choose Actions, Delete template.

4. When prompted for confirmation, type Delete to confirm deleting the specified launch template and then choose Delete.