Understand the default values for an instance refresh - Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Understand the default values for an instance refresh

Before you start an instance refresh, you can customize various preferences that affect the instance refresh. Some preference defaults are different depending on whether you use the console or the command line (AWS CLI or AWS SDK).

The following table lists the default values for the instance refresh settings.

Setting AWS CLI or AWS SDK Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling console
CloudWatch alarm Disabled (null) Disabled
Auto rollback Disabled (false) Disabled
Checkpoints Disabled (false) Disabled
Checkpoint delay 1 hour (3600 seconds) 1 hour
Instance warmup The default instance warmup, if defined, or the health check grace period otherwise. The default instance warmup, if defined, or the health check grace period otherwise.
Maximum healthy percentage Varies based on your instance maintenance policy. If no instance maintenance policy, this defaults to 100 percent (null). Varies based on your instance maintenance policy. If no instance maintenance policy, this defaults to 100 percent (null).
Minimum healthy percentage Varies based on your instance maintenance policy. If no instance maintenance policy, this defaults to 90 percent. Varies based on your instance maintenance policy. If no instance maintenance policy, this defaults to 90 percent.
Scale-in protected instances Wait Ignore
Skip matching Disabled (false) Enabled
Standby instances Wait Ignore

A description of each setting follows:

CloudWatch alarm (AlarmSpecification)

The CloudWatch alarm specification. CloudWatch alarms can be used to identify any issues and fail the operation if an alarm goes into the ALARM state. For more information, see Start an instance refresh with auto rollback.

Auto rollback (AutoRollback)

Controls whether Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling rolls back the Auto Scaling group to its previous configuration if the instance refresh fails. For more information, see Undo changes with a rollback.

Checkpoints (CheckpointPercentages)

Controls whether Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling replaces instances in phases. This is useful if you need to perform verifications on your instances before replacing all instances. For more information, see Add checkpoints to an instance refresh.

Checkpoint delay (CheckpointDelay)

The amount of time, in seconds, to wait after a checkpoint before continuing. For more information, see Add checkpoints to an instance refresh.

Instance warmup (InstanceWarmup)

A time period, in seconds, during which Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling waits until a new instance is considered to have finished initializing before moving on to replacing the next instance. If you have already correctly defined a default instance warmup for the Auto Scaling group, then you don't need to change the instance warmup (unless you want to override the default). For more information, see Set the default instance warmup for an Auto Scaling group.

Maximum healthy percentage (MaxHealthyPercentage)

The percentage of the desired capacity of the Auto Scaling group that your group can increase to when replacing instances.

Minimum healthy percentage (MinHealthyPercentage)

The percentage of the desired capacity of the Auto Scaling group that must be in service, healthy, and ready to use before the operation can continue.

Scale-in protected instances (ScaleInProtectedInstances)

Controls what Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling does if instances that are protected from scale in are found. For more information about these instances, see Use instance scale-in protection.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling provides the following options:

  • Replace (Refresh) – Replaces instances that are protected from scale in.

  • Ignore (Ignore) – Ignores instances that are protected from scale in and continues to replace instances that are not protected.

  • Wait (Wait) – Waits one hour for you to remove scale-in protection. If you don't do so, the instance refresh fails.

Skip matching (SkipMatching)

Controls whether Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling skips replacing instances that match the desired configuration. If no desired configuration is specified, then it skips replacing instances that have the same launch template and instance types that the Auto Scaling group was using before the instance refresh started. For more information, see Use an instance refresh with skip matching.

Standby instances (StandbyInstances)

Controls what Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling does if instances are found in Standby state. For more information about these instances, see Temporarily remove instances from your Auto Scaling group.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling provides the following options:

  • Terminate (Terminate) – Terminates instances that are in Standby.

  • Ignore (Ignore) – Ignores instances that are in Standby and continues to replace instances that are in the InService state.

  • Wait (Wait) – Waits one hour for you to return the instances to service. If you don't do so, the instance refresh fails.