List all virtual private servers, or instances

You can list all the virtual private servers (instances) in your Amazon Lightsail account using the get-instances command.

aws lightsail get-instances

Motivation: This command is useful when you want to quickly view the details of all the instances running in your Lightsail account. It provides information such as instance name, IP address, and instance state.

Arguments:

This command does not require any specific arguments.

Example Output:

{
    "instances": [
        {
            "name": "example-instance",
            "status": "running",
            "publicIpAddress": "123.456.789.0",
            ...
        },
        ...
    ]
}

This example output shows a JSON response containing information about all the instances in the account.

List all bundles (instance plans)

To view a list of all the instance plans (bundles) available in Amazon Lightsail, you can use the list-bundles command.

aws lightsail list-bundles

Motivation: This command is useful when you want to explore the available instance plans in Lightsail. It provides details such as bundle ID, instance type, RAM, vCPUs, and storage.

Arguments:

This command does not require any specific arguments.

Example Output:

{
    "bundles": [
        {
            "bundleId": "nano_2_0",
            "instanceType": "nano",
            "ramSizeInGb": 0.5,
            "diskSizeInGb": 20,
            ...
        },
        ...
    ]
}

This example output shows a JSON response with information about all the available instance plans.

List all available instance images, or blueprints

To view the available instance images (blueprints) in Amazon Lightsail, you can use the list-blueprints command.

aws lightsail list-blueprints

Motivation: This command is useful when you want to see a list of all the available blueprints to use while creating instances in Lightsail. It provides details such as blueprint ID, name, and platform.

Arguments:

This command does not require any specific arguments.

Example Output:

{
    "blueprints": [
        {
            "blueprintId": "amazon_linux_2",
            "name": "Amazon Linux 2",
            "platform": "LINUX_UNIX",
            ...
        },
        ...
    ]
}

This example output shows a JSON response with information about all the available instance images.

Create an instance

To create a new instance in Amazon Lightsail, you can use the create-instances command.

aws lightsail create-instances --instance-names name --availability-zone region --bundle-id nano_2_0 --blueprint-id blueprint_id

Motivation: This command is used to provision a new instance in Lightsail. It allows you to specify the instance name, availability zone, instance plan bundle ID, and blueprint ID.

Arguments:

• instance-names: The name of the instance you want to create.
• availability-zone: The availability zone where the instance will be created.
• bundle-id: The bundle ID of the instance plan.
• blueprint-id: The ID of the blueprint image.

Example Output:

{
    "operations": [
        {
            "id": "12345678-90ab-cdef-ghij-klmnopqrst",
            "status": "Pending",
            ...
        }
    ]
}

This example output shows a JSON response with information about the operation that was initiated to create the instance.

Print the state of a specific instance

To retrieve the state of a specific instance in Amazon Lightsail, you can use the get-instance-state command.

aws lightsail get-instance-state --instance-name name

Motivation: This command allows you to quickly check the state (running, stopped, or pending) of a specific instance in your Lightsail account.

Arguments:

• instance-name: The name of the instance for which you want to retrieve the state.

Example Output:

{
    "state": {
        "code": 16,
        "name": "running"
    }
}

This example output shows a JSON response with the current state of the specified instance.

Stop a specific instance

To stop a specific instance in Amazon Lightsail, you can use the stop-instance command.

aws lightsail stop-instance --instance-name name

Motivation: This command is useful when you want to temporarily stop an instance to save costs or perform maintenance tasks.

Arguments:

• instance-name: The name of the instance you want to stop.

Example Output:

{
    "operations": [
        {
            "id": "12345678-90ab-cdef-ghij-klmnopqrst",
            "status": "Pending",
            ...
        }
    ]
}

This example output shows a JSON response with information about the operation that was initiated to stop the instance.

Delete a specific instance

To delete a specific instance in Amazon Lightsail, you can use the delete-instance command.

aws lightsail delete-instance --instance-name name

Motivation: This command is used when you no longer need an instance and want to remove it permanently from your Lightsail account.

Arguments:

• instance-name: The name of the instance you want to delete.

Example Output:

{
    "operations": [
        {
            "id": "12345678-90ab-cdef-ghij-klmnopqrst",
            "status": "Pending",
            ...
        }
    ]
}

This example output shows a JSON response with information about the operation that was initiated to delete the instance.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored various commands available in the AWS Lightsail CLI for managing Lightsail resources. We discussed how to list instances, bundles, and blueprints, as well as how to create, check the state, stop, and delete instances. These examples should help you get started with managing your Lightsail resources effectively.