describe-images¶

Description¶

Describes the specified images (AMIs, AKIs, and ARIs) available to you or all of the images available to you.

The images available to you include public images, private images that you own, and private images owned by other AWS accounts for which you have explicit launch permissions.

Recently deregistered images appear in the returned results for a short interval and then return empty results. After all instances that reference a deregistered AMI are terminated, specifying the ID of the image results in an error indicating that the AMI ID cannot be found.

Synopsis¶

  describe-images
[--executable-users <value>]
[--filters <value>]
[--image-ids <value>]
[--owners <value>]
[--dry-run | --no-dry-run]
[--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml]
[--generate-cli-skeleton <value>]
[--cli-auto-prompt <value>]

Options¶

--executable-users (list)

Scopes the images by users with explicit launch permissions. Specify an AWS account ID, self (the sender of the request), or all (public AMIs).

(string)

Syntax:

"string" "string" ...

--filters (list)

The filters.

architecture - The image architecture (i386 | x86_64 | arm64 ).

block-device-mapping.delete-on-termination - A Boolean value that indicates whether the Amazon EBS volume is deleted on instance termination.

block-device-mapping.device-name - The device name specified in the block device mapping (for example, /dev/sdh or xvdh ).

block-device-mapping.snapshot-id - The ID of the snapshot used for the EBS volume.

block-device-mapping.volume-size - The volume size of the EBS volume, in GiB.

block-device-mapping.volume-type - The volume type of the EBS volume (gp2 | io1 | st1 | sc1 | standard ).

block-device-mapping.encrypted - A Boolean that indicates whether the EBS volume is encrypted.

description - The description of the image (provided during image creation).

ena-support - A Boolean that indicates whether enhanced networking with ENA is enabled.

hypervisor - The hypervisor type (ovm | xen ).

image-id - The ID of the image.

image-type - The image type (machine | kernel | ramdisk ).

is-public - A Boolean that indicates whether the image is public.

kernel-id - The kernel ID.

manifest-location - The location of the image manifest.

name - The name of the AMI (provided during image creation).

owner-alias - The owner alias, from an Amazon-maintained list (amazon | aws-marketplace ). This is not the user-configured AWS account alias set using the IAM console. We recommend that you use the related parameter instead of this filter.

owner-id - The AWS account ID of the owner. We recommend that you use the related parameter instead of this filter.

platform - The platform. To only list Windows-based AMIs, use windows .

product-code - The product code.

product-code.type - The type of the product code (devpay | marketplace ).

ramdisk-id - The RAM disk ID.

root-device-name - The device name of the root device volume (for example, /dev/sda1 ).

root-device-type - The type of the root device volume (ebs | instance-store ).

state - The state of the image (available | pending | failed ).

state-reason-code - The reason code for the state change.

state-reason-message - The message for the state change.

sriov-net-support - A value of simple indicates that enhanced networking with the Intel 82599 VF interface is enabled.

tag :<key> - The key/value combination of a tag assigned to the resource. Use the tag key in the filter name and the tag value as the filter value. For example, to find all resources that have a tag with the key Owner and the value TeamA , specify tag:Owner for the filter name and TeamA for the filter value.

tag-key - The key of a tag assigned to the resource. Use this filter to find all resources assigned a tag with a specific key, regardless of the tag value.

virtualization-type - The virtualization type (paravirtual | hvm ).

(structure)

A filter name and value pair that is used to return a more specific list of results from a describe operation. Filters can be used to match a set of resources by specific criteria, such as tags, attributes, or IDs. The filters supported by a describe operation are documented with the describe operation. For example:

DescribeAvailabilityZones

DescribeImages

DescribeInstances

DescribeKeyPairs

DescribeSecurityGroups

DescribeSnapshots

DescribeSubnets

DescribeTags

DescribeVolumes

DescribeVpcs

Name -> (string)

The name of the filter. Filter names are case-sensitive.

Values -> (list)

The filter values. Filter values are case-sensitive.

(string)

Shorthand Syntax:

Name=string,Values=string,string ...

JSON Syntax:

[
  {
    "Name": "string",
    "Values": ["string", ...]
  }
  ...
]

--image-ids (list)

The image IDs.

Default: Describes all images available to you.

(string)

Syntax:

"string" "string" ...

--owners (list)

Scopes the results to images with the specified owners. You can specify a combination of AWS account IDs, self , amazon , and aws-marketplace . If you omit this parameter, the results include all images for which you have launch permissions, regardless of ownership.

(string)

Syntax:

"string" "string" ...

--dry-run | --no-dry-run (boolean)

Checks whether you have the required permissions for the action, without actually making the request, and provides an error response. If you have the required permissions, the error response is DryRunOperation . Otherwise, it is UnauthorizedOperation .

--cli-input-json | --cli-input-yaml (string) Reads arguments from the JSON string provided. The JSON string follows the format provided by --generate-cli-skeleton. If other arguments are provided on the command line, those values will override the JSON-provided values. It is not possible to pass arbitrary binary values using a JSON-provided value as the string will be taken literally. This may not be specified along with --cli-input-yaml.

--generate-cli-skeleton (string) Prints a JSON skeleton to standard output without sending an API request. If provided with no value or the value input, prints a sample input JSON that can be used as an argument for --cli-input-json. Similarly, if provided yaml-input it will print a sample input YAML that can be used with --cli-input-yaml. If provided with the value output, it validates the command inputs and returns a sample output JSON for that command.

--cli-auto-prompt (boolean) Automatically prompt for CLI input parameters.

See ‘aws help’ for descriptions of global parameters.

Examples¶

Example 1: To describe an AMI

The following describe-images example describes the specified AMI in the specified Region.

aws ec2 describe-images \
    --region us-east-1 \
    --image-ids ami-1234567890EXAMPLE

Output:

{
    "Images": [
        {
            "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
            "Description": "Provided by Red Hat, Inc.",
            "PlatformDetails": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux",
            "EnaSupport": true,
            "Hypervisor": "xen",
            "State": "available",
            "SriovNetSupport": "simple",
            "ImageId": "ami-1234567890EXAMPLE",
            "UsageOperation": "RunInstances:0010",
            "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "Ebs": {
                        "SnapshotId": "snap-111222333444aaabb",
                        "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                        "VolumeType": "gp2",
                        "VolumeSize": 10,
                        "Encrypted": false
                    }
                }
            ],
            "Architecture": "x86_64",
            "ImageLocation": "123456789012/RHEL-8.0.0_HVM-20190618-x86_64-1-Hourly2-GP2",
            "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
            "OwnerId": "123456789012",
            "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
            "CreationDate": "2019-05-10T13:17:12.000Z",
            "Public": true,
            "ImageType": "machine",
            "Name": "RHEL-8.0.0_HVM-20190618-x86_64-1-Hourly2-GP2"
        }
    ]
}

For more information, see Amazon Machine Images (AMI) in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Example 2: To describe AMIs based on filters

The following describe-images example describes Windows AMIs provided by Amazon that are backed by Amazon EBS.

aws ec2 describe-images \
    --owners amazon \
    --filters "Name=platform,Values=windows" "Name=root-device-type,Values=ebs"

For an example of the output for describe-images, see Example 1.

For additional examples using filters, see Listing and filtering your resources in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Example 3: To describe AMIs based on tags

The following describe-images example describes all AMIs that have the tag Type=Custom. The example uses the --query parameter to display only the AMI IDs.

aws ec2 describe-images \
    --filters "Name=tag:Type,Values=Custom" \
    --query 'Images[*].[ImageId]' \
    --output text

Output:

ami-1234567890EXAMPLE
ami-0abcdef1234567890

For additional examples using tag filters, see Working with tags in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Output¶

Images -> (list)

Information about the images.

(structure)

Describes an image.

Architecture -> (string)

The architecture of the image.

CreationDate -> (string)

The date and time the image was created.

ImageId -> (string)

The ID of the AMI.

ImageLocation -> (string)

The location of the AMI.

ImageType -> (string)

The type of image.

Public -> (boolean)

Indicates whether the image has public launch permissions. The value is true if this image has public launch permissions or false if it has only implicit and explicit launch permissions.

KernelId -> (string)

The kernel associated with the image, if any. Only applicable for machine images.

OwnerId -> (string)

The AWS account ID of the image owner.

Platform -> (string)

This value is set to windows for Windows AMIs; otherwise, it is blank.

PlatformDetails -> (string)

The platform details associated with the billing code of the AMI. For more information, see Obtaining Billing Information in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide .

UsageOperation -> (string)

The operation of the Amazon EC2 instance and the billing code that is associated with the AMI. usageOperation corresponds to the lineitem/Operation column on your AWS Cost and Usage Report and in the AWS Price List API . For the list of UsageOperation codes, see Platform Details and Usage Operation Billing Codes in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide .

ProductCodes -> (list)

Any product codes associated with the AMI.

(structure)

Describes a product code.

ProductCodeId -> (string)

The product code.

ProductCodeType -> (string)

The type of product code.

RamdiskId -> (string)

The RAM disk associated with the image, if any. Only applicable for machine images.

State -> (string)

The current state of the AMI. If the state is available , the image is successfully registered and can be used to launch an instance.

BlockDeviceMappings -> (list)

Any block device mapping entries.

(structure)

Describes a block device mapping.

DeviceName -> (string)

The device name (for example, /dev/sdh or xvdh ).

VirtualName -> (string)

The virtual device name (ephemeral N). Instance store volumes are numbered starting from 0. An instance type with 2 available instance store volumes can specify mappings for ephemeral0 and ephemeral1 . The number of available instance store volumes depends on the instance type. After you connect to the instance, you must mount the volume.

NVMe instance store volumes are automatically enumerated and assigned a device name. Including them in your block device mapping has no effect.

Constraints: For M3 instances, you must specify instance store volumes in the block device mapping for the instance. When you launch an M3 instance, we ignore any instance store volumes specified in the block device mapping for the AMI.

Ebs -> (structure)

Parameters used to automatically set up EBS volumes when the instance is launched.

DeleteOnTermination -> (boolean)

Indicates whether the EBS volume is deleted on instance termination. For more information, see Preserving Amazon EBS volumes on instance termination in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide.

Iops -> (integer)

The number of I/O operations per second (IOPS) that the volume supports. For io1 volumes, this represents the number of IOPS that are provisioned for the volume. For gp2 volumes, this represents the baseline performance of the volume and the rate at which the volume accumulates I/O credits for bursting. For more information, see Amazon EBS volume types in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide .

Constraints: Range is 100-16,000 IOPS for gp2 volumes and 100 to 64,000IOPS for io1 volumes in most Regions. Maximum io1 IOPS of 64,000 is guaranteed only on Nitro-based instances . Other instance families guarantee performance up to 32,000 IOPS. For more information, see Amazon EBS Volume Types in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide .

Condition: This parameter is required for requests to create io1 volumes; it is not used in requests to create gp2 , st1 , sc1 , or standard volumes.

SnapshotId -> (string)

The ID of the snapshot.

VolumeSize -> (integer)

The size of the volume, in GiB.

Default: If you’re creating the volume from a snapshot and don’t specify a volume size, the default is the snapshot size.

Constraints: 1-16384 for General Purpose SSD (gp2 ), 4-16384 for Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 ), 500-16384 for Throughput Optimized HDD (st1 ), 500-16384 for Cold HDD (sc1 ), and 1-1024 for Magnetic (standard ) volumes. If you specify a snapshot, the volume size must be equal to or larger than the snapshot size.

VolumeType -> (string)

The volume type. If you set the type to io1 , you must also specify the Iops parameter. If you set the type to gp2 , st1 , sc1 , or standard , you must omit the Iops parameter.

Default: gp2

KmsKeyId -> (string)

Identifier (key ID, key alias, ID ARN, or alias ARN) for a customer managed CMK under which the EBS volume is encrypted.

This parameter is only supported on BlockDeviceMapping objects called by RunInstances , RequestSpotFleet , and RequestSpotInstances .

Encrypted -> (boolean)

Indicates whether the encryption state of an EBS volume is changed while being restored from a backing snapshot. The effect of setting the encryption state to true depends on the volume origin (new or from a snapshot), starting encryption state, ownership, and whether encryption by default is enabled. For more information, see Amazon EBS Encryption in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide .

In no case can you remove encryption from an encrypted volume.

Encrypted volumes can only be attached to instances that support Amazon EBS encryption. For more information, see Supported instance types .

This parameter is not returned by .

NoDevice -> (string)

Suppresses the specified device included in the block device mapping of the AMI.

Description -> (string)

The description of the AMI that was provided during image creation.

EnaSupport -> (boolean)

Specifies whether enhanced networking with ENA is enabled.

Hypervisor -> (string)

The hypervisor type of the image.

ImageOwnerAlias -> (string)

The AWS account alias (for example, amazon , self ) or the AWS account ID of the AMI owner.

Name -> (string)

The name of the AMI that was provided during image creation.

RootDeviceName -> (string)

The device name of the root device volume (for example, /dev/sda1 ).

RootDeviceType -> (string)

The type of root device used by the AMI. The AMI can use an EBS volume or an instance store volume.

SriovNetSupport -> (string)

Specifies whether enhanced networking with the Intel 82599 Virtual Function interface is enabled.

StateReason -> (structure)

The reason for the state change.

Code -> (string)

The reason code for the state change.

Message -> (string)

The message for the state change.

Server.InsufficientInstanceCapacity : There was insufficient capacity available to satisfy the launch request.

Server.InternalError : An internal error caused the instance to terminate during launch.

Server.ScheduledStop : The instance was stopped due to a scheduled retirement.

Server.SpotInstanceShutdown : The instance was stopped because the number of Spot requests with a maximum price equal to or higher than the Spot price exceeded available capacity or because of an increase in the Spot price.

Server.SpotInstanceTermination : The instance was terminated because the number of Spot requests with a maximum price equal to or higher than the Spot price exceeded available capacity or because of an increase in the Spot price.

Client.InstanceInitiatedShutdown : The instance was shut down using the shutdown -h command from the instance.

Client.InstanceTerminated : The instance was terminated or rebooted during AMI creation.

Client.InternalError : A client error caused the instance to terminate during launch.

Client.InvalidSnapshot.NotFound : The specified snapshot was not found.

Client.UserInitiatedHibernate : Hibernation was initiated on the instance.

Client.UserInitiatedShutdown : The instance was shut down using the Amazon EC2 API.

Client.VolumeLimitExceeded : The limit on the number of EBS volumes or total storage was exceeded. Decrease usage or request an increase in your account limits.

Tags -> (list)

Any tags assigned to the image.

(structure)

Describes a tag.

Key -> (string)

The key of the tag.

Constraints: Tag keys are case-sensitive and accept a maximum of 127 Unicode characters. May not begin with aws: .

Value -> (string)

The value of the tag.

Constraints: Tag values are case-sensitive and accept a maximum of 255 Unicode characters.

VirtualizationType -> (string)

The type of virtualization of the AMI.

Table of Contents

Feedback

User Guide

describe-images¶

Description¶

Synopsis¶

Options¶

Examples¶

Output¶