Posted On: Aug 5, 2021

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Instance Refresh now supports performing updates to the Auto Scaling group (ASG) configuration as well as the ability to skip replacing already updated instances during an Instance Refresh. These new capabilities make it easier to deploy changes to an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) or install additional software in a controlled manner. To help you further deploy updates on Auto Scaling instances, we are also announcing four new Instance Refresh-based event notifications available through Amazon EventBridge.

Instance Refresh now enables customers to avoid replacing instances if those instances already have the desired configuration. Using this functionality, customers can perform faster roll forward or roll back by skipping instances whose configuration already matches the desired configuration. This additional Instance Refresh control is useful for updating an ASG when an instance refresh has failed or was canceled before completion. This functionality uses EC2 Launch Templates to define the desired instance configuration settings.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling now supports updating the Launch Template definition upon successful completion of an Instance Refresh. Previously, customers had to configure the new Launch Template definition in their ASG and then launch an instance refresh. Now, customers can choose to automatically update the ASG definition with the new Launch Template definition upon successful completion of the Instance Refresh.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling now generates four new Amazon EventBridge event notifications for Instance Refresh. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling now publishes events so that customers can monitor the refresh status of an ASG. The new EventBridge events indicate when an Instance Refresh has started, succeeded, failed, or been cancelled. Customers can use these notifications to automate actions that are dependent on the refresh status of an ASG.

EC2 Auto Scaling is a service that helps customers maintain application availability by automatically scaling the number of EC2 instances according to conditions they define. Instance Refresh is an EC2 Auto Scaling feature that enables automatic deployment of instances in an ASG to move to new AMIs, install new software, and change instance types.

These additional features are available through the AWS SDKs, or the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI). AWS Management Console support for this feature is coming soon. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is available in all public AWS Regions and in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. To learn more about Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, please visit our product page and documentation. You can use the Amazon EventBridge console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDK to start consuming EC2 Auto Scaling EventBridge events. To learn more about using EventBridge to implement notifications for EC2 Auto Scaling Instance Refresh events, review the documentation.