Posted On: Jan 13, 2016
In November, we announced that EC2 and EBS will have longer identifiers for instances, volumes, reservations, and snapshots to support the ongoing growth of Amazon Web Services. Starting today, you can opt in to using longer EC2 instance and reservation IDs using APIs or the AWS Management Console. Note: Longer EBS volume and snapshot IDs will be available in April 2016.
From now until early December 2016, you can test your systems with the longer format and opt in when you are ready. From December, all new instances, reservations, volumes, and snapshots will be created with longer IDs. We strongly recommend testing your systems and opting in to the longer ID format across all of your accounts before December 2016. All AWS accounts created after March 7, 2016, will automatically default to longer instance and reservation IDs, with the option to request the original, shorter 8-character format if necessary.
After you opt in, only new instances and reservations will receive longer IDs; any pre-existing resources are not affected. Some AWS CLI and SDK versions are not compatible with longer IDs.
For instructions regarding how to opt in to longer IDs, visit the AWS Blog. More information about timelines, testing procedures, a full list of affected tools and compatible versions, and more can be found on the EC2 FAQ page. If you have questions, contact the AWS support team.