Description

Returns information about AMIs, AKIs, and ARIs. This includes image type, product codes, architecture, and kernel and RAM disk IDs. Images available to you include public images, private images that you own, and private images owned by other users for which you have explicit launch permissions.

Launch permissions fall into three categories:

Launch Permission	Description
public	The owner of the AMI granted launch permissions for the AMI to the all group. All users have launch permissions for these AMIs.
explicit	The owner of the AMI granted launch permissions to a specific user.
implicit	A user has implicit launch permissions for all AMIs he or she owns.

The list of AMIs returned can be modified by specifying AMI IDs, AMI owners, or users with launch permissions. If no options are specified, Amazon EC2 returns all AMIs for which the user has launch permissions.

If you specify one or more AMI IDs, only AMIs that have the specified IDs are returned. If you specify an invalid AMI ID, a fault is returned. If you specify an AMI ID for which you do not have access, it will not be included in the returned results.

If you specify one or more AMI owners, only AMIs from the specified owners and for which you have access are returned. The results can include the account IDs of the specified owners, amazon for AMIs owned by Amazon or self for AMIs that you own.

If you specify a list of executable users, only users that have launch permissions for the AMIs are returned. You can specify account IDs (if you own the AMI(s)), self for AMIs for which you own or have explicit permissions, or all for public AMIs.

	Note
	Deregistered images are included in the returned results for an unspecified interval after deregistration.

Request Parameters

Name	Description	Required
ExecutableBy	Returns AMIs for which the specified user has explicit launch permissions. The user ID can be a user's account ID, Type: String Default: None	No
ImageId	AMI IDs to describe. Type: String Default: Returns all AMIs.	No
Owner	Returns AMIs owned by the specified owner. Multiple owners can be specified. The IDs Type: String Default: None	No

Response Elements

Name	Description
DescribeImagesResponse	DescribeImagesResponse element. Type:

Ancestor: None

Children: requestId, imagesSet

requestId

The ID of the request.

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: DescribeImagesResponse

Children: None

imagesSet

Image set.

Type: DescribeImagesResponseInfoType

Ancestor: DescribeImagesResponse

Children: item

item

Information for one image.

Type: DescribeImagesResponseItemType

Ancestor: imagesSet

Children: imageId, imageLocation, imageState, imageOwnerId, isPublic, productCodes, architecture, imageType, kernelId, ramdiskId, and platform

imageId

The ID of the AMI.

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

imageLocation

The location of the AMI.

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

imageState

Current state of the AMI. If the operation returns

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

imageOwnerId

AWS Access Key ID of the image owner.

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

isPublic

Returns

Type: xsd:boolean

Ancestor: item

Children: None

productCodes

Product codes of the AMI.

Type: ProductCodesSetType

Ancestor: item

Children: item

item

Information for one product code.

Type: ProductCodesSetItemType

Ancestor: productCodes

Children: productCode

productCode

Product code.

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

architecture

The architecture of the image (

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

imageType

The type of image (

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

kernelId

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

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

ramdiskId

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

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None

platform

The operating platform of the instance.

Type: xsd:string

Ancestor: item

Children: None