To find and purchase a Reserved Instance

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console and click the Amazon EC2 tab.

2. Click Instances in the Navigation pane.

   The console displays a list of running instances.

3. Select Purchase Reserved Instance from the Reserve list box.

4. Locate a Reserved Instance to purchase by specifying the following:

   • Platform

   • Instance Type

   • Availability Zone

   • Term

   The AWS Management Console displays the Fixed Reservation Price and the Usage Price.

5. Select the number of instances to purchase and click Continue.

   The AWS Management Console prompts you to confirm your order.

6. To confirm your order, click Place Order.

   Your purchase is complete.

7. To verify your order, select View Reserved Instance from the Reserve list box.

   The AWS Management Console displays a list of Reserved Instances that belong to your account.

To find and purchase a Reserved Instance

1. Check which Reserved Instances are available and where they are located:

                 PROMPT> 
                 
                   
                     
                   
                 
                 ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings
               

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings
   OFFERING 4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc8 m1.small us-east-1a 3y 0.00 0.00 m1.small offering in us-east-1a
   OFFERING 4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc7 c1.medium us-east-1b 1y 0.00 0.00 c1.medium offering in us-east-1b
   OFFERING 4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc6 c1.xlarge us-east-1c 1y 0.00 0.00 c1.xlarge offering in us-east-1c
   

   In this example, there are 3 year Reserved Instances available for m1.small instances in us-east-1a, 1 year Reserved Instance available for c1.medium instances in us-east-1b, and 1 year Reserved Instances available for c1.xlarge instances in us-east-1a.

2. After you know what Reserved Instances are available, you can purchase them. To purchase a Reserved Instance:

   PROMPT> ec2-purchase-reserved-instances-offering --offering offering_id --instance-count count

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

   PURCHASE   4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc8  af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342d3a6927a  af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342d3a6927b  af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342d3a6927c

3. Write down or save the reservation numbers for future reference.

4. Verify the purchase:

                 PROMPT> 
                 
                   
                     
                   
                 
                 ec2-describe-reserved-instances
               

   Amazon EC2 returns output similar to the following:

                 RESERVEDINSTANCE af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342d3a6927a m1.small us-east-1a 12 0.00 0.00 19 m1.small offering in us-east-1a Active
   4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc8 m1.small us-east-1a 12 0.00 0.00 3 m1.small offering in us-east-1a Active
   RESERVEDINSTANCE af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342d3a6927b m1.small us-east-1a 12 0.00 0.00 19 m1.small offering in us-east-1a Active
   4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc8 m1.small us-east-1a 12 0.00 0.00 3 m1.small offering in us-east-1a Active
   RESERVEDINSTANCE af9f760e-c1c1-449b-8128-1342d3a6927c m1.small us-east-1a 12 0.00 0.00 19 m1.small offering in us-east-1a Active
   4b2293b4-5813-4cc8-9ce3-1957fc1dcfc8 m1.small us-east-1a 12 0.00 0.00 3 m1.small offering in us-east-1a Active