Scheduling EC2 Instance Management on Ubuntu Using Python with Linux System

Prerequisites

Before you proceed, ensure you have:

• An AWS account with EC2 instances configured.
• Python 3 installed on your Ubuntu system.
• boto3 library installed. You can install it using pip
• Install Boto3

pip install boto3

• Configure aws credential

aws configure

#### Python script######

#!/usr/bin/python
import boto3
from botocore.exceptions import ClientError
import sys
import time
client = boto3.client('ec2',  region_name='eu-central-1')
client2 = boto3.resource('ec2', region_name='eu-central-1')
def describe_instances(tag_name):
    instance_ids = []
    try:
        response = client.describe_instances(
             Filters=[
                 {
                     'Name': 'tag:Name',
                     'Values': [tag_name]  # Filter by instance Name tag
                  }
              ]
          )
        instance_id = response['Reservations'][0]['Instances'][0]['InstanceId']
        status = response['Reservations'][0]['Instances'][0]['State']['Name']
        if status == "stopped":
            instance_ids.append(instance_id)
            return instance_ids, status
        elif status == "running":
            instance_ids.append(instance_id)
            return instance_ids, status
    except Exception as e:
        print(e)
def start_instance(instance_id):
    response = client.start_instances(
        InstanceIds=[instance_id],
        DryRun=False
    )
    print(response)
def stop_instance(instance_id):
    response = client.stop_instances(
        InstanceIds=[instance_id],
        DryRun=False
    )
    print(response)
if name == "__main__":
   instance_name = "my-web"
   instences, state = describe_instances(instance_name)
   print(instences)
   print(state)
   for instance in instences:
        if state == "stopped":
             start_instance(instance)
             time.sleep(60)
        elif state == "running":
             stop_instance(instance)
             time.sleep(60)
        else:
            print("No instance found")w
            sys.exit(1)        

• Copy and paste the above Python code into the file.
• Save and exit the editor (in nano, you can do this by pressing CTRL + X, then Y, and finally Enter).
• crontab -e

0 8,20  * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/your/ec2_scheduler.py        

• Save and Exit

Conclusion

You have successfully set up a Python script on your Ubuntu system to manage EC2 instances and scheduled it using cron. This automation will help you efficiently manage your resources, potentially reducing costs and manual intervention. You can further customize the script and scheduling as per your requirements. Happy coding!

In the next post, we’ll explore how to use AWS Lambda and CloudWatch Events to automate EC2 start/stop actions without needing a local server. Stay tuned for a serverless approach to managing EC2 instances!