How to replicate ec2 "launch more like this" from the command line?

Question

The aws ec2 interface has a button called "launch more like this" that launches a second instance like the one selected. There is no similar functionality in the aws command line interface as far as I can tell.

Answer 1

Here's a working (though hacky) way to build an instance as a copy of another instance:

function cloneinstance {
  awsinstanceid=$1
  region=$2
  export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=$region
  ami=$(aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids $awsinstanceid | grep INSTANCES | awk '{print $7}')
  privatekey=$(aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids $awsinstanceid | grep INSTANCES | awk '{print $10}')
  securitygroup=$(aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids $awsinstanceid | grep SECURITYGROUPS | awk '{print $2}')
  instancetype=$(aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids $awsinstanceid | grep INSTANCES | awk '{print $9}')
  subnet=$(aws ec2 describe-instances --instance-ids $awsinstanceid | grep NETWORKINTERFACES | awk '{print $9}')

  awsinstancedata=$(aws ec2 run-instances --image-id $ami --key-name $privatekey --security-group-ids $securitygroup --instance-type $instancetype --subnet-id $subnet)
  awsinstanceid=$(echo $awsinstancedata | awk '{print $9}')

  # AWS CLI sucks and doesn't return error codes so have to look for a valid id
  if [[ "$awsinstanceid" == i-* ]]; then echo -e "\t\tSuccessfully created. Instance ID: $awsinstanceid"; else echo -e "\t\tSomething went wrong. Check your configuration."; exit 1; fi 
  echo -e "\t\tWaiting for it to come up..."
  aws ec2 wait instance-running --instance-ids $awsinstanceid
  echo -e "\t\tServer is up and ready"
}

cloneinstance i-12345678 us-west-1

Answer 2

Launch more like this is a wizard and there is no CLI equivalent for it. You need to get the first instance attributes and use them to lauch the seconds instance with the same attributes (except for the ones that are unique to an instance). The link adds --clone option to awscli. Check it out.