EC2-START-INSTANCE(1)     BSD General Commands Manual    EC2-START-INSTANCE(1)

NAME
     ec2-start-instance -- start an EC2 instance and wait for it to be running

SYNOPSIS
     ec2-start-instance [-hv] [-a ami]

DESCRIPTION
     The ec2-start-instance tool will start an EC2 instance and wait for it to
     be running, then print to STDOUT the instance identifier and the host-
     name.  As the tool honors a number of environment variables as noted in
     the section ENVIRONMENT, it is useful for scripting other, more advanced
     tools.

OPTIONS
     ec2-start-instance accepts the following command-line flags:

     -a AMI  Start an instance of the given AMI.  If not specified,
             ec2-start-instance will default to ami-b232d0db.

     -h      Print a usage statement and exit.

     -v      Be verbose.  If not specified, ec2-start-instance will not gener-
             ate any output other than the final instance identifier and the
             hostname.

OUTPUT
     Unless the -v flag is given, the only output generated on STDOUT is a
     pair of strings: the instance identifier and the hostname of the new run-
     ning instance.  See the section EXAMPLES for expected output.

     If the -v flag is given, ec2-start-instance may print out some useful
     information about what steps it is currently performing.

     Any errors encountered cause a meaningful error message to be printed to
     STDERR.

EXIT STATUS
     The ec2-start-instance will exit with a return status of 0 under normal
     circumstances.  If an error occurred, ec2-start-instance will exit with a
     value >0.

EXAMPLES
     The following examples illustrate common usage of this tool.

           $ ec2-start-instance -a ami-19a34270
           i-db464ab7 ec2-75-101-236-71.compute-1.amazonaws.com
           $

ENVIRONMENT
     ec2-start-instance assumes that the user has set up their environment for
     general use with the EC2 tools.  That is, it will not set or modify the
     variables EC2_CERT, EC2_HOME and EC2_PRIVATE_KEY.

     ec2-start-instance allows the user to add custom flags to the
     ec2-run-instances(1) command via the EC2_RUN_INSTANCES_FLAGS environment
     variable.  If this variable is not set, ec2-start-instance will not
     append any flags to the command besides -a ami.

SEE ALSO
     ec2-run-instances(1), ec2-describe-instances(1), ping(8)

HISTORY
     ec2-start-instance was originally assigned by Jan Schaumann
     <jschauma@cs.stevens.edu> as a homework assignment for the class "Aspects
     of System Administration" at Stevens Institute of Technology in the
     Spring of 2011.

BSD                             March 06, 2011                             BSD