Bamboo 3.4 : Viewing an Elastic Instance

An elastic instance is a running instance of an elastic image. One elastic instance is created whenever an elastic image is started. Hence, starting one elastic image multiple times, results in the creation of multiple elastic instances. Each time an elastic instance is created, one elastic agent is created on that instance.

Conceptually, an elastic instance can be thought of as a computer. The elastic agent's processes are run on this computer and the elastic image is the boot hard drive. Unlike computers, however, elastic instances are temporary and stateless. When an elastic instance is shut down:

  • Any changes that an elastic instance makes to the boot hard drive (e.g. agent log file) will not persist
  • Any customisations to the instance itself will also be lost.

(tick) The Amazon Elastic Block Store can provide persistent storage for your elastic instances.

Viewing an Elastic Instance

To view an elastic instance:

  1. Click the 'Administration' link in the top navigation bar.
  2. Click the 'Instances' link in the left navigation column. The 'Manage Elastic Instances' screen will display.
  3. Click the name of the instance that you want to view, e.g. 'i-05ff716c'. The information for the instance will display (see screenshot below).
    • Information
      • Current status — this is the status of the elastic instance. Valid values include, 'Pending' (instance starting up), 'Running' and 'Shutting down'.
      • Public DNS — this is the public DNS address of the elastic instance. The IP address of the elastic instance is displayed under this field.
      • Start Time — this is the start time of the instance, based on the Amazon EC2 timezone (US Eastern Time for Elastic Bamboo). Please note, start time is the time when you send the request to start an instance, not the time when the instance progresses to 'Running' status. Up time of the instance (including the time taken for the instance to start up) is shown in brackets after the start time.
      • Elastic Agent — this is the elastic agent process currently running on your elastic instance. Currently Elastic Bamboo only supports one elastic agent per elastic image. Click the 'Elastic Agent on <instance_name>' link to view the elastic agent. If the agent is running a Job, the Job's Key will be shown in brackets after the elastic agent name.
      • Current Availability Zone — the availability zone that your elastic instance is running in. Read more about Amazon EC2 availability zones. This field will also show you what your availability zone preference is, in brackets after the current availability zone. For instructions on how to selecting the availability zone for your instances, please see Managing your Elastic Image Configurations.
      • Attached Volumes — if you have configured your elastic instances to use EBS, the IDs of the attached EBS volumes will be displayed in this table.
    • Configuration
      • Configuration — this is the name of the elastic image configuration that was used to create this elastic instance. Click the name to configure the elastic image.
      • AMI ID — this is the ID of the elastic image (i.e. Amazon Machine Image) that the elastic instance was created from (as part of the elastic image configuration).
      • EBS Snapshot ID — if you have configured your elastic instances to use EBS, the ID of the EBS snapshot that was used to create the EBS volumes attached to your instance will be displayed in this field.
        (info) Bamboo polls the EBS volumes for an elastic instance every 60 seconds by default. If you want to change this interval, you need to modify the following system property: bamboo.agent.elastic.ebsVolumeSupervisionIntervalInSeconds
      • Instance Type — the instance type of your instance is displayed in this field.
    • SSH Access
    • Accessing Logs

Screenshot above: Viewing an elastic instance

Notes

  • Amazon Web Services Management Console — You can also view information about your elastic instances on the AWS Management Console. Please note, we strongly recommend that you use the console for viewing instance information only. You may experience errors if you attempt to manage your instances outside of Bamboo.
Related Topics

Managing your Elastic Instances