Changing EC2 Instance Type via Powershell

Question

I'm running into what I'm sure is a simple issue I'm overlooking. I'm trying to change an AWS EC2 InstanceType using the CLI via a Powershell Script. Everything is running fine up until I go to actually modify the InstanceType.

I've tried multiple different variations and combinations of escape characters to get this to work, but I can't so far.

Invoke-Expression 'aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id $thisID --instance-type \"{`\"Value`\":`\"m4.large`\"}"'

What I'm trying to achieve is the equivalent to this:

aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 --instance-type "{\"Value\": \"m1.small\"}"

Running commands external to PowerShell can introduce some issues. Curly braces have special meaning in PowerShell. You will need to escape them in a PowerShell terminal such as: '{"Value": "m4.large"}'. The single quote makes it a string literal. — Peter Kay
– Peter Kay, Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 22:01
As an aside: Don't use Invoke-Expression (or any other cmdlet) to synchronously invoke console applications: invoke them directly. Specifically, Invoke-Expression should generally be avoided — mklement0
– mklement0, Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 2:01
@mklement0 Yes, good point on that. Great reference from 2011, but still relevant today! Never ever use Invoke-Expression outside of PowerShell unless you know exactly what the implications are. — Peter Kay
– Peter Kay, Commented Aug 7, 2019 at 20:33

Peter Kay · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-06 21:44:48Z

3

You can use the AWS Tools for Powershell and use the following command:

Edit-EC2InstanceAttribute -InstanceId $thisID --InstanceType m4.large

Documentation Reference: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/Index.html

answered Aug 6, 2019 at 21:44

Peter Kay

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2 Comments

JasonWH Over a year ago

Thanks for the assist @Peter Kay

Peter Kay Over a year ago

You're welcome anytime @JasonWH... good luck with everything!

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