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Thu Kha Kyawe
Thu Kha Kyawe

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How to stop and start EC2 using the AWS Instance Scheduler

#aws #2025
  • Create EC2

  • I left VPC, Subnet, Security Group information in here. Please set up with yours.

  • To use the scheduler CLI, you must have credentials for the AWS CLI.

Your credentials must have the following permissions:

lambda:InvokeFunction – To invoke the InstanceSchedulerMain function in the scheduler stack, and to update the schedule and period information in the scheduler configuration database from the command line

cloudformation:DescribeStackResource – To retrieve the physical resource ID of the AWS Lambda function from the stack to handle the CLI request

  • The CLI in this solution requires Python 3.8+

  • Go To IAM from AWS Console

  • Click Roles

  • Click Create role

  • Select EC2 and Click Next

  • Choose AWSLambdaInvocation-DynamoDB

  • Choose AWSCloudFormationReadOnlyAccess

  • Write EC2-Instance-Scheduler-Role

  • Click Create role

  • Attach IAM role to EC2

  • Select EC2-Instance-Scheduler-Role and Click Update IAM role

  • Select EC2 and Click Connect

  • Click Connect

  • Type 
python3 --version
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and click enter

  • Type 
sudo yum install python3.x86_64 python3-pip.noarch
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  • Type 
python3 --version
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  • Type 
wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/solutions-reference/instance-scheduler-on-aws/latest/instance_scheduler_cli-1.5.3-py3-none-any.whl
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  • Type 
pip install instance_scheduler_cli-1.5.3-py3-none-any.whl
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  • Type 
scheduler-cli --version
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  • Type 
scheduler-cli -h
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  • Download the CloudFormation for InstanceScheduler , Click Here

  • or you can directly go by Click Here
    .This will go to CloudFormation Page directly.

  • Go to CloudFormation

  • Click With new resources (standard)

  • Click Choose file

  • Click Next

Enter InstanceScheduler as a stack name

Scroll down and click on next

Scroll down and click on next

Scroll down and click on submit

  • Wait the CloudFormation stack is deployed successfully.

  • Type 
scheduler-cli describe-schedules --region ap-southeast-1 --stack InstanceScheduler
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  • You will see the out like this but timezone is different with our local time 
{
   "Schedules": [
      {
         "Description": "Instances running",
         "Name": "running",
         "UseMetrics": false,
         "Type": "schedule",
         "OverrideStatus": "running"
      },
      {
         "Timezone": "UTC",
         "Description": "Vertical scaling on weekdays, based on UTC time",
         "Periods": [
            "working-days@t2.micro",
            "weekends@t2.nano"
         ],
         "Name": "scale-up-down",
         "Type": "schedule"
      },
      {
         "Timezone": "US/Pacific",
         "Description": "Office hours in Seattle (Pacific)",
         "Periods": [
            "office-hours"
         ],
         "Name": "seattle-office-hours",
         "Type": "schedule"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Instances stopped",
         "Name": "stopped",
         "UseMetrics": false,
         "Type": "schedule",
         "OverrideStatus": "stopped"
      },
      {
         "Timezone": "Europe/London",
         "Description": "Office hours in UK",
         "Periods": [
            "office-hours"
         ],
         "Name": "uk-office-hours",
         "Type": "schedule"
      }
   ]
}
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  • Type 
scheduler-cli describe-periods --region ap-southeast-1 --stack InstanceScheduler
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  • You will see the out like this but timezone is different with our local time 
{
   "Periods": [
      {
         "Months": [
            "jan/3"
         ],
         "Description": "Every first monday of each quarter",
         "Weekdays": [
            "mon#1"
         ],
         "Name": "first-monday-in-quarter",
         "Type": "period"
      },
      {
         "Begintime": "09:00",
         "Description": "Office hours",
         "Endtime": "17:00",
         "Weekdays": [
            "mon-fri"
         ],
         "Name": "office-hours",
         "Type": "period"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Days in weekend",
         "Weekdays": [
            "sat-sun"
         ],
         "Name": "weekends",
         "Type": "period"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Working days",
         "Weekdays": [
            "mon-fri"
         ],
         "Name": "working-days",
         "Type": "period"
      }
   ]
}
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  • We have to change information at DynamoDB so go to DynamoDB from AWS Console

  • Click Explore Items

  • Select InstanceScheduler-ConfigTable-EIC9ZOW4EYKI and Edit Item

  • Change name and timezone like this and click Recreate Item

  • Type 
scheduler-cli describe-schedules --region ap-southeast-1 --stack InstanceScheduler
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  • You will see the out like this and timezone is changed with our local time 
{
   "Schedules": [
      {
         "Timezone": "Asia/Yangon",
         "Description": "Office hours in Seattle (Pacific)",
         "Periods": [
            "office-hours"
         ],
         "Name": "myanmar-office-hours",
         "Type": "schedule"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Instances running",
         "Name": "running",
         "UseMetrics": false,
         "Type": "schedule",
         "OverrideStatus": "running"
      },
      {
         "Timezone": "UTC",
         "Description": "Vertical scaling on weekdays, based on UTC time",
         "Periods": [
            "working-days@t2.micro",
            "weekends@t2.nano"
         ],
         "Name": "scale-up-down",
         "Type": "schedule"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Instances stopped",
         "Name": "stopped",
         "UseMetrics": false,
         "Type": "schedule",
         "OverrideStatus": "stopped"
      },
      {
         "Timezone": "Europe/London",
         "Description": "Office hours in UK",
         "Periods": [
            "office-hours"
         ],
         "Name": "uk-office-hours",
         "Type": "schedule"
      }
   ]
}
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  • Type 
scheduler-cli describe-periods --region ap-southeast-1 --stack InstanceScheduler
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  • You will see the out like this and timezone is changed with our local time 
{
   "Periods": [
      {
         "Months": [
            "jan/3"
         ],
         "Description": "Every first monday of each quarter",
         "Weekdays": [
            "mon#1"
         ],
         "Name": "first-monday-in-quarter",
         "Type": "period"
      },
      {
         "Begintime": "09:00",
         "Description": "Office hours",
         "Endtime": "17:00",
         "Weekdays": [
            "mon-fri"
         ],
         "Name": "office-hours",
         "Type": "period"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Days in weekend",
         "Weekdays": [
            "sat-sun"
         ],
         "Name": "weekends",
         "Type": "period"
      },
      {
         "Description": "Working days",
         "Weekdays": [
            "mon-fri"
         ],
         "Name": "working-days",
         "Type": "period"
      }
   ]
}
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Go to Tag Editor from AWS Console

  • Regions - ap-southeast-1

  • Resource types - All supported resources types

  • Tag key - Environment

  • Optional tag value - Dev

  • Click Search resources and Click Manage tags of selected resources

  • Click Add

  • Tag key - Schedule

  • Optional tag value - myanmar-office-hours

  • Click Review and apply tag changes

  • Click Apply changes to all selected

Resources & Next Steps

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