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retrieve EC2's region from instance metadata
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retrieve-EC2-region-information-from-metadata.md

Sometimes you want to retrieve EC2 insntances' region information.

You can query that information through instance metadata(169.254.169.254).

$ curl --silent http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document
{
  "privateIp" : "172.31.2.15",
  "instanceId" : "i-12341ee8",
  "billingProducts" : null,
  "instanceType" : "t2.small",
  "accountId" : "1234567890",
  "pendingTime" : "2015-11-03T03:09:54Z",
  "imageId" : "ami-383c1956",
  "kernelId" : null,
  "ramdiskId" : null,
  "architecture" : "x86_64",
  "region" : "ap-northeast-1", # <- region
  "version" : "2010-08-31",
  "availabilityZone" : "ap-northeast-1c",
  "devpayProductCodes" : null
}

Response's JSON has a region key, so if you just want to get region, filter the key with jq.

$ sudo yum install -y jq
$ curl --silent http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document | jq -r .region
ap-northeast-1

Usecase : set aws-cli's region

Even if you launch an EC2 instance with IAM role, you can't run commands without supplying region info. Otherwise, you'll encounter errors as follows.

$ aws ec2 describe-vpcs
You must specify a region. You can also configure your region by running "aws configure".

Here's how to set aws-cli's region.

First, check the curren settings.

$ aws configure  list
      Name                    Value             Type    Location
      ----                    -----             ----    --------
   profile                <not set>             None    None
access_key     ****************GVKA         iam-role
secret_key     ****************bll+         iam-role
    region                <not set>             None    None

region is not set.

Now pass metadata's region to aws configure set region command.

$ aws configure set region `curl --silent http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document | jq -r .region`
$ aws configure get region
ap-northeast-1
$ aws configure list
      Name                    Value             Type    Location
      ----                    -----             ----    --------
   profile                <not set>             None    None
access_key     ****************GVKA         iam-role
secret_key     ****************bll+         iam-role
    region           ap-northeast-1      config-file    ~/.aws/config
$ cat ~/.aws/config
[default]
region = ap-northeast-1

UserData

To configure API region, just add following code to you UserData.

#!/bin/bash
yum install -y jq
REGION=`curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document | jq .region -r`
sudo -u ec2-user aws configure set region $REGION
@tomislacker
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I've also been frustrated by this and made myself a little native-Python workaround if someone else is interested: https://gist.github.com/tomislacker/da48e4023131a4ac8308b84fa6892b41

@yossale
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yossale commented Aug 6, 2017

Super useful! Thanks!

@georgechang0117
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Yes. It's useful. Thank you!

@adv4000
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adv4000 commented Aug 18, 2017 •
edited

AWSAVZONE='curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/availability-zone'
will give you Avalability Zone

AWSREGION=${AWSAVZONE::-1}
will strip last character from Availability Zone, and this will be your Region

@mduca
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mduca commented Sep 6, 2017

This was helpful thank you!

@nestorbolivar
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Cheers!!

I was Getting the Region from http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/availability-zone yet it's better to use curl --silent http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document | jq -r .region

@leonmax
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leonmax commented Sep 27, 2018

in case you don't want to install jq:
curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document | grep region | cut -d" -f4

@SantoshKumarArjunan
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useful, thank you..

@carlosmarin
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In case someone was looking for the Windows way, here's the powershell form:

  $availability_zone = invoke-restmethod -uri http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/availability-zone
  $region = $availability_zone.Substring(0,$availability_zone.Length-1)

@cc4i
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cc4i commented Sep 10, 2019

Awesome!

@doublenns
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doublenns commented Oct 18, 2019 •
edited

I had to do the same thing recently, but for a completely different use case. Created a Python function that does the same thing:
https://gist.github.com/doublenns/7e3e4b72df4aaeccbeabf87ba767f44e

import requests
import sys
from requests.packages.urllib3 import Retry

def get_instance_region():
    instance_identity_url = "http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document"
    session = requests.Session()
    retries = Retry(total=3, backoff_factor=0.3)
    metadata_adapter = requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries)
    session.mount("http://169.254.169.254/", metadata_adapter)
    try:
        r = requests.get(instance_identity_url, timeout=(2, 5))
    except (requests.exceptions.ConnectTimeout, requests.exceptions.ConnectionError) as err:
        print("Connection to AWS EC2 Metadata timed out: " + str(err.__class__.__name__))
        print("Is this an EC2 instance? Is the AWS metadata endpoint blocked? (http://169.254.169.254/)")
        sys.exit(1)
    response_json = r.json()
    region = response_json.get("region")
    return(region)

From an EC2 instance:

>>> region = get_instance_region()
>>> print(region)
us-east-2

From system that isn't an EC2 instance:

>>> region = get_instance_region()
Connection to AWS EC2 Metadata timed out: ConnectTimeout
Is this an EC2 instance? Is the AWS metadata endpoint blocked? (http://169.254.169.254/)

@kulswaroop
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I had to do the same thing recently, but for a completely different use case. Created a Python function that does the same thing:
https://gist.github.com/doublenns/7e3e4b72df4aaeccbeabf87ba767f44e

import requests
import sys
from requests.packages.urllib3 import Retry

def get_instance_region():
    instance_identity_url = "http://169.254.169.254/latest/dynamic/instance-identity/document"
    session = requests.Session()
    retries = Retry(total=3, backoff_factor=0.3)
    metadata_adapter = requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retries)
    session.mount("http://169.254.169.254/", metadata_adapter)
    try:
        r = requests.get(instance_identity_url, timeout=(2, 5))
    except (requests.exceptions.ConnectTimeout, requests.exceptions.ConnectionError) as err:
        print("Connection to AWS EC2 Metadata timed out: " + str(err.__class__.__name__))
        print("Is this an EC2 instance? Is the AWS metadata endpoint blocked? (http://169.254.169.254/)")
        sys.exit(1)
    response_json = r.json()
    region = response_json.get("region")
    return(region)

From an EC2 instance:

>>> region = get_instance_region()
>>> print(region)
us-east-2

From system that isn't an EC2 instance:

>>> region = get_instance_region()
Connection to AWS EC2 Metadata timed out: ConnectTimeout
Is this an EC2 instance? Is the AWS metadata endpoint blocked? (http://169.254.169.254/)

Thanks, it helped!

@doublenns
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Thanks, it helped!

Awesome. I'm glad!

@qingbozhou
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Now AWS provides a more convenient way for getting the region: http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/region

See https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=77228

@jbenninghoff
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There is a builtin command to get the ec2 metadata:
/opt/aws/bin/ec2-metadata -z
placement: us-west-2a

OR:

/opt/aws/bin/ec2-metadata -z |cut -d' ' -f2
us-west-2a

Many other options too, use --help to list them

@fadyWageehRack
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In case someone was looking for the Windows way, here's the powershell form:

  $availability_zone = invoke-restmethod -uri http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/availability-zone
  $region = $availability_zone.Substring(0,$availability_zone.Length-1)

It can be easier and in one command:

Windows Powershell:
Invoke-RestMethod -uri http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/region

Linux:
curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/placement/region

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