#ubuntu-ec2 2010-04-08
<hekman> is there any way to give an alias to an instance so i can keep track of them?
<flaccid> look up user data / meta data
<hekman> will that let me change the instance name in the console?
<flaccid> no it won't. not sure what the instance name is in the aws console. that could be separate from the API
<hekman> yeah - i'm just trying to figure out the best way to tell what a particular instance is doing
<hekman> total noob here
<flaccid> 'what a particular instance is doing' ?
<hekman> well - let's say i have 30 instances and there are about 5 different functions...how do i keep track?
<erichammond> hekman: I often write down the instance id and its purpose in a text file.  What, specifically, are you looking to do beyond this?
<hekman> erichammond: mostly i'm trying to wrap my head around managing large scale deployments
<hekman> especially when you do auto-scaling, etc
<erichammond> hekman: If you're just looking for a simple tag associated with each role, you can assign an extra security group to instances with the role name.  The security group does not need to have any special permissions.
<hekman> that sounds like a decent approach
<erichammond> hekman: Instances could also register themselves on startup with, say, SimpleDB
<hekman> i could also use AMIs I guess
<hekman> custom AMIs for each role
<erichammond> hekman: Managing lots of different AMIs can be difficult, especially as you need to regularly release updated AMIs.
<alonswartz> hey folks, is there are resource which lists the latest kernel and ramdisk images (aki/ari) for the official canonical/ubuntu images?
<alonswartz> and ofcourse their versions
<alonswartz> I compiled a list of what looks like the latest versions for the current LTS (Hardy) http://alonswartz.pastebin.com/H9CSdyUv but it would be useful to know their versions
<erichammond> alonswartz (departed): I think this may be what you are looking for: http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/query/
<erichammond> For example, Hardy is: http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/query/hardy/server/released.current.txt
<ajaya> thx for the tip to find the current releases
