Instance identity documents for Amazon EC2 instances
Archived: 2026-04-06 01:28:26 UTC
Each instance that you launch has an instance identity document that provides information about the instance
itself. You can use the instance identity document to validate the attributes of the instance.
The instance identity document is generated when the instance is stopped and started, restarted, or launched. You
can access the instance identity document for an instance through the Instance Metadata Service (IMDS). For the
instructions, see Retrieve the instance identity document.
The instance identity document uses plaintext JSON format. It includes the following information.
Data Description
accountId The ID of the AWS account that launched the instance.
architecture
The architecture of the AMI used to launch the instance (i386 | x86_64 |
arm64).
availabilityZone
The name of the Availability Zone in which the instance is running. For
example, us-east-1 . Keep in mind that Availability Zone names might differ
across AWS accounts.
billingProducts The billing products of the instance.
devpayProductCodes Deprecated.
imageId The ID of the AMI used to launch the instance.
instanceId The ID of the instance.
instanceType The instance type of the instance.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instance-identity-documents.html
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Data Description
kernelId The ID of the kernel associated with the instance, if applicable.
marketplaceProductCodes The AWS Marketplace product code of the AMI used to launch the instance.
pendingTime The date and time that the instance was launched.
privateIp
The private IP address of the instance. For IPv4-only and dual-stack instances,
this contains the IPv4 address. For IPv6-only instances, this contains the IPv6
address.
ramdiskId The ID of the RAM disk associated with the instance, if applicable.
region The Region in which the instance is running.
version The version of the instance identity document format.
Detect whether a host is an EC2 instance
Retrieve the instance identity document
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Source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instance-identity-documents.html
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instance-identity-documents.html
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