1.2. Create a VM using the AWS Command Line#

If you are not able to use the AWS Web Interface to create the VM from the public AMI in the previous section, then you can use the AWS Command Line (CLI).

  1. Install the AQS CLI on your local computer using the following instructions: Install AWS CLI

  2. Create your key pair and security group Create key pair and security group

  3. Verify that you can see the public AMI on the us-east-1 region.

aws ec2 describe-images --region us-east-1 --image-id ami-051ba52c157e4070c

Output:

{
    "Images": [
        {
            "Architecture": "x86_64",
            "CreationDate": "2023-07-05T14:10:42.000Z",
            "ImageId": "ami-051ba52c157e4070c",
            "ImageLocation": "440858712842/cmaqv5.4_c6a_gp3_IOPS_16000_throughput_1000",
            "ImageType": "machine",
            "Public": true,
            "OwnerId": "440858712842",
            "PlatformDetails": "Linux/UNIX",
            "UsageOperation": "RunInstances",
            "State": "available",
            "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "Ebs": {
                        "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                        "Iops": 16000,
                        "SnapshotId": "snap-08789828f7ab945ed",
                        "VolumeSize": 500,
                        "VolumeType": "gp3",
                        "Throughput": 1000,
                        "Encrypted": false
                    }
                },
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sdb",
                    "VirtualName": "ephemeral0"
                },
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sdc",
                    "VirtualName": "ephemeral1"
                }
            ],
            "Description": "[Copied ami-01605a204650ede2f from us-east-1] cmaqv5.4_c6a_48xlarge_gp3_IOPS_16000_throughput_1000",
            "EnaSupport": true,
            "Hypervisor": "xen",
            "Name": "cmaqv5.4_c6a_gp3_IOPS_16000_throughput_1000",
            "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
            "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
            "SriovNetSupport": "simple",
            "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
            "DeprecationTime": "2025-07-05T14:10:42.000Z"
        }
    ]
}

  1. Use q to exit out of the command line. Note, the AMI uses the default values of iops and throughput for the gp3 volume.

  2. To use the AWS CLI, you will need to have a key.pair that was created on an EC2 instance.

See also

Guide to obtaining AWS Key Pair

  1. To launch a Spot Instance with RunInstances API create the configuration file as described below:

cat <<EoF > ./runinstances-config.gp3.json
{
    "DryRun": false,
    "MaxCount": 1,
    "MinCount": 1,
    "InstanceType": "c6a.2xlarge",
    "ImageId": "ami-051ba52c157e4070c",
    "InstanceMarketOptions": {
        "MarketType": "spot"
    },
    "TagSpecifications": [
        {
            "ResourceType": "instance",
            "Tags": [
                {
                    "Key": "Name",
                    "Value": "EC2SpotCMAQv54"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}
EoF

  1. Use the publically available AMI to launch a spot c6a.2xlarge EC2 instance using a gp3 volume with hyperthreading disabled. Specify the number of cores and set the number of threads per core to 1 to disable hyperthreading. Use the command line option to specify the number of cores to match the selected EC2 instance type, and to disable hyperthreading. Below is an example command.

aws ec2 run-instances --debug --key-name cmaqv5.4 --security-group-ids launch-wizard-179 --region us-east-1 --dry-run --ebs-optimized --cpu-options CoreCount=4,ThreadsPerCore=1 --cli-input-json file://runinstances-config.gp3.json

Note:

  • The size of instance determines the number of compute cores (CoreCount). In the example above the c6a.2xlarge EC2 instance contains 4 cores with hyperthreading turned off and is sized to run the tutorial benchmark case (i.e., –cpu-options CoreCount=XX, ThreadsPerCore=1). If you wish to try the benchmark with a larger VM you can edit the runinstances-config.gp3.json file to select a different version of c6a and then change the CoreCount to match:

c6a.2xlarge, CoreCount=4
c6a.8xlarge, CoreCount=16
c6a.48xlarge, CoreCount=96

  • You will need to obtain a security group id from your IT administrator that allows ssh login access. If this is enabled by default, then you can remove the –security-group-ids launch-wizard-with-tcp-access.

  • Launch-wizard-with-tcp-access needs to be replaced by your security group ID, and your-pem key needs to be replaced by the name of your-pem.pem key.

  1. Once you have verified that the command above works with the –dry-run option, rerun it after removing the –dry-run option as follows:

aws ec2 run-instances --debug --key-name cmaqv5.4 --security-group-ids launch-wizard-179 --region us-east-1 --ebs-optimized --cpu-options CoreCount=4,ThreadsPerCore=1 --cli-input-json file://runinstances-config.gp3.json

  1. Use the q command to return to the cursor.

  2. Use the following command to obtain the public IP address of the machine. Also use this command to verify that it has switched from an initializing state to a running state.

aws ec2 describe-instances --region=us-east-1 --filters "Name=image-id,Values=ami-051ba52c157e4070c" | grep -A 3 PublicIpAddress