Posted On: May 1, 2024
Starting today, you can check when your Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) were last used to launch EC2 instances by simply describing your AMIs, enabling you to efficiently filter and track your active AMIs.
Prior to today, you had to write complex scripts to query which of your AMIs were actively used to launch instances. These scripts became increasingly cumbersome and error-prone as the number of AMIs grew. Now you can easily verify if your AMIs are active - based on when they were used to launch instances - by simply describing those AMIs. You can now easily create advanced filtering scripts through which you can track your active AMIs at-scale and make informed decisions about deprecating, disabling, and deregistering your AMIs.
This feature is now available in all AWS Regions, including the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions and AWS China Regions. You can view the last launched time for your AMIs via EC2 Console, CLI, and API. Learn more by visiting the documentation here.