How to launch an EC2 instance into a VPC with a public IP address in PowerShell?

amazon-ec2, aws-cli, aws-powershell, powershell

Solution

I ran into the same problem, and a possible workaround while still using PowerShell is to create the network interface first, and then associating it with the instance:

$subnetId = "subnet-56738b33"
$keyName = "uckey"
$instanceType = "t1.micro"

$Ami = Get-EC2ImageByName WINDOWS_2012_BASE
$ImageId = $Ami[0].ImageId

$networkInterface = New-EC2NetworkInterface -SubnetId $subnetId -Description "Primary network interface"

$interfaceSpec = New-Object Amazon.EC2.Model.InstanceNetworkInterfaceSpecification -property @{"NetworkInterfaceId"=$networkInterface.NetworkInterfaceId}

$reservation = New-EC2Instance -ImageId $ImageId -MinCount 1 -MaxCount 1 -InstanceType $instanceType -KeyName $keyName -NetworkInterfaces $interfaceSpec

The InstanceNetworkInterfaceSpecification has a property to indicate if the interface needs a public IP address (see the docs)

Problem

I have been trying to use the following script, but haven't been successful: ``` $Ami=Get-EC2ImageByName WINDOWS_2012_BASE New-EC2Instance -ImageId $Ami[0].ImageId -MinCount 1 -MaxCount 1 -KeyName uckey -InstanceType ` t1.micro -SubnetId subnet-56738b33 -AssociatePublicIp $true ``` The error is: ``` New-EC2Instance : Object reference not set to an instance of an object. At line:1 char:1 + New-EC2Instance -ImageId $Ami[0].ImageId -MinCount 1 -MaxCount 1 -KeyName uckey ... + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (Amazon.PowerShe...2InstanceCmdlet:NewEC2InstanceCmdlet) [New-EC2Instance], InvalidOperationException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.NullReferenceException,Amazon.PowerShell.Cmdlets.EC2.NewEC2InstanceC mdlet ``` The problem is about the parameter `-AssociatePublicIp` without it, the script works. Thanks for reading

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