ec2-get-console-output

Description

Retrieves console output for the specified instance.

Amazon EC2 instances do not have a physical monitor through which you can view their console output. They also lack physical controls that allow you to power up, reboot, or shut them down. To allow these actions, we provide them through the Amazon EC2 API and the command line tools.

Instance console output is buffered and posted shortly after instance boot, reboot, and termination. Amazon EC2 preserves the most recent 64 KB output which will be available for at least one hour after the most recent post.

For Linux/UNIX instances, the Amazon EC2 instance console output displays the exact console output that would normally be displayed on a physical monitor attached to a machine. This output is buffered because the instance produces it and then posts it to a store where the instance's owner can retrieve it.

For Windows instances, the Amazon EC2 instance console output displays the last three system event log errors.

The short version of this command is ec2gcons.

Syntax

ec2-get-console-output instance_id [-r]

Options

Name Description Required

Name	Description	Required
`instance_id`	ID of the instance. Type: String Default: None Example: i-10a64379	Yes
`-r, --raw-console-output`	Return raw output without escapes to facilitate reading. Type: String Default: Disabled Example: -r	No

instance_id

ID of the instance.

Type: String

Default: None

Example: i-10a64379

Yes

-r, --raw-console-output

Return raw output without escapes to facilitate reading.

Type: String

Default: Disabled

Example: -r

No

Common Options

Option	Description
`--region` `REGION`	Overrides the Region specified in the `EC2_URL` environment variable and the URL specified by the `-U` option. Default: The `EC2_URL` environment variable, or `us-east-1` if the environment variable is not set. Example: `--region eu-west-1`
`-U, --url` `URL`	`URL` is the uniform resource locator of the Amazon EC2 web service entry point. Default: The `EC2_URL` environment variable, or https://ec2.amazonaws.com if the environment variable is not set. Example: `-U https://ec2.amazonaws.com`
`-K, --private-key` `EC2-PRIVATE-KEY`	The private key to use when constructing requests to Amazon EC2. Default: The value of the `EC2_PRIVATE_KEY` environment variable. Example: `-K pk-HKZYKTAIG2ECMXYIBH3HXV4ZBZQ55CLO.pem`
`-C, --cert` `EC2-CERT`	The X.509 certificate to use when constructing requests to Amazon EC2. Default: The value of the `EC2_CERT` environment variable. Example: `-C cert-HKZYKTAIG2ECMXYIBH3HXV4ZBZQ55CLO.pem`
`--connection-timeout` `TIMEOUT`	Specifies a connection timeout (in seconds). Example: --connection-timeout 30
`--request-timeout` `TIMEOUT`	Specifies a request timeout (in seconds). Example: --request-timeout 45
`-v, --verbose`	Displays verbose output by showing the SOAP request and response on the command line. This is particularly useful if you are building tools to talk directly to our SOAP API.
`-H, --headers`	Displays column headers in the output.
`--show-empty-fields`	Shows empty columns as `(nil)`.
`--hide-tags`	Do not display tags for tagged resources.
`--debug`	Prints internal debugging information. This is useful to assist us when troubleshooting problems.
`-?, --help, -h`	Displays Help.
`-`	If `-` is specified as an argument to one of the parameters, a list of arguments is read from standard input. This is useful for piping the output of one command into the input of another. Example: `ec2-describe-instances \| grep stopped \| cut -f 2 \| ec2-start-instances -`

Output

The command returns a table that contains the following information:

The instance ID
A timestamp indicating the time of the last update
The instance console output. By default the ^ESC character is escaped and duplicate new-lines are removed to facilitate reading

Amazon EC2 command line tools display errors on stderr.

Examples

Example Request

This example retrieves the console output for the i-10a64379 Linux and UNIX instance.

PROMPT> ec2-get-console-output i-10a64379
				
					i-10a64379
					2010-04-08T09:20:29+0000
					Linux version 2.6.21.7-2.ec2.v1.2.fc8xen (root@domU-12-34-56-0A-78-01) (gcc version 4.1.2 20070925 (Red Hat 4.1.2-33)) #1 SMP Fri Nov 20 19:22:36 EST 2009
					BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
					sanitize start
					sanitize bail 0
					copy_e820_map() start: 0000000000000000 size: 000000006ac00000 end: 000000006ac00000 type: 1
					Xen: 0000000000000000 - 000000006ac00000 (usable)
					980MB HIGHMEM available.
					727MB LOWMEM available.
					NX (Execute Disable) protection: active
					...
					...
					...

ec2-run-instances