A single command that costs $325 to run!

I just ran what might be the scariest command line I ever have… here it is:

ec2-purchase-reserved-instances-offering --offering c48ab04c-c057-457e-a4d8-a0f172f4db2d --instance-count 1

That baby reserved an Amazon EC2 instance for me for one full year at a cost of $325.  No “Are you really sure you want to pay $325?” No receipt, no “type in your credit card”. Just type that in, and BAMN $325 gone from your account and an instance-year of reserved time added. Screw up that –instance-count and type 10 instead of 1? $3250!

I ALMOST got it wrong and typed:

ec2-purchase-reserved-instances-offering --offering-id 438012d3-d93c-4fbd-a245-33b4bf0930ec --instance-count 1

That would have bought a 3-year offering!

Can YOU tell the difference? It’s in that offering ID.

To find out what offerings are available you run this command:

ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings

Which spits out this output, note the line in bold. That’s the one I used.

OFFERING    e5a2ff3b-f6eb-4b4e-83f8-b879d7060257    us-east-1a    c1.medium    3y     1000.0    0.06    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    248e7b75-afbc-4724-82b2-d78353299433    us-east-1c    c1.medium    3y     1000.0    0.06    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    60dcfab3-d5b8-4d3d-9f38-480b34d38239    us-east-1b    c1.medium    3y     1000.0    0.06    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    c48ab04c-42bb-4e5b-8c1b-c015f9604dd5    us-east-1a    c1.medium    1y     650.0    0.06    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    ceb6a579-b754-4a50-a53e-36efdb8eb28b    us-east-1c    c1.medium    1y     650.0    0.06    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    3a98bf7d-b94b-412a-8de5-8c77dfcc4ffd    us-east-1b    c1.medium    1y     650.0    0.06    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    248e7b75-ed4c-4ca7-b42b-d14ee74a3360    us-east-1c    c1.xlarge    3y     4000.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    ceb6a579-1420-4728-ace3-9cb73934afcf    us-east-1a    c1.xlarge    3y     4000.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    60dcfab3-97dd-421b-8f75-c126de7741ce    us-east-1b    c1.xlarge    3y     4000.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    ceb6a579-f9b0-4bff-994c-c62030080d27    us-east-1c    c1.xlarge    1y     2600.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    4b2293b4-cb88-480b-999d-a17683faa92f    us-east-1a    c1.xlarge    1y     2600.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    60dcfab3-fa53-4d32-97cc-2fd1a0a8c0ac    us-east-1b    c1.xlarge    1y     2600.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    649fd0c8-8bd3-489e-904c-4c5dfcb131ea    us-east-1c    m1.large    3y     2000.0    0.12    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    d586503b-6876-4d40-8f94-1b2dde6b0ead    us-east-1a    m1.large    3y     2000.0    0.12    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    248e7b75-5324-48e5-9749-fd3b4de01829    us-east-1b    m1.large    3y     2000.0    0.12    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    248e7b75-a817-462e-996a-8ea7b4810a0e    us-east-1c    m1.large    1y     1300.0    0.12    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    649fd0c8-4af1-4f63-bbdb-1a05951886a4    us-east-1a    m1.large    1y     1300.0    0.12    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    c48ab04c-280c-4879-8119-63ac87002498    us-east-1b    m1.large    1y     1300.0    0.12    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    248e7b75-0799-4a55-a0cb-f8d28eb11921    us-east-1b    m1.small    3y     500.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    3a98bf7d-96c3-4d2f-a263-123fa6b46d61    us-east-1c    m1.small    3y     500.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    438012d3-d93c-4fbd-a245-33b4bf0930ec    us-east-1a    m1.small    3y     500.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    4b2293b4-1e6c-4eb3-ab74-4493c0e57987    us-east-1b    m1.small    1y     325.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    60dcfab3-a56c-4092-8c90-3677e9da02b7    us-east-1c    m1.small    1y     325.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    c48ab04c-c057-457e-a4d8-a0f172f4db2d    us-east-1a    m1.small    1y     325.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    d586503b-20ad-4beb-bc88-60a1333c2b98    us-east-1a    m1.xlarge    3y     4000.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    649fd0c8-4767-43a1-a530-b4a1f0c08c31    us-east-1b    m1.xlarge    3y     4000.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    c48ab04c-6769-4bc1-966e-f7b0326001dd    us-east-1c    m1.xlarge    3y     4000.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    c48ab04c-119e-41f1-8b0f-b83c4fc4f869    us-east-1a    m1.xlarge    1y     2600.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    c48ab04c-63ab-4cd6-b8f5-978a29eb9bcc    us-east-1b    m1.xlarge    1y     2600.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    e5a2ff3b-8646-4f48-912a-aaeba5823c73    us-east-1c    m1.xlarge    1y     2600.0    0.24    Linux/UNIX

This is pretty close to the worst user interface in history

But more importantly, what does that DO?

Well, Amazon must need some quick cash or something because they’re offering a new pricing plan for their EC2 service.  Essentially, you pay an upfront fee, and then you get a huge discount on the service for a set amount of time.

Decoding that offering-id line, it’s for 1 year (1y) to run a particular type of virtual server (m1.small) in a certain “availablility zone” (us-east-1a) for a much reduced hourly rate (0.03). This reduced rate cost me an upfront cost (325.0)

Assuming I actually run the server for the entire year it will cost me 24*365*0.03=$262.80, tack on the one time fee $325 + $262.80 and we get $587.80 for the year.

Now, if I hadn’t done this, the normal hourly rate of $0.10 applies. 24*365*0.10=$876 for a savings of $289 a year.

Since I always have at least one m1.small instance up and running, it was a no-brainer to reserve one.

So depending on how you look at this, I typed a single command and spent $325, or saved $289.