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I have an Amazon EC2 instance running and I will like to add another security group to that instance and then remove the current security group from that instance. Is this possible?

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  • Just to add a few more bits of information. We have two instances joint to two security groups. We want to separate this and dedicate a security group per instance.
    – Geo
    Jul 7, 2009 at 15:25

9 Answers 9

59

Update 2015-02-27:

This is now possible, see the answer below.

Old reply:

Amazon's FAQ says it's not possible to define a security group anywhere but at launch time.

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  • 1
    Thanks, I miss that question when I was browsing the FAQ. Thanks again.
    – Geo
    Jul 7, 2009 at 15:46
  • 2
    This answer is outdated. Now you can modify EC2 VPC Security Groups. See @hanxue answer below. Feb 26, 2015 at 12:21
  • Need to update!! See below answer
    – Axis
    Jan 4, 2019 at 2:49
106

Update: As of January 2014, you can now change security groups for running AWS EC2 instances.

AWS Console

Simply right-click on an instance, and click on Change Security Group

Change Security Group

Add/remove security groups as appropriate and click Assign Security Groups when done

Select Security groups


EC2 Command Line

Use the following command:

ec2-modify-instance-attribute <instance-id> --group-id <group-id>

AWS Command Line

Use the following command:

aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id i-12345 --groups sg-12345 sg-67890

Note, you must specify all security groups with which you'd like the instance associated.

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  • 5
    The "Change Security Groups" option is present in the menu but disabled. I'm using region ap-southeast-2. Jan 30, 2014 at 8:45
  • 4
    this currently only applies to VPC instances. the security groups that a non-VPC instance belong to are fixed / immutable and are set when it's first launched. the only way to change them is to create a bundle from the existing instance and re-launch a new instance using the bundled ami.
    – ives
    Apr 9, 2014 at 21:36
  • 2
    What if my newly created security group isn't listed in the Change Security Groups modal?
    – 2540625
    Dec 8, 2015 at 0:02
  • This option may only be available inside of a VPC. Older AWS accounts that were created pre-vpc and have instances running in EC2 classic mode will not be able to take advantage of this.
    – cgseller
    Mar 15, 2016 at 19:48
  • It is confusing that the CLI doesn't use comma-separated lists as in many other places.
    – user67327
    Jul 16, 2019 at 14:18
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It is now possible to do this. Click on the actions menu and Change Security Groups - Select the Security Groups you would like to use.

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  • 3
    Only in VPCs, I believe.
    – ceejayoz
    Jan 8, 2014 at 14:00
  • It appears so. The "Change Security Groups" option is present in the menu but disabled for non-VPC instances. Jan 30, 2014 at 8:41
  • 1
    What if my newly created security group isn't listed in the Change Security Groups modal?
    – 2540625
    Dec 8, 2015 at 0:03
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  1. Create an AMI image from the instance you want to move to a different security group.
  2. Launch a new instance using that image, now we can assign this new instance to a different security group.
  3. Discard the previous instance.

This requires downtime on your instance. There may be some other options available using the API.

5

As towo said you can't change a security group of an instance anywhere but launch time.

Unless you are using a VPC where security groups differ from EC2 security groups.

This page outlines the differences between EC2 and VPC security groups.

http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_SecurityGroups.html

So if you require the extra functionality of the VPC groups (Changing groups, control ingress/engress traffic, etc.), you may want to look at the additional functionality provided by VPCs.

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  • Welcome to Server Fault! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.
    – Scott Pack
    Nov 21, 2012 at 0:55
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If you are using boto3 you need to call modify_attribute and pass a list of group ids

http://boto3.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/services/ec2.html#EC2.Instance.modify_attribute

response = instance.modify_attribute(Groups=['string'])

Groups (list) --
  [EC2-VPC] Changes the security groups of the instance. You must 
  specify at least one security group, even if it's just the default 
  security group for the VPC. You must specify the security group ID,
  not the security group name.
1

As of 2016 Nov 24. above answer given by @hanxue is right but not complete. There are two types of instances in AWS: instances inside private cloud called vpc instances and public instances called Ec2 Classic. You can only change security groups of VPC instances but not EC2-classic. Aws official documentation screenshot you would like to see. docs you would like to see

the differences from AWS official documentation

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In the new AWS GUI, just select the instance that you want to add a security group to, select actions on the top navigation area, then select on security. You are welcome

-2

However according the this FAQ "modify the settings for the current security group - which will affect all instances running in the specific group" you can change gradually redefine the existing ones. As I'm trying this now for my scenario through the EC2 console, my records where all erased!

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