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?
9 Answers
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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2This answer is outdated. Now you can modify EC2 VPC Security Groups. See @hanxue answer below. Feb 26, 2015 at 12:21
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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
Add/remove security groups as appropriate and click Assign Security Groups
when done
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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5The "Change Security Groups" option is present in the menu but disabled. I'm using region ap-southeast-2. Jan 30, 2014 at 8:45
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4this 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.– ivesApr 9, 2014 at 21:36
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2What if my newly created security group isn't listed in the
Change Security Groups
modal?– 2540625Dec 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.– cgsellerMar 15, 2016 at 19:48
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It is confusing that the CLI doesn't use comma-separated lists as in many other places. Jul 16, 2019 at 14:18
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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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
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1What if my newly created security group isn't listed in the Change Security Groups modal?– 2540625Dec 8, 2015 at 0:03
- Create an AMI image from the instance you want to move to a different security group.
- Launch a new instance using that image, now we can assign this new instance to a different security group.
- Discard the previous instance.
This requires downtime on your instance. There may be some other options available using the API.
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. Nov 21, 2012 at 0:55
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.
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
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
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!