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Instance Metadata In AWS

In this article, we will discuss instance metadata in AWS.

Purpose

The instance metadata provides the metadata information about an EC2 instance.

How To Get The Metadata Information?

First, launch an EC2 instance. Once the EC2 instance is launched, log in to the EC2 instance using RDP.

Once logged in, open the browser, and type the following URL: -

http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data

You can get the different categories of information.

Picture showing the different categories of information for the EC2 instance using instance metadata

Click to Enlarge

You can add this information to the URL. For example, to get the hostname, you can use this URL.

http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/hostname

Picture showing the hostname from instance metadata

Click to Enlarge

How To Get Instance Metadata In Linux

Use the following command to get the instance metadata in Linux: -

TOKEN=`curl -X PUT "http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token" -H "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds: 21600"` \
&& curl -H "X-aws-ec2-metadata-token: $TOKEN" -v http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/

Is Instance Metadata Encrypted?

No.

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Thursday, January 13, 2022

Updated On -	Thursday, December 28, 2023

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