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Amazon EC2 gets cheaper with reserved instances

You can reserve Amazon EC2 instances (see announcement).  They're called reserved instances because you're reserving an instance so you know it will be available if/when you need it.  But, if you know you'll be using an instance for a year, or three, it's also much cheaper!  (EC2 pricing)

I used to have one small instance $73 / month.  Now a micro instance goes for $6.43 / month!

$/hour $/year(s) $/month

Notes
Unreserved $.065 .065*24*365 $569.4 /12 $47.45 Dec. 2012
1 year small reserved $195 $.016 +(.016*24*365) $335.2 /12 $27.93
3 years small reserved $300 $.013 +(.013*24*365)*3 $413.88 /36 $17.82
1 year micro reserved $62 $.005 +(.005*24*365) 105.80 /12 $8.82
3 years micro reserved $100 $.005 +(.005*24*365)*3 $231.4 /36 $6.43
Unreserved
$.085 .085*24*365
$744.60
 /12 $62.05

Jan. 2010

1 year reserved

$227

$.03

+(.03*24*365)

$489.8

/12

$40.82

 

3 years reserved

$350

$.03

+(.03*24*365)*3

$1138.40

/36

$31.62

 

Unreserved

$.10

.10*24*365

$876

/12

$73.00

Mar. 2009
1 year reserved
 $325
$.03 +(.03*24*365) $587.8 /12 $48.98

 
3 years reserved
 $500 $.03 +(.03*24*365)*3 $1288.40 /36 $35.79

 

 

Here's the commands to create a reserved instance (you'll need the new Amazon EC2 API Tools with the new commands):

  • Find current instance type:

$ ec2-describe-instances
RESERVATION    r-........    ............    default
INSTANCE    i-.....   ec2-..-...compute-1.amazonaws.com
domU-..-...compute-1.internal    running    0
m1.small    2009-01-20T16:21:12+0000    us-east-1a

  • From above:

zone: us-east-1a
type:  m1.small

  • Find reserved instance to buy (using above zone and instance type):

$ ec2-describe-reserved-instances-offerings -z us-east-1a -t m1.small
OFFERING    248e7b7..... us-east-1a    m1.small    3y     500.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX
OFFERING    4b2293b..... us-east-1a    m1.small    1y     325.0    0.03    Linux/UNIX

  • Buy one reserved instance using entire offering id from above (3y in this case).  This command costs $:

$ ec2-purchase-reserved-instances-offering -v -o 248e7b7..... -c 1
RESERVEDINSTANCES    f127bd27.....
REQUEST ID    ........-....-....-....-............

  • Look at purchased reserved instance:

$ ec2-describe-reserved-instances
RESERVEDINSTANCES    f127bd27.....    us-east-1a    m1.small    Linux/UNIX    3y     0.03    500.0    1    2009-03-13T16:01:39+0000    payment-pending

  • Last updated on .