Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Name: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API
Brand: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentCloud InfrastructureComputeapiKey130 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Create and manage EC2 Auto Scaling groups, scaling policies, scheduled actions, and lifecycle hooks so an agent can keep an EC2 fleet sized to demand and replace unhealthy instances automatically.

Quickstart

Get started with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"create an EC2 Auto Scaling group"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API.

Create Auto Scaling groups bound to a launch template, with min/max/desired capacity across one or more Availability Zones

Attach Application Load Balancer target groups and Classic Load Balancers to an Auto Scaling group so new instances receive traffic automatically

Configure target tracking, step, and simple scaling policies driven by CloudWatch metrics such as CPU utilisation or request count

Schedule capacity changes ahead of known traffic patterns using PutScheduledUpdateGroupAction

GET STARTED

Start building with Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling launches and terminates EC2 instances automatically in response to demand, scheduled actions, and instance health checks. The API lets you create Auto Scaling groups, define launch templates and configurations, attach load balancers and target groups, configure scaling policies driven by CloudWatch alarms, and set lifecycle hooks for graceful instance bring-up and tear-down. It is the control plane for keeping a fleet of EC2 instances at the size your workload requires while replacing failed instances and balancing them across Availability Zones.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Demand-Based Web Fleet Scaling

Run a stateless web tier that grows and shrinks with traffic. Define an Auto Scaling group bound to a launch template, attach an Application Load Balancer target group, and add a target tracking policy that holds average CPU at 50 percent. EC2 Auto Scaling adds instances when demand rises, removes them when it falls, and replaces any that fail an EC2 or ELB health check. Initial setup takes a few hours including launch template, IAM role, and ALB wiring.

Create an Auto Scaling group named web-prod with min 2, desired 4, max 20 across three AZs, attach target group arn:aws:elasticloadbalancing:..., and add a target tracking policy keeping ASGAverageCPUUtilization at 50.

Scheduled Capacity for Predictable Traffic

Pre-warm capacity before a known traffic spike, such as Monday 9am, an end-of-month batch run, or a scheduled marketing send, without paying for unused instances overnight. Use PutScheduledUpdateGroupAction to set min, max, and desired capacity at specific times in cron-style schedules. EC2 Auto Scaling adjusts the group at the scheduled time and lets the regular scaling policies take over once load arrives.

Create a scheduled action on Auto Scaling group web-prod that sets min=10, desired=15 every weekday at 08:30 UTC and reverts to min=2, desired=4 at 19:00 UTC.

Rolling AMI Rollout with Instance Refresh

Deploy a new AMI or launch template version across an Auto Scaling group without manually cycling instances. StartInstanceRefresh replaces instances in batches with a configurable minimum healthy percentage and warm-up period, pausing if health checks fail. Suitable for OS patching, agent upgrades, or rolling out a new application version on long-lived instances.

Update the launch template for web-prod to AMI ami-0abc123, then call StartInstanceRefresh with MinHealthyPercentage=90 and InstanceWarmup=300, polling DescribeInstanceRefreshes until status is Successful.

Agent-Driven Capacity Operator

Give an AI ops agent the ability to react to sustained load anomalies that fall outside static scaling policies, such as a sudden viral mention, an unusual customer cohort, or an upstream incident draining capacity. The agent calls EC2 Auto Scaling through Jentic to inspect group state, adjust desired capacity within configured bounds, kick off an instance refresh, or temporarily suspend scaling during an incident, all behind Jentic-managed AWS credentials so the human operator never hands a long-lived secret to the agent.

Search Jentic for 'set desired capacity on an auto scaling group', load the SetDesiredCapacity schema, and execute it on web-prod with desired=12 after confirming current CPU > 80 percent for 10 minutes.

Key Endpoints

130 endpoints — amazon ec2 auto scaling launches and terminates ec2 instances automatically in response to demand, scheduled actions, and instance health checks.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/#Action=CreateAutoScalingGroup

Create an Auto Scaling group

POST

/#Action=UpdateAutoScalingGroup

Update group capacity, AZs, or launch template

POST

/#Action=DescribeAutoScalingGroups

List Auto Scaling groups and their state

POST

/#Action=SetDesiredCapacity

Set the desired capacity on a group

POST

/#Action=PutScalingPolicy

Create or update a scaling policy

POST

/#Action=PutScheduledUpdateGroupAction

Schedule a capacity change

POST

/#Action=StartInstanceRefresh

Roll out a new launch template version

POST

/#Action=AttachLoadBalancerTargetGroups

Attach ALB/NLB target groups to a group

POST

/#Action=CreateAutoScalingGroup

Create an Auto Scaling group

POST

/#Action=UpdateAutoScalingGroup

Update group capacity, AZs, or launch template

POST

/#Action=DescribeAutoScalingGroups

List Auto Scaling groups and their state

POST

/#Action=SetDesiredCapacity

Set the desired capacity on a group

POST

/#Action=PutScalingPolicy

Create or update a scaling policy

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

AWS access key ID and secret access key for Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive scoped, short-lived signing credentials and the raw IAM secrets never enter the agent context. Jentic computes the AWS Signature Version 4 signature server-side for every request.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic by intent (for example, 'create an auto scaling group') and Jentic returns matching Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling operations with their input schemas, the correct AWS service endpoint, and the required IAM action, so the agent can invoke the right call without crawling the AWS docs.

Time to first call

Direct Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling integration: 1-3 days for AWS SDK setup, IAM role configuration, Sigv4 signing, and error handling. Through Jentic: under 1 hour, search, load schema, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Complementary

Amazon EC2

Manages the underlying EC2 instances, launch templates, AMIs, and security groups that Auto Scaling launches.

Use EC2 directly when the agent needs to launch a one-off instance, manage AMIs, or modify security groups; use EC2 Auto Scaling when the workload should expand and contract automatically.

Complementary

Amazon CloudWatch

Provides the metrics and alarms that drive Auto Scaling target tracking and step scaling policies.

Use CloudWatch when the agent needs to inspect or define the metrics that scaling policies react to, then use Auto Scaling to act on them.

Alternative

Amazon EKS

Kubernetes-native control plane where the Cluster Autoscaler or Karpenter handles node scaling instead of EC2 Auto Scaling groups.

Choose EKS when the workload runs on Kubernetes; choose EC2 Auto Scaling for VM-native fleets and managed scheduled actions.

FAQs

Specific to using Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API use?

All requests are signed with AWS Signature Version 4 using an AWS access key ID and secret access key, sent in the Authorization header. Through Jentic, those credentials are stored encrypted in the vault and signing happens server-side, so the agent only ever sees a scoped Jentic credential reference.

Can I attach an Application Load Balancer to an Auto Scaling group with this API?

Yes. Use AttachLoadBalancerTargetGroups for ALB and NLB target groups, or AttachLoadBalancers for Classic Load Balancers. Once attached, instances launched by the group are registered with the target group automatically and removed on termination.

What are the rate limits for the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling API?

EC2 Auto Scaling uses standard AWS service quotas, not a published per-second limit. Requests can be throttled with a Throttling error, and DescribeAutoScalingGroups in particular has lower quotas than mutating actions. Jentic respects the documented exponential-backoff guidance from AWS when retrying.

How do I roll out a new launch template version to an existing Auto Scaling group through Jentic?

Update the group's launch template version with UpdateAutoScalingGroup, then call StartInstanceRefresh with a MinHealthyPercentage and InstanceWarmup that match your tolerance. Through Jentic, search for 'roll out new launch template' and execute the returned operation; Jentic returns the refresh ID so the agent can poll DescribeInstanceRefreshes.

Does EC2 Auto Scaling work with EC2 Spot instances?

Yes. Mixed instance policies on the Auto Scaling group let you combine On-Demand and Spot capacity with allocation strategies like price-capacity-optimized. Configure this through the group's MixedInstancesPolicy when calling CreateAutoScalingGroup or UpdateAutoScalingGroup.

How is Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling priced?

EC2 Auto Scaling itself is free to use; you pay only for the EC2 instances, EBS volumes, CloudWatch alarms, and Elastic Load Balancing capacity it manages on your behalf.