EC2 Watch

EC2 Watch is a Windows Phone application that allows you to review the current state and reachability of your Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (AWS EC2) instances and their EBS volumes. This page shows the latest version's information. It is updated when an update is sent to Microsoft - so a few days before the update is available on the device.



EC2Watch requires an Internet connection and a subscription to Amazon Web Services' EC2 service. You will need to enter an access keypair (an AWS Access Key ID and an AWS Secret Access Key) with the rights to list instances and ebs volumes. It is a good idea to create a keypair exclusively for this application - one with the above mentioned minimal access rights only.


Currently EC2 Watch provides the following information:

INSTANCES:
- Name tag and Instance Id
- Instance status with color representation
- Availability Zone
- DNS name
- Instance type
- Uptime / time since last launch
- Alerts when the instance or the system fails reachability

EBS VOLUMES:
- Mount device
- Storage size in Gigabytes
- Volume Id
- Snapshot Id
- Availability Zone
- Volume and attachment statuses with color representations
- Relative time of creation and last attachment

REACHABILITY:
- Current operational status
- Instance and system statuses
- Reachability test results
- Retiring state

The application does not allow you to stop or restart your instances, nor does it alter your settings in any way. It solely lists the instances and their EBS volumes that are registered under your account.

The application is now free for a limited time.

Soon:
- Cloudwatch metrics and charts for both instances and EBS volumes

New in this version (1.3):
- Added all current regions under an endpoints tab - the app now works with instances in any region (thanks to Jason Gregson)

New in version 1.2:
- A one time alert on the first screen if an instance fails a reachability test
- Detailed reachability information screen of the selected instance

New in version 1.1:
- Colored status representations
- EBS information lists for each instance (tap on an instance to access)


If you have any questions, feel free to ask them either here in the comments below, or at the email address available within the application.



14 comments:

  1. Jason Gregson08 February, 2012 17:25

    Hi Konrad.

    I can not get this application to work. I have tried a few accounts and the application does not show my instances. I host my instances in the EU and not the US - could this be the problem ?

    I tried not filling in the Secret to establish if it was a network issue and I got a error message telling me that the account was not valid - so all good there. Then put in the know secret and the screen shows it looking for information, but nothing is returned.

    Runnin on the latest firmware on a HTC HD7

    I can confirm that the accounts to work as I can use them in other applications as well as a Iphone.

    Kind regards

    Jason

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  2. Konrad Kiss08 February, 2012 19:45

    Hi Jason,

    I'm going to test around a bit and see what the problem might be. What kind of instances are these? Are you hosting them in a Virtual Private Cloud for example?

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  3. Konrad Kiss08 February, 2012 19:46

    Oh, also, are these on-demand instances? I've only tested with such instances so far. Thanks for reporting the issue, and sorry about the inconvenience.

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  4. Jason Gregson09 February, 2012 10:57

    No worries Konrad,

    We have one instance on EC2 and the rest are in VPC. I should still be able to see the EBS volumes and the the like ?

    These are all hosted in EU (Ireland)

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    1. Konrad Kiss09 February, 2012 13:28

      Well, the app only lists EBS volumes associated with a specific EC2 instance. I'll be able to create a test environment this weekend on a EU availability zone using VPC. I'll post again once I submitted an update to the Marketplace. Thanks again! :)

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  5. Jason Gregson10 February, 2012 10:12

    Thanks Konrad. Happy to run a Debug version if you want to send it to me. You may be able to get extra logging in this version ;o) Good luck this weekend.

    Kind regards

    Jason

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    1. Konrad Kiss12 February, 2012 21:20

      Thanks Jason - I just got to start working on this. I'll send a xap your way once I manage to reproduce the problem and fix it - I'd appreciate the help! Thanks a lot once again.

      Delete
    2. Konrad Kiss13 February, 2012 02:07

      Jason, I found the problem - a pretty embarrassing one to be honest - and made sure you can actually choose which region you're looking at. I've already submitted the update to the Marketplace - it should appear on your phone within about 4 days.

      I've updated this page to reflect what has been changed in the new (1.3) version and added a new screenshot of the endpoints page that lets you select your default region (which is preserved between sessions of course).

      Thanks again for reporting this, I was so caught up in us-east-1, it never downed on me that it was the default endpoint for the API. I really appreciate the help! If you ever find yourself wishing for a new feature, be sure to let me know! :)

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  6. Jason Gregson14 February, 2012 15:01

    Nothing appeared as yet, but I will keep 'em peeled.

    Glad to have helped out here. If you would like me to provide feature requests, let me know and I will keep posting. If you would like them less public, let me know and I will switch to email ;o)

    Well done in finding the "bug", it truely is amazing what "users" discover when they use a product that you thought know inside out because you developed it.

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    1. Konrad Kiss14 February, 2012 15:29

      Sure, I'd be happy to take feature requests! Feel free to post them here, this is what this page is for. If you believe that your post contains sensitive info, email works too!

      Indeed, users help most in making a software useful. For me, knowing that it's not only me using this app is motivational by itself, but when I get bug reports and suggestions - that's fantastic! :)

      This bug was definitely caused by my oversight and not reading up enough on endpoints. I went with the assumption that all regions are queried by the default endpoint. Well, now it sounds stupid, of course...

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  7. Jason Gregson16 February, 2012 23:17

    Thanks Konrad, just installed the version you deployed the other day. All working well. I am able to select my region and can see the Instances/EBS...

    Well done, nice find on the Endpoints.

    Email on its way

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    1. Konrad Kiss17 February, 2012 17:37

      Thanks Jason, I got the email! Great ideas, and pretty much in line with what I had in mind, but more refined. :) Thank you, I am going to go eith your suggestions.

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  8. phoenix~18 April, 2012 09:01

    Hey Konard,

    this is srikanth.
    i just a small question. i am trying to develop a similar app for windows phone as well but wasn't sure if there is an SDK available for doing this, or can we use the .NET SDK for doing this?

    thank you for the motivation.

    -Sri

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    1. Konrad Kiss18 April, 2012 09:05

      Hello Sri,

      Unfortunately there is no SDK available currently - the .NET SDK is not right for the phone as it has some dependencies that exceed the Compact .NET framework.

      You will need to use the Query API - I wrote an article about how to overcome the seemingly biggest hurdle in that - signing requests. It is at http://www.konradkiss.com/2011/10/c-compact-net-wp7-sdk-71-aws-ec2.html .

      Good luck with your application, it's great to see other AWS tools make it to the WP platform!

      Delete

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