On 14 Nov 2018, Amazon released an update for Auto Scaling Groups with new features that we all were waiting for a long time!

  • Multiple Instance Types
  • New Pricing Models

The one that is the most significant in my opinion is the Multiple Instance Types!!!
For a long time we had to use a single instance type for our Auto Scaling Group, and if we wanted to use a combination of types we had to use the Spot Fleet service (and we all know that it’s not the same), and sometimes even creating multiple Auto Scaling Groups for each instance type.
Now, we have the ability the choose a combination of instance types and pricing models in a single Auto Scaling Group that works just like the Spot Fleet but much better.

Auto Scaling Group Vs. Spot Fleet

  Auto Scaling Group Spot Fleet
Multiple Instance Types V X
Health Check EC2 State Check, ELB Health Check EC2 State Check
On Demand Usage Percentage of OD Fixed OD Capacity
Edits V Immutable Request
Update Policy Rolling Update, Replacing Update X
Termination Policy V X
Instance Weights X V
TTL X V
Scaling V V
ELB/ALB association V V
Lifecycle Hooks V X
Notifications V X

Lots of Lambda functions were necessary for Spot Fleet to handle some basic things; Updates, Health Check from ELB, Adding Target Group, etc… Now, one can move his Spot Fleet to Auto Scaling Group and enjoy better integration with all the features above.

Enjoy scaling…