Longer Resource IDs for Amazon EC2
Back in 2016, AWS extended the resource ID length from 8 characters to 17 characters. Back then, this change applied to EC2 instances, EBS snapshots, EBS volumes, and EC2 instance reservation IDs.
Now they’re doing it again with the remainder of EC2 resource types, such as:
- AMI images
- Security groups,
- VPCs,
- Subnets,
- Route tables,
- Network interfaces,
- VPN connections,
- Internet gateways,
- and many more.
For example, short AMI image IDs are like ami-12345678 and long AMI image IDs are like ami-12345678901234567.
Here’s what you need to know about the longer resource IDs and their impact.
Like before, you’ll be able to opt-in to the new longer resource IDs. When you opt-in, you can choose to do so:
- For all users in all regions,
- For specific users, or specific regions, and/or
- For all resource types, or specific resource types.
In addition, if you choose to opt-in and something goes wrong, you can opt-out again.
However, in July 2018, everyone will have no choice but to opt-in, so do your testing soon.
When you opt-in to the longer resource IDs, there are some things to keep in mind.
Your existing resources will keep their existing resource IDs.
After you opt-in, you will not see an immediate change in your existing resource IDs. The existing resources will keep their IDs until they are deleted.
Longer resource IDs only apply to newly created resources.
After you opt-in, you will start seeing longer resource IDs on newly created resources. So your existing resources will continue to keep their short IDs, and new resources will get longer resource IDs. Thus, you’ll see a mix of long and short resource IDs in your account for a while.
Users who don’t opt-in will still see longer resource IDs if they are created by users whom did opt-in.
If you choose to only opt-in some of your users, and those users create new resources that have longer resource IDs, then all users (even those users whom did not opt-in) will see those longer resource IDs. However, if they create new resources, they will still have short resource IDs.
Longer Format Resource IDs and Third-Party Services
If you are using third-party services (like Skeddly) with your AWS account, double check with them that they fully support the longer resource IDs.
Once you have opted-in to the longer resource IDs, there shouldn’t be any reason to re-configure anything since existing resources won’t be affected.
I can tell you right now that Skeddly fully supports the longer resource IDs.
About Skeddly
Skeddly is the leading managed scheduling service for your AWS account. Using Skeddly, you can:
- Reduce your AWS costs,
- Schedule snapshots and images, and
- Automate many DevOps and IT tasks.
Sign-up for our 30 day free trial or sign-in to your Skeddly account to get started.