boto3 instances filter

Question

how do I filter based on instance IDs?

```
instances = conn.instances.filter(
    InstanceIds = [{  
    'Name': 'InstanceId',
    'Values': ['i-017357c1c4a1a96f8', 'i-07e399b452c7100c3']
    }]
)
```

is there something wrong with this?

Answer

Hello,
I might need a little more context to be sure of just what your asking here, but in the meantime I'll see if I can help clear things up.

The documentation gives a few [examples](https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/guide/migrationec2.html#stopping-and-terminating-instances).

> 
*Every collection exposes a filter method that allows you to pass additional parameters to the underlying service API operation.*

One attribute you can filter on is `InstanceIds`.

Where `ec2.instances` alone will return a list of all instances (in the configured account/region), applying `.filter(InstanceIds=list_of_ec2_instance_ids)` will limit the returned list to those in the `list_of_ec2_instance_ids` list.
For instance, for a list of ids, you can filter then call an action on that filtered set.
```
ids = ['instance-id-1', 'instance-id-2', ...]
ec2.instances.filter(InstanceIds=ids).stop()
```

So from the example above, I think your example should be in this form:
```
instances = conn.instances.filter(
    InstanceIds = ['i-017357c1c4a1a96f8', 'i-07e399b452c7100c3']
)
```

I hope this is the information you were looking for and resolved your issue.  If not please reply with more context and we'll dig in deeper.

Answer

Here is an example of using filter to start and terminate instances.  You will want to pass an array of instance ids.

Stopping and terminating multiple instances given a list of instance IDs uses Boto3 collection filtering:

ids = ['instance-id-1', 'instance-id-2', ...]

# Boto 2.x
    ec2_connection.stop_instances(instance_ids=ids)
    ec2_connection.terminate_instances(instance_ids=ids)

# Boto3
    ec2.instances.filter(InstanceIds=ids).stop()
    ec2.instances.filter(InstanceIds=ids).terminate()

More information on EC2 filter options.
https://boto3.amazonaws.com/v1/documentation/api/latest/reference/services/ec2.html?highlight=filter#EC2.Client.describe_instances

boto3 instances filter

Boto 2.x

Boto3

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