Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Rescue for Linux

What is it?

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Rescue for Linux (ec2rl) is a framework for executing diagnostic and troubleshooting modules to analyze and remediate issues on Linux instances on AWS.

The Latest Version

Builds

Two builds of the latest version are provided:

1. The standard build only includes the EC2 Rescue for Linux code and requires the system meet the Prerequisites.
2. The bundled build includes a minimal copy of Python. It is intended for use on systems that do not meet the Python version prerequisite. Please see the FAQ for limitations associated with this build.

Downloads

Our GPG public key can be downloaded from here.

Integrity Verification

File integrity can be verified in two ways. The examples below demonstrate verifying the standard build.

sha256 hash

Example:

[[email protected] ~]$ wget -q https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2rescuelinux/ec2rl.tgz.sha256
[[email protected] ~]$ sha256sum -c ec2rl.tgz.sha256
ec2rl.tgz: OK

Detached GPG signature with GPG public key

Example:

[[email protected] ~]$ wget -q https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2rescuelinux/ec2rl.tgz.sig
[[email protected] ~]$ wget -q https://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2rescuelinux/ec2rl.key
[[email protected] ~]$ gpg2 --import ec2rl.key
[[email protected] ~]$ gpg2 --verify ec2rl.tgz.sig
...
gpg: Good signature from "[email protected] <EC2 Rescue for Linux>"
...

Documentation

Available in docs/ subdirectory

Prerequisites

Python 2.7.9+ / 3.2+

Installation

No ec2rl specific installation required. Unpack the tarball and run the tool.

Usage

ec2rl:  A framework for executing diagnostic and troubleshooting
        modules for analyzing issues on Linux instances on AWS.

USAGE:
    ec2rl [subcommand] [parameters]

COMMANDS:
  The following are the accepted subcommands:
    menu-config    - use a text-based menu system to create a configuration file, configuration.cfg
    save-config    - use the provided arguments to create a configuration file, configuration.cfg
    run            - executes modules
    list           - list available modules for platform
    upload         - upload a tarball of a directory to S3 using either a presigned URL or an AWS-support provided URL
    help           - print long help
    version        - print version and license information
    version-check  - check program version against the latest upstream version
    software-check - check for software required by modules that is not installed on the system and give install details
    bug-report     - print version information relevant for inclusion in a bug report

Additional usage information is available in the usage guide in docs/USAGE.md and the help subcommand output.

Examples

ec2rl can be run with no options or special configuration.

ec2rl run

Some modules require sudo/root. Utilizing sudo is required in order to run these modules if executing ec2rl as a regular user.

sudo ec2rl run

Some modules require arguments for their usage. For example, most performance metric collection modules require times (number of samples to take) and period (length of sample).

sudo ec2rl run --times=3 --period=5

Some modules may negatively impact system performance. These modules require the perfimpact argument to run.

sudo ec2rl run --times=3 --period=5 --perfimpact=true

Some modules detect an issue and can also remediate the issue. These modules require the remediate argument to perform the remediation actions.

sudo ec2rl run --remediate

Module Development

Modules are YAML files containing either a BASH or a Python script as well as the necessary metadata. Examples are available in mod.d and the module development guide found in docs/MODULE.md

FAQ

Why does EC2 Rescue For Linux not have the ability to run and upload in a single command?

It is recommended the resulting data be reviewed prior to being uploaded in order to ensure that no confidential information is included.

Why does EC2 Rescue For Linux require Python 2.7.9+? What about Python 2.7.x, x < 9?

SSL SNI (Server Name Indication) is required for the ec2rl's upload functionality, however, this wasn't added to Python 2.7 until 2.7.9. See PEP 466 for more information regarding the SSL changes in Python 2.7.9.

What are the limitations of the bundled build?

SSL and curses functionality may not work depending upon the versions of these libraries on the system. This impacts three subcommands:

1. The "menu-config" subcommand may not function.
2. The "upload" subcommand may not function.
3. The "version-check" subcommand may not function.

I'm trying to use the menu on a system running SUSE, but it does not work.

Python's curses module is normally built into its standard library, however, it is sometimes separated and included as a separate package. You will need to install it with the operating system's package manager. The package name in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 is "python-curses".

Licensing

Please see the file called LICENSE.