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Overview

alto.yml
...
  infra:
    type: ec2  
    instance_type: t2.micro
    ami_image: ami-0889a44b331db0194
...
The infra key should contain a set of key-value pairs that describe infrastructure on which to run your code. Different kinds of infrastructures will have different acceptable key-value pairs; however, they all must have a value for type.
If your infra does not contain a type key, then Alto will throw an error!
Next, we cover the specific configurations for the various accepted type values.

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EC2

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Prerequisites

EC2 agents rely on the boto3 and botocore packages. These require you to set up authentication credentials for your AWS account. More information can be found here.
You must configure your Boto3 credentials in order to use EC2 agents.

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IAM permissions

EC2 agents require your AWS credentials to list, modify, create, and delete certain resources (e.g., key pairs, security groups, EC2 instances, etc.). You’ll need to make sure your account has the necessary privileges to create EC2 instances, security groups, and key-pairs. Contact your account administrator to help out with this. You can use the following policy document to provision your account with the necessary permissions: 
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
      {
          "Sid": "AllowGetAccessKeyLastUsed",
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": "iam:GetAccessKeyLastUsed",
          "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:user/${aws:username}"
      },
      {
          "Sid": "AllowGetUser",
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": "iam:GetUser",
          "Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:user/${aws:username}"
      },
      {
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": [
              "ec2:Describe*",
              "ec2:GetConsole*"
          ],
          "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": [
              "ec2:RunInstances",
              "ec2:CreateTags"
          ],
          "Resource": [
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:subnet/*",
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:network-interface/*",
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:instance/*",
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:volume/*",
              "arn:aws:ec2:*::image/ami-*",
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:key-pair/*",
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*"
          ]
      },
      {
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": [
              "ec2:CreateKeyPair",
              "ec2:DeleteKeyPair",
              "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
              "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
              "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",
              "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroupRules",
              "ec2:DescribeTags"
          ],
          "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": [
              "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
              "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress",
              "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupEgress",
              "ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupEgress",
              "ec2:ModifySecurityGroupRules",
              "ec2:UpdateSecurityGroupRuleDescriptionsIngress",
              "ec2:UpdateSecurityGroupRuleDescriptionsEgress"
          ],
          "Resource": [
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group/*"
          ]
      },
      {
          "Effect": "Allow",
          "Action": [
              "ec2:ModifySecurityGroupRules"
          ],
          "Resource": [
              "arn:aws:ec2:*:*:security-group-rule/*"
          ]
      }
  ]
}

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Key Specification

The EC2 infra accepts the following keys:

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Required keys

  • type: this should always be ec2
  • instance_type: the EC2 instance type. This defaults to t2.micro. The list of all available EC2 instance types can be found here.
  • ami_image: the Amazon machine image to use. This defaults to ami-0889a44b331db0194. You should be able to find a list of available AMIs for your region via the AWS console (EC2 >> Images >> AMI Catalog).
Your ami_image must be an Amazon Linux AMI. We’re working on adding support for other Linux-based images (e.g., Debian, Ubuntu, etc.)

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Optional keys

  • python_version: the Python version to use. This is optional. If this isn’t specified, this your code will run using the Python version native to the EC2 instance. The latest version is always used, i.e.,:
    • python_version: 3 —> version 3.12.0 is used
    • python_version: 3.1 —> version 3.1.5 is used
    • python_version: 3.11.6 —> version 3.11.6 is used
Installing a custom python_version takes a while! If you’re still experimenting, make sure to use the --no-delete-success and --no-delete-failure flags to preserve your cloud environment.
Important: python_version will be ignored if you use an image container to run your code.

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Example

Here’s a simple configuration for an EC2 agent:
alto.yml
my-new-ec2-agent:
  infra:
    type: ec2
    instance_type: t2.micro
    ami_image: ami-01c647eace872fc02
    python_version: 3.11
  entrypoint:
    type: function
    cmd: main.write_txt_file
  requirements: requirements.txt
  env:
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: "{{ env('AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID') }}"
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: "{{ env('AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY') }}"
    AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: "{{ env('AWS_DEFAULT_REGION') }}"