Use DescribeImages with an Amazon SDK or CLI

###############################################################################
# function ec2_describe_images
#
# This function describes one or more Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) images.
#
# Parameters:
#       -i image_ids - A space-separated  list of image IDs (optional).
#       -h - Display help.
#
# And:
#       0 - If successful.
#       1 - If it fails.
###############################################################################
function ec2_describe_images() {
  local image_ids response
  local option OPTARG # Required to use getopts command in a function.

  # bashsupport disable=BP5008
  function usage() {
    echo "function ec2_describe_images"
    echo "Describes one or more Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) images."
    echo "  -i image_ids - A space-separated list of image IDs (optional)."
    echo "  -h - Display help."
    echo ""
  }

  # Retrieve the calling parameters.
  while getopts "i:h" option; do
    case "${option}" in
      i) image_ids="${OPTARG}" ;;
      h)
        usage
        return 0
        ;;
      \?)
        echo "Invalid parameter"
        usage
        return 1
        ;;
    esac
  done
  export OPTIND=1

  local aws_cli_args=()

  if [[ -n "$image_ids" ]]; then
    # shellcheck disable=SC2206
    aws_cli_args+=("--image-ids" $image_ids)
  fi

  response=$(aws ec2 describe-images \
    "${aws_cli_args[@]}" \
    --query 'Images[*].[Description,Architecture,ImageId]' \
    --output text) || {
    aws_cli_error_log ${?}
    errecho "ERROR: AWS reports describe-images operation failed.$response"
    return 1
  }

  echo "$response"

  return 0
}

The utility functions used in this example.

###############################################################################
# function errecho
#
# This function outputs everything sent to it to STDERR (standard error output).
###############################################################################
function errecho() {
  printf "%s\n" "$*" 1>&2
}

##############################################################################
# function aws_cli_error_log()
#
# This function is used to log the error messages from the AWS CLI.
#
# The function expects the following argument:
#         $1 - The error code returned by the AWS CLI.
#
#  Returns:
#          0: - Success.
#
##############################################################################
function aws_cli_error_log() {
  local err_code=$1
  errecho "Error code : $err_code"
  if [ "$err_code" == 1 ]; then
    errecho "  One or more S3 transfers failed."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 2 ]; then
    errecho "  Command line failed to parse."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 130 ]; then
    errecho "  Process received SIGINT."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 252 ]; then
    errecho "  Command syntax invalid."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 253 ]; then
    errecho "  The system environment or configuration was invalid."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 254 ]; then
    errecho "  The service returned an error."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 255 ]; then
    errecho "  255 is a catch-all error."
  fi

  return 0
}

Example 1: To describe an AMI

The following describe-images example describes the specified AMI in the specified Region.

aws ec2 describe-images \
    --region us-east-1 \
    --image-ids ami-1234567890EXAMPLE

Output:

{
    "Images": [
        {
            "VirtualizationType": "hvm",
            "Description": "Provided by Red Hat, Inc.",
            "PlatformDetails": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux",
            "EnaSupport": true,
            "Hypervisor": "xen",
            "State": "available",
            "SriovNetSupport": "simple",
            "ImageId": "ami-1234567890EXAMPLE",
            "UsageOperation": "RunInstances:0010",
            "BlockDeviceMappings": [
                {
                    "DeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
                    "Ebs": {
                        "SnapshotId": "snap-111222333444aaabb",
                        "DeleteOnTermination": true,
                        "VolumeType": "gp2",
                        "VolumeSize": 10,
                        "Encrypted": false
                    }
                }
            ],
            "Architecture": "x86_64",
            "ImageLocation": "123456789012/RHEL-8.0.0_HVM-20190618-x86_64-1-Hourly2-GP2",
            "RootDeviceType": "ebs",
            "OwnerId": "123456789012",
            "RootDeviceName": "/dev/sda1",
            "CreationDate": "2019-05-10T13:17:12.000Z",
            "Public": true,
            "ImageType": "machine",
            "Name": "RHEL-8.0.0_HVM-20190618-x86_64-1-Hourly2-GP2"
        }
    ]
}

For more information, see Amazon Machine Images (AMI) in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Example 2: To describe AMIs based on filters

The following describe-images example describes Windows AMIs provided by Amazon that are backed by Amazon EBS.

aws ec2 describe-images \
    --owners amazon \
    --filters "Name=platform,Values=windows" "Name=root-device-type,Values=ebs"

For an example of the output for describe-images, see Example 1.

For additional examples using filters, see Listing and filtering your resources in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Example 3: To describe AMIs based on tags

The following describe-images example describes all AMIs that have the tag Type=Custom. The example uses the --query parameter to display only the AMI IDs.

aws ec2 describe-images \
    --filters "Name=tag:Type,Values=Custom" \
    --query 'Images[*].[ImageId]' \
    --output text

Output:

ami-1234567890EXAMPLE
ami-0abcdef1234567890

For additional examples using tag filters, see Working with tags in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

import { paginateDescribeImages } from "@aws-sdk/client-ec2";

import { client } from "../libs/client.js";

// List at least the first i386 image available for EC2 instances.
export const main = async () => {
  // The paginate function is a wrapper around the base command.
  const paginator = paginateDescribeImages(
    // Without limiting the page size, this call can take a long time. pageSize is just sugar for
    // the MaxResults property in the base command.
    { client, pageSize: 25 },
    {
      // There are almost 70,000 images available. Be specific with your filtering
      // to increase efficiency.
      // See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSJavaScriptSDK/v3/latest/clients/client-ec2/interfaces/describeimagescommandinput.html#filters
      Filters: [{ Name: "architecture", Values: ["x86_64"] }],
    },
  );

  try {
    const arm64Images = [];
    for await (const page of paginator) {
      if (page.Images.length) {
        arm64Images.push(...page.Images);
        // Once we have at least 1 result, we can stop.
        if (arm64Images.length >= 1) {
          break;
        }
      }
    }
    console.log(arm64Images);
  } catch (err) {
    console.error(err);
  }
};

Example 1: This example describes the specified AMI.

Get-EC2Image -ImageId ami-12345678

Output:

Architecture        : x86_64
BlockDeviceMappings : {/dev/xvda}
CreationDate        : 2014-10-20T00:56:28.000Z
Description         : My image
Hypervisor          : xen
ImageId             : ami-12345678
ImageLocation       : 123456789012/my-image
ImageOwnerAlias     :
ImageType           : machine
KernelId            :
Name                : my-image
OwnerId             : 123456789012
Platform            :
ProductCodes        : {}
Public              : False
RamdiskId           :
RootDeviceName      : /dev/xvda
RootDeviceType      : ebs
SriovNetSupport     : simple
State               : available
StateReason         :
Tags                : {Name}
VirtualizationType  : hvm

Example 2: This example describes the AMIs that you own.

Get-EC2Image -owner self

Example 3: This example describes the public AMIs that run Microsoft Windows Server.

Get-EC2Image -Filter @{ Name="platform"; Values="windows" }

Example 4: This example describes all public AMIs in the 'us-west-2' region.

Get-EC2Image -Region us-west-2

class InstanceWrapper:
    """Encapsulates Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance actions."""

    def __init__(self, ec2_resource, instance=None):
        """
        :param ec2_resource: A Boto3 Amazon EC2 resource. This high-level resource
                             is used to create additional high-level objects
                             that wrap low-level Amazon EC2 service actions.
        :param instance: A Boto3 Instance object. This is a high-level object that
                           wraps instance actions.
        """
        self.ec2_resource = ec2_resource
        self.instance = instance

    @classmethod
    def from_resource(cls):
        ec2_resource = boto3.resource("ec2")
        return cls(ec2_resource)


    def get_images(self, image_ids):
        """
        Gets information about Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) from a list of AMI IDs.

        :param image_ids: The list of AMIs to look up.
        :return: A list of Boto3 Image objects that represent the requested AMIs.
        """
        try:
            images = list(self.ec2_resource.images.filter(ImageIds=image_ids))
        except ClientError as err:
            logger.error(
                "Couldn't get images. Here's why: %s: %s",
                err.response["Error"]["Code"],
                err.response["Error"]["Message"],
            )
            raise
        else:
            return images

// A simple Rust program to list all Amazon images in the currently configured region.
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    let config = aws_config::load_from_env().await;
    let client = Client::new(&config);

    let resp = client.describe_images().owners("amazon").send().await?;

    println!("AWS SDK for Rust v{}", PKG_VERSION);
    println!("Describing Amazon Machine Images (AMIs):");

    let mut images: Vec<_> = resp
        .images()
        .iter()
        .filter(|i| {
            i.description()
                .filter(|i| i.contains("Amazon Linux AMI 2023"))
                .is_some()
        })
        .collect();
    images.sort_by(|a, b| a.description.cmp(&b.description));

    if images.is_empty() {
        println!("No images found.");
        return Ok(());
    }

    for image in images {
        let id = image.image_id().unwrap_or_default();
        let description = image.description().unwrap_or_default();

        println!("{id}: {description}");
    }

    Ok(())
}