**To describe one or more instances** This example describes the specified instance:: aws autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-instances --instance-ids i-4ba0837f The following is example output:: { "AutoScalingInstances": [ { "ProtectedFromScaleIn": false, "AvailabilityZone": "us-west-2c", "InstanceId": "i-4ba0837f", "AutoScalingGroupName": "my-auto-scaling-group", "HealthStatus": "HEALTHY", "LifecycleState": "InService", "LaunchConfigurationName": "my-launch-config" } ] } This example uses the ``max-items`` parameter to specify how many instances to return with this call:: aws autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-instances --max-items 1 The following is example output:: { "NextToken": "Z3M3LMPEXAMPLE", "AutoScalingInstances": [ { "ProtectedFromScaleIn": false, "AvailabilityZone": "us-west-2c", "InstanceId": "i-4ba0837f", "AutoScalingGroupName": "my-auto-scaling-group", "HealthStatus": "HEALTHY", "LifecycleState": "InService", "LaunchConfigurationName": "my-launch-config" } ] } If the output includes a ``NextToken`` field, there are more instances. To get the additional instances, use the value of this field with the ``starting-token`` parameter in a subsequent call as follows:: aws autoscaling describe-auto-scaling-instances --starting-token Z3M3LMPEXAMPLE