**To describe Amazon RDS DB instances**

The following ``describe-db-instances`` command lists all of the DB instances for an AWS account::

    aws rds describe-db-instances

This command outputs a JSON block that lists the DB instances::

    {
	"DBInstances": [
	    {
		"PubliclyAccessible": false,
		"MasterUsername": "mymasteruser",
		"MonitoringInterval": 0,
		"LicenseModel": "general-public-license",
		"VpcSecurityGroups": [
		    {
			"Status": "active",
			"VpcSecurityGroupId": "sg-1203dc23"
		    }
		],
		"InstanceCreateTime": "2016-06-13T20:09:43.836Z",
		"CopyTagsToSnapshot": false,
		"OptionGroupMemberships": [
		    {
			"Status": "in-sync",
			"OptionGroupName": "default:mysql-5-6"
		    }
		],
		"PendingModifiedValues": {},
		"Engine": "mysql",
		"MultiAZ": false,
		"LatestRestorableTime": "2016-06-13T21:00:00Z",
		"DBSecurityGroups": [],
		"DBParameterGroups": [
		    {
			"DBParameterGroupName": "default.mysql5.6",
			"ParameterApplyStatus": "in-sync"
		    }
		],
		"AutoMinorVersionUpgrade": true,
		"PreferredBackupWindow": "08:03-08:33",
		"DBSubnetGroup": {
		    "Subnets": [
			{
			    "SubnetStatus": "Active",
			    "SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-6a88c933",
			    "SubnetAvailabilityZone": {
				"Name": "us-east-1a"
			    }
			},
			{
			    "SubnetStatus": "Active",
			    "SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-98302fa2",
			    "SubnetAvailabilityZone": {
				"Name": "us-east-1e"
			    }
			},
			{
			    "SubnetStatus": "Active",
			    "SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-159bf13e",
			    "SubnetAvailabilityZone": {
				"Name": "us-east-1c"
			    }
			},
			{
			    "SubnetStatus": "Active",
			    "SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-67466810",
			    "SubnetAvailabilityZone": {
				"Name": "us-east-1d"
			    }
			}
		    ],
		    "DBSubnetGroupName": "default",
		    "VpcId": "vpc-a2b3aab6",
		    "DBSubnetGroupDescription": "default",
		    "SubnetGroupStatus": "Complete"
		},
		"ReadReplicaDBInstanceIdentifiers": [],
		"AllocatedStorage": 50,
		"BackupRetentionPeriod": 7,
		"DBName": "sample",
		"PreferredMaintenanceWindow": "sat:04:35-sat:05:05",
		"Endpoint": {
		    "Port": 3306,
		    "Address": "mydbinstance-1.ctrzran0rynq.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com"
		},
		"DBInstanceStatus": "stopped",
		"EngineVersion": "5.6.27",
		"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1e",
		"DomainMemberships": [],
		"StorageType": "standard",
		"DbiResourceId": "db-B3COT4JG5UC4IACGJ72IGR34RM",
		"CACertificateIdentifier": "rds-ca-2015",
		"StorageEncrypted": false,
		"DBInstanceClass": "db.t2.micro",
		"DbInstancePort": 0,
		"DBInstanceIdentifier": "mydbinstance-1"
	    }
	]
    }

