---
title: "Changing security groups"
description: "Changing security groups for an existing instance on Exoscale"
date: 2015-06-22
author: "Antoine Coetsier"
url: https://www.exoscale.com/blog/changing-security-groups/
---
# Changing security groups

Security groups are a powerful concept, and we have already shown that implemented wisely they can be extremely secure and efficient to manage.

However they required you to carefully plan your instance deployment:
up to now, the Security Groups associated to an instance
could not be changed.

### Introducing the ability to modify security groups for an existing instance

Starting June 2015, it is now possible to change the security groups
associated with each instance.

#### Via the Web portal

Log on to your favorite [cloud portal](https://portal.exoscale.com) and select an
instance.

In the detailed instance view there is now a new configuration field:

![security groups configuration box](https://www.exoscale.com/blog/changing-security-groups/sg-change-dialog.png)

You can now:

* Remove a SG
* Add one or more SG

For your convenience you can either type the name of the group or use the
drop-down list.

#### Via the API

The `updateVirtualMachine` call has been extended to support the modification
of the Security Groups associated to a machine.

Here's an example gist with the python [cs client](https://pypi.org/project/cs/):

    from cs import CloudStack

    cs = CloudStack(endpoint='https://api.exoscale.ch/compute',
                    key='your api key',
                    secret='your api secret')

    my_vm = 'VM_ID'
    my_sg = ['SG_UUID']
    cs.updateVirtualMachine(id=my_vm, securitygroupids=my_sg)

Note that the `securitygroupids` is a list of the UUIDs of the all SG you wish to
be associated with the instance. Beware this will overwrite the existing
groups associated to your instance: you need to pass **all** the groups,
not just the one you would like to add to the instance.

The full API call description is available in the [documentation](https://community.exoscale.com/api/compute/#updatevirtualmachine_GET)