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The metadata (IPv4: 169.254.169.254 / IPv6: [fd00:ec2::254]) service is only accessible from the respective instance.
This is very useful if you want to script somethingand you need some data of the instance itself.

Annotation: The address listed here is a loopback address of the VM within the APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) range.

curl http://169.254.169.254
curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id
PS> Get-Alias -Definition Invoke-WebRequest | Format-Table -AutoSize

CommandType Name                      Version Source
----------- ----                      ------- ------
Alias       curl -> Invoke-WebRequest
Alias       iwr -> Invoke-WebRequest
Alias       wget -> Invoke-WebRequest

Annotation: This service also exists in Azure and is even accessible under the same IP.

Sources:

Retrieve instance metadata - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
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