How to restore an EC2 instance from an EBS snapshot in AWS
Restoring an EC2 instance from an EBS snapshot is a common way to recover when an instance becomes corrupted, misconfigured or unavailable. An EBS snapshot captures the state of a volume at a specific point in time and stores only incremental changes, which saves storage and makes backups more efficient.
Updated · Mr.PlanB
Overview
Before you start, you need an AWS account, an existing EC2 environment and a valid snapshot of the EBS volume attached to the original instance.
The restore usually goes like this:
1. In the AWS Management Console, find the snapshot you want. 2. Select Create image from snapshot, configure the settings, and create a new Amazon Machine Image (AMI). 3. Go to the EC2 dashboard and select Launch instance. 4. Under My AMIs, choose the new AMI, configure the instance details, and launch the new EC2 instance.
After launch, connect over SSH for Linux instances or RDP for Windows instances, usually with the same key pair or credentials as the original system.
How long the restore takes depends on snapshot size and region, but creating a new volume or AMI from a snapshot is generally quick. Note that deleting a snapshot removes only the data blocks that no other snapshot references.
This method recovers systems while the data stays persistent on EBS volumes.
1. Does restoring from a snapshot overwrite the original instance?
No. It creates a new instance from the AMI built from the snapshot.
2. How long does snapshot restoration take?
It depends on snapshot size and region, but it is fast for most workloads.
3. What happens if a snapshot is deleted?
Only the data unique to that snapshot is removed. Blocks shared with other snapshots stay intact.
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