For AWS EC2 instances, Elastic Block Store (EBS) is used as storage. In necessary situations, data can be restored using EBS snapshots. The methods for creating EBS snapshots and restoring data via snapshots are as follows.
1. Creating a Snapshot
To create a snapshot, you can operate from the EBS “Volumes” or “Snapshots” screen. This article mainly introduces how to create a snapshot via the EBS “Volumes” screen.
Select the Volume for which you want to create a snapshot (in this article, the Volume ID is vol-acc03d89), right-click it, and select “Create Snapshot”.
Enter an easily distinguishable name in “Name”, then click “Yes, Create” to create the snapshot.
2. Restoring EBS Using the Created Snapshot
To restore data using a snapshot, follow these steps:
- Create an EBS volume using the previously created snapshot
- Stop the EC2 instance
- Detach the volume connected to the EC2 instance
- Attach the created volume to the EC2 instance
- Start the EC2 instance
2.1 Create an EBS Volume Using the Previously Created Snapshot
Select the snapshot from the EBS “Snapshots” screen, right-click it, and select “Create Volume from Snapshot”.
Create a Volume in the same Availability Zone (AZ) as the EC2 instance.
Check the Volumes screen to confirm that an available volume has been successfully created.
2.2 Stop the EC2 Instance
Below, we need to stop the EC2 instance to replace the Volume.
However, if you are using Spot Instances, the instance cannot be stopped (this will be clear when referring to the characteristics of Spot Instances).
2.3 Detach the Volume Connected to the EC2 Instance
Detach the volume connected to the stopped instance.
From the Volumes screen, select the connected volume, right-click it, and select “Detach Volume”.
As shown below, click “Yes, Detach”.
This separates the Volume connected to the EC2 instance.
2.4 Attach the Created Volume to the EC2 Instance
Then, attach the volume just created from the snapshot to the EC2 instance.
From the Volume screen, select the volume, right-click it, and select “Attach Volume”, as shown below:
Select the stopped EC2 instance from “Instances”.
Enter the specified Linux boot disk device path “/dev/sda1” in “Device”.
Click “Yes, Attach”, and the volume will be attached immediately.
2.5 Start the EC2 Instance
Finally, start the EC2 instance, and the EC2 instance with the attached EBS volume will start normally.