Attach an EBS Snapshot to an Instance
Objective
Configure a server to use an EBS Snapshot to create a volume and attach it to an instance.
Table of Contents
Overview
When you attach an EBS Volume to an instance, what you're really doing is creating a volume from that snapshot and attaching the volume to the instance. Technically speaking, you cannot attach an EBS Snapshot to a running instance. If you want to attach an existing volume, see Attach an EBS Volume to an Instance. The advantage of "attaching a snapshot" to an instance is that you don't have to worry about creating the volume in the correct availability zone. Instead, a volume will be created from the snapshot in the same availability zone as your instance. Another advantage is that by default, the created and attached volume will be deleted when the instance is terminated. If you were to attach an existing volume the old way (instead of attaching a snapshot) the volume would persist and not be deleted.
There are two ways you can attach an EBS Snapshot to an instance:
Steps
Attach an EBS Snapshot to a running instance
Go to the Volume's tab of the running server. Click the Attach Snapshot button.
- Snapshot - Select the EBS Snapshot that you want to attach to the running server instance.
- Device name - Select the device name to which the created volume will be attached. Click the "Override" box to specify a different value.
- Volume size in GB - The size of the volume to be created from the snapshot. By default, the size of the volume will match the size that's specified by the snapshot (e.g. 2 GB). To create a larger volume, click the Override button and specify the desired size in GB. (e.g. 10)
- Attachment options - A volume will be created from the snapshot and attached to the instance. By default, the attached volume will be detached and deleted when the instance is terminated, so if you want this snapshot to also be attached on subsequent server launches, select the "Attach on boot" option.
Attach an EBS Snapshot to a Server at boot time
Go to Clouds -> AWS Region -> EBS Snapshots and select the EBS Snapshot that you want to attach to a server at boot time. You can also attach a snapshot to a stopped server or "Next" server (of a running server) under the Volume's tab.
When you configure a server to attach an EBS Snapshot, a volume will be created and attached to the server the next time that it is launched/relaunched.
- Snapshot - Select the EBS Snapshot that you want to attach to the server the next time it is launched/relaunched.
- Device name - Select the device name to which the created volume will be attached. Click the "Override" box to specify a different value.
- Delete on termination- By default, the created and attached volume will be deleted when the instance is terminated.
- Virtual name - The virtual name for the volume that will be created. (optional)
- Volume size in GB - The size of the volume to be created from the snapshot. By default, the size of the volume will match the size that's specified by the snapshot (e.g. 8 GB). To create a larger volume, click the Override button and specify the desired size in GB. (e.g. 10)
See also
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