EBS volume events EBS volume modification events EBS snapshot events EBS Snapshots Archive events EBS fast snapshot restore events Using AWS Lambda to handle EventBridge events

EventBridge for Amazon EBS

Amazon EBS sends events to Amazon EventBridge for actions performed on volumes and snapshots. With EventBridge, you can establish rules that trigger programmatic actions in response to these events. For example, you can create a rule that sends a notification to your email when a snapshot is enabled for fast snapshot restore.

Events in EventBridge are represented as JSON objects. The fields that are unique to the event are contained in the "detail" section of the JSON object. The "event" field contains the event name. The "result" field contains the completed status of the action that triggered the event. For more information, see Amazon EventBridge event patterns in the Amazon EventBridge User Guide.

For more information, see What Is Amazon EventBridge? in the Amazon EventBridge User Guide.

Events

EBS volume events
EBS volume modification events
EBS snapshot events
EBS Snapshots Archive events
EBS fast snapshot restore events
Using AWS Lambda to handle EventBridge events

EBS volume events

Amazon EBS sends events to EventBridge when the following volume events occur.

Events

createVolume
deleteVolume
attachVolume

Create volume (createVolume)

The createVolume event is sent to your AWS account when an action to create a volume completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event can have a result of either available or failed. Creation will fail if an invalid AWS KMS key was provided, as shown in the examples below.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful createVolume event.


{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "012345678901",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:012345678901:volume/vol-01234567"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "result": "available",
      "cause": "",
      "event": "createVolume",
      "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
   }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed createVolume event. The cause for the failure was a disabled KMS key.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "sa-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "createVolume",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is disabled.",
    "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  }
}

The following is an example of a JSON object that is emitted by EBS after a failed createVolume event. The cause for the failure was a KMS key pending import.


{  
  "version": "0",  
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",  
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",  
  "source": "aws.ec2",  
  "account": "012345678901",  
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",  
  "region": "sa-east-1",  
  "resources": [    
    "arn:aws:ec2:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",  
  ],  
  "detail": {    
    "event": "createVolume",    
    "result": "failed",    
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:sa-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is pending import.",    
    "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",  
  }
}

Delete volume (deleteVolume)

The deleteVolume event is sent to your AWS account when an action to delete a volume completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event has the result deleted. If the deletion does not complete, the event is never sent.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful deleteVolume event.


{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "012345678901",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:012345678901:volume/vol-01234567"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "result": "deleted",
      "cause": "",
      "event": "deleteVolume",
      "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
   }
}

Volume attach or reattach (attachVolume, reattachVolume)

The attachVolume or reattachVolume event is sent to your AWS account if a volume fails to attach or reattach to an instance. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. If you use a KMS key to encrypt an EBS volume and the KMS key becomes invalid, EBS will emit an event if that KMS key is later used to attach or reattach to an instance, as shown in the examples below.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed attachVolume event. The cause for the failure was a KMS key pending deletion.

Note

AWS may attempt to reattach to a volume following routine server maintenance.


{
  "version": "0",    
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
  "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",
  "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "attachVolume",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is pending deletion.",
    "request-id": ""
  }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed reattachVolume event. The cause for the failure was a KMS key pending deletion.


{
  "version": "0",    
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab",
  "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
  "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:0123456789ab:volume/vol-01234567",
  "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "reattachVolume",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:0123456789ab:key/01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab is pending deletion.",
    "request-id": ""
  }
}

EBS volume modification events

Amazon EBS sends modifyVolume events to EventBridge when a volume is modified. However it is not saved, logged, or archived.


{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Volume Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "012345678901",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:012345678901:volume/vol-03a55cf56513fa1b6"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "result": "optimizing",
      "cause": "",
      "event": "modifyVolume",
      "request-id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-0123456789ab"
   }
}

EBS snapshot events

Amazon EBS sends events to EventBridge when the following volume events occur.

Events

createSnapshot
createSnapshots
copySnapshot
shareSnapshot

Create snapshot (createSnapshot)

The createSnapshot event is sent to your AWS account when an action to create a snapshot completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event can have a result of either succeeded or failed.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful createSnapshot event. In the detail section, the source field contains the ARN of the source volume. The startTime and endTime fields indicate when creation of the snapshot started and completed.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
     "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "createSnapshot",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::volume/vol-01234567",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ"  }
}

Create snapshots (createSnapshots)

The createSnapshots event is sent to your AWS account when an action to create a multi-volume snapshot completes. This event can have a result of either succeeded or failed.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS for a successful createSnapshots event. In the detail section, the source field contains the ARNs of the source volumes of the multi-volume snapshot set. The startTime and endTime fields indicate when creation of the snapshot started and completed.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Multi-Volume Snapshots Completion Status",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "createSnapshots",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "snapshots": [
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-01234567",
        "status": "completed"
      },
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-012345678",
        "status": "completed"
      }
    ]
  }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed createSnapshots event. The cause for the failure was one or more snapshots for the multi-volume snapshot set failed to complete. The values of snapshot_id are the ARNs of the failed snapshots. startTime and endTime represent when the create-snapshots action started and ended.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Multi-Volume Snapshots Completion Status",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678"
  ],
"detail": {
    "event": "createSnapshots",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "Snapshot snap-01234567 is in status error",
   "request-id": "",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "snapshots": [
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-01234567",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-01234567",
        "status": "error"
      },
      {
        "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:snapshot/snap-012345678",
        "source": "arn:aws:ec2::us-east-1:volume/vol-012345678",
        "status": "error"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Copy snapshot (copySnapshot)

The copySnapshot event is sent to your AWS account when an action to copy a snapshot completes. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. This event can have a result of either succeeded or failed.

Event data

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a successful copySnapshot event. The value of snapshot_id is the ARN of the newly created snapshot. In the detail section, the value of source is the ARN of the source snapshot. startTime and endTime represent when the copy-snapshot action started and ended.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "123456789012",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "copySnapshot",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": "arn:aws:ec2:eu-west-1::snapshot/snap-76543210",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "Incremental": "true"
  }
}

The listing below is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a failed copySnapshot event. The cause for the failure was an invalid source snapshot ID. The value of snapshot_id is the ARN of the failed snapshot. In the detail section, the value of source is the ARN of the source snapshot. startTime and endTime represent when the copy-snapshot action started and ended.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "123456789012",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "copySnapshot",
    "result": "failed",
    "cause": "Source snapshot ID is not valid",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": "arn:aws:ec2:eu-west-1::snapshot/snap-76543210",
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ"
  }
}

Share snapshot (shareSnapshot)

The shareSnapshot event is sent to your AWS account when another account shares a snapshot with it. However it is not saved, logged, or archived. The result is always succeeded.

Event data

The following is an example of a JSON object emitted by EBS after a completed shareSnapshot event. In the detail section, the value of source is the AWS account number of the user that shared the snapshot with you. startTime and endTime represent when the share-snapshot action started and ended. The shareSnapshot event is emitted only when a private snapshot is shared with another user. Sharing a public snapshot does not trigger the event.


{
  "version": "0",
  "id": "01234567-01234-0123-0123-012345678901",
  "detail-type": "EBS Snapshot Notification",
  "source": "aws.ec2",
  "account": "012345678901",
  "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "resources": [
    "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567"
  ],
  "detail": {
    "event": "shareSnapshot",
    "result": "succeeded",
    "cause": "",
    "request-id": "",
    "snapshot_id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-west-2::snapshot/snap-01234567",
    "source": 012345678901,
    "startTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
    "endTime": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ"
  }
}

EBS Snapshots Archive events

Amazon EBS emits events related to snapshot archiving actions. For more information, see Monitor snapshot archiving.

EBS fast snapshot restore events

Amazon EBS sends events to EventBridge when the state of fast snapshot restore for a snapshot changes. Events are emitted on a best effort basis.

The following is example data for this event.


{
   "version": "0",
   "id": "01234567-0123-0123-0123-012345678901",
   "detail-type": "EBS Fast Snapshot Restore State-change Notification",
   "source": "aws.ec2",
   "account": "123456789012",
   "time": "yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ",
   "region": "us-east-1",
   "resources": [
      "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1::snapshot/snap-03a55cf56513fa1b6"
   ],
   "detail": {
      "snapshot-id": "snap-1234567890abcdef0",
      "state": "optimizing",
      "zone": "us-east-1a",
      "message": "Client.UserInitiated - Lifecycle state transition",
   }
}

The possible values for state are enabling, optimizing, enabled, disabling, and disabled.

The possible values for message are as follows:

Client.InvalidSnapshot.InvalidState - The requested snapshot transitioned to an invalid state (Error): A request to enable fast snapshot restore failed and the state transitioned to disabling or disabled. Fast snapshot restore cannot be enabled for this snapshot.
Client.UserInitiated: The state successfully transitioned to enabling or disabling.
Client.UserInitiated - Lifecycle state transition: The state successfully transitioned to optimizing, enabled, or disabled.
Server.InsufficientCapacity - There was insufficient capacity available to satisfy the request: A request to enable fast snapshot restore failed due to insufficient capacity, and the state transitioned to disabling or disabled. Wait and then try again.
Server.InternalError - An internal error caused the operation to fail: A request to enable fast snapshot restore failed due to an internal error, and the state transitioned to disabling or disabled. Wait and then try again.
Client.InvalidSnapshot.InvalidState - The requested snapshot was deleted or access permissions were revoked: The fast snapshot restore state for the snapshot has transitioned to disabling or disabled because the snapshot was deleted or unshared by the snapshot owner. Fast snapshot restore cannot be enabled for a snapshot that has been deleted or is no longer shared with you.

Using AWS Lambda to handle EventBridge events

You can use Amazon EBS and Amazon EventBridge to automate your data-backup workflow. This requires you to create an IAM policy, a AWS Lambda function to handle the event, and an EventBridge rule that matches incoming events and routes them to the Lambda function.

The following procedure uses the createSnapshot event to automatically copy a completed snapshot to another Region for disaster recovery.

To copy a completed snapshot to another Region

Create an IAM policy, such as the one shown in the following example, to provide permissions to use the CopySnapshot action and write to the EventBridge log. Assign the policy to the IAM user that will handle the EventBridge event.


{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:CreateLogGroup",
        "logs:CreateLogStream",
        "logs:PutLogEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:*:*:*"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:CopySnapshot"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Define a function in Lambda that will be available from the EventBridge console. The sample Lambda function below, written in Node.js, is invoked by EventBridge when a matching createSnapshot event is emitted by Amazon EBS (signifying that a snapshot was completed). When invoked, the function copies the snapshot from us-east-2 to us-east-1.


// Sample Lambda function to copy an EBS snapshot to a different Region
 
var AWS = require('aws-sdk');
var ec2 = new AWS.EC2();
 
// define variables
var destinationRegion = 'us-east-1';
var sourceRegion = 'us-east-2';
console.log ('Loading function');
 
//main function
exports.handler = (event, context, callback) => {
 
    // Get the EBS snapshot ID from the event details
    var snapshotArn = event.detail.snapshot_id.split('/');
    const snapshotId = snapshotArn[1];
    const description = `Snapshot copy from ${snapshotId} in ${sourceRegion}.`;
    console.log ("snapshotId:", snapshotId);

    // Load EC2 class and update the configuration to use destination Region to initiate the snapshot.
    AWS.config.update({region: destinationRegion});
    var ec2 = new AWS.EC2();

    // Prepare variables for ec2.modifySnapshotAttribute call
    const copySnapshotParams = {
        Description: description,
        DestinationRegion: destinationRegion,
        SourceRegion: sourceRegion,
        SourceSnapshotId: snapshotId
    };
 
    // Execute the copy snapshot and log any errors
    ec2.copySnapshot(copySnapshotParams, (err, data) => {
        if (err) {
            const errorMessage = `Error copying snapshot ${snapshotId} to Region ${destinationRegion}.`;
            console.log(errorMessage);
            console.log(err);
            callback(errorMessage);
        } else {
            const successMessage = `Successfully started copy of snapshot ${snapshotId} to Region ${destinationRegion}.`;
            console.log(successMessage);
            console.log(data);
            callback(null, successMessage);
        }
    });
};

To ensure that your Lambda function is available from the EventBridge console, create it in the Region where the EventBridge event will occur. For more information, see the AWS Lambda Developer Guide.

Open the Amazon EventBridge console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/events/.
In the navigation pane, choose Rules, and then choose Create rule.
For Step 1: Define rule detail, do the following:
1. Enter values for Name and Description.
2. For Event bus, keep default.
3. Ensure that Enable the rule on the selected event bus is toggled on.
4. For Event type, select Rule with an event pattern.
5. Choose Next.
For Step 2: Build event pattern, do the following:
1. For Event source, select AWS events or EventBridge partner events.
2. In the Event pattern section, for Event source, ensure that AWS service is selected, and for AWS service, select EC2.
3. For Event type, select EBS Snapshot Notification, select Specific event(s), and then choose createSnapshot.
4. Select Specific result(s) and then choose succeeded.
5. Choose Next.
For Step 3: Select targets, do the following:
1. For Target types, choose AWS service.
2. For Select target, choose Lambda function, and for Function select the function that you created earlier.
3. Choose Next
For Step 4: Configure tags, specify tags for the rule if needed, and then choose Next.
For Step 5: Review and create, review the rule and then choose Create rule.

Your rule should now appear on the Rules tab. In the example shown, the event that you configured should be emitted by EBS the next time you copy a snapshot.

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Document Conventions

EBS CloudWatch metrics

EBS quotas