Replace a volume using a previous snapshot
Amazon EBS snapshots are the preferred backup tool on Amazon EC2 because of their speed, convenience,
and cost. When creating a volume from a snapshot, you recreate its state at a specific point in
time with the data saved up to that specific point intact. By attaching a volume created from a
snapshot to an instance, you can duplicate data across Regions, create test environments,
replace a damaged or corrupted production volume in its entirety, or retrieve specific files and
directories and transfer them to another attached volume. For more information, see
Amazon EBS snapshots.
You can use one of the following procedure to replace an Amazon EBS volume with another volume
created from a previous snapshot of that volume. You must detach the current volume and then
attach the new volume.
Amazon EBS volumes can only be attached to instances in the same Availability Zone.
- New console
-
To replace a volume
-
Create a volume from the snapshot and write down the ID of the new volume. For more
information, see Create a volume from a snapshot.
-
On the Instances page, select the instance on which to replace the volume and write
down the instance ID.
With the instance still selected, choose the Storage tab. In the
Block devices section, find the volume to replace and write down the
device name for the volume, for example /dev/sda1
.
Choose the volume ID.
-
On the Volumes screen, select the volume and choose Actions,
Detach volume, Detach.
-
Select the new volume that you created in step 1 and choose Actions,
Attach volume.
For Instance and Device name, enter the instance
ID and device name that you wrote down in Step 2, and then choose Attach volume.
-
Connect to your instance and mount the volume. For more information, see
Make an Amazon EBS volume available for use on
Windows.
- Old console
-
To replace a volume
-
Create a volume from the snapshot and write down the ID of the new volume. For more
information, see Create a volume from a snapshot.
-
On the volumes page, select the check box for the volume to replace. On the
Description tab, find Attachment information
and write down the device name of the volume (for example, /dev/sda1
) and
the ID of the instance.
-
With the volume still selected, choose Actions, Detach
Volume. When prompted for confirmation, choose Yes,
Detach. Clear the check box for this volume.
-
Select the check box for the new volume that you created in step 1. Choose
Actions, Attach Volume. Enter the
instance ID and device name that you wrote down in step 2, and then choose
Attach.
-
Connect to your instance and mount the volume. For more information, see
Make an Amazon EBS volume available for use on
Windows.