An instance reboot is equivalent to an operating system reboot. In most cases, it takes only a few minutes to reboot your instance.
When you reboot an instance, it keeps the following:
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Public DNS name (IPv4)
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Private IPv4 address
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Public IPv4 address
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IPv6 address (if applicable)
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Any data on its instance store volumes
Rebooting an instance doesn't start a new instance billing period, unlike stopping and starting an instance (which starts a new billing period with a one-minute minimum charge).
An instance reboot can be user-initiated (where you manually reboot the instance) or initiated by AWS (for automatic instance recovery, or in response to a scheduled reboot event for necessary maintenance, such as to apply updates that require a reboot).
For user-initiated reboots, we recommend using the Amazon EC2 console, CLI, or API instead of running the operating system reboot command from your instance. When using Amazon EC2, if the instance does not cleanly shut down within a few minutes, Amazon EC2 performs a hard reboot. Furthermore, AWS CloudTrail creates an API record of when your instance was rebooted.
This topic describes how to perform a user-initiated reboot. For information about reboots performed by AWS, see Automatic instance recovery and Manage Amazon EC2 instances scheduled for reboot.
Windows instances
If Windows is installing updates on your instance, we recommend that you do not reboot or shut down your instance using the Amazon EC2 console or the command line until all the updates are installed. When you use the Amazon EC2 console or the command line to reboot or shut down your instance, there is a risk that your instance will be hard rebooted. A hard reboot while updates are being installed could throw your instance into an unstable state.
To reboot an instance using the console
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Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/
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In the navigation pane, choose Instances.
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Select the instance and choose Instance state, Reboot instance.
Alternatively, select the instance and choose Actions, Manage instance state. In the screen that opens, choose Reboot, and then Change state.
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Choose Reboot when prompted for confirmation.
The instance remains in the
runningstate.
To run a controlled fault injection experiment
You can use AWS Fault Injection Service to test how your application responds when your instance is rebooted. For more information, see the AWS Fault Injection Service User Guide.
