Create Lightsail instances from snapshots - Amazon Lightsail

Create Lightsail instances from snapshots

After you create a snapshot in Lightsail, you can create a new instance from that snapshot. You can change attributes of the new instance, such as instance size and networking type – dual-stack or IPv6-only. The new instance includes the system disk and the attached block storage disks that you added.

You must have a snapshot of an instance before you can create another instance from that snapshot. For more information, see Back up Linux/Unix Lightsail instances with snapshots or Create a snapshot of your Lightsail Windows Server instance.

  1. On the Lightsail console, choose the instance that you want to snapshot to create a new instance.

  2. Choose the Snapshots tab.

  3. In the Manual snapshots section, choose the actions menu icon (⋮) next to the snapshot and choose Create new instance.

    The Manage snapshots menu showing the cursor choosing Create new instance.

  4. The Create an instance from a snapshot page opens. Choose the optional settings that you want to use. For example, you can change the Availability Zone, add a launch script, or change the way you connect to your instance.

  5. Choose a plan (or bundle) for your new instance. You can choose to create an instance that uses a dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) instance plan, or an IPv6-only plan. You can also choose a larger bundle size than that of the original instance. For more information about IPv6-only instance plans, see Configure IPv6-only networking for Lightsail instances.

    Note

    You can't create an instance that uses a smaller bundle size than that of the original instance.

    The Choose a new instance plan page showing dual stack and IPv6 address types.

  6. Enter a name for your instance.

    Resource names:

    • Must be unique within each AWS Region of your Lightsail account.

    • Must contain 2–255 characters.

    • Must start and end with an alphanumeric character.

    • Can include alphanumeric characters, periods, dashes, and underscores.

  7. Choose one of the following options to add tags to your instance:

    • Add key-only tags or Edit key-only tags (if tags have already been added). Enter your new tag into the text box, and press Enter. Choose Saveor Cancel.

      Key only tag input field.

    • Create a key-value tag, then enter a key into the Key text box and a value into the Value text box. Choose Save or Cancel.

      Key-value tags can only be added one at a time before saving. To add more than one key-value tag, repeat the previous steps.

      Key value tag input field.
    Note

    For more information about key-only and key-value tags, see Tags.

  8. Choose Create instance.

    Lightsail opens the management page, where you can manage your new instance.

    Important

    Custom firewall rules from the original instance don't copy over to the new instance that you create from a snapshot. Only the default rules copy over to the new instance. For more information, see Default instance firewall rules.