Why do I get an "Image Creation Throttled" error when I try to back up my EC2 Instance?

Short description

When you create an AMI backup for an EC2 instance with AWS Backup, the system creates a snapshot of each volume that's attached to the instance. If the snapshots created during a backup exceed the volume's snapshot quota, then the backup fails and you receive an "Image Creation Throttled" error.

Resolution

To resolve an "Image Creation Throttled" error, complete the following steps:

Prerequisite: Verify your volume's snapshot quota. For more information, see Quotas for Amazon EBS.

1. Use DescribeSnapshots in AWS CloudTrail to check the number of snapshots that correspond with the time that you receive the error. If the number of snapshots is greater than your quota, then proceed to step 2. For more information, see DescribeSnapshots.
   -or-
   Use the EC2 console to verify the number of snapshots. If the number of snapshots is greater than your quota, then proceed to step 2. For more information, see View Amazon EBS snapshot information.
   Note: Snapshots marked Incomplete count toward your snapshot quota.
2. Make sure that AWS Backup is configured to create separate backups of the EC2 instance and the EBS volume associated with it. If AWS Backup is configured to do this, then proceed to step 3. For more information, see View details of protected resources.
3. Make sure that AWS Backup doesn't create multiple backups of EBS volumes or associated EC2 instances at the same time. If AWS Backup does this, then proceed to step 4. For more information, see View the status of backup jobs.
4. Create a new backup plan for one of the resources. For more information, see Getting started 3: Create a scheduled backup.
5. Open the AWS Backup console.
6. In the navigation pane, choose Backup plans.
7. Navigate to the original backup plan.
8. Choose the button that corresponds with the resource that you created the backup plan for in step 4.
9. Choose Delete.