I can't start instance after Instance scheduled for retirement (Insufficient capacity)

Question

We have received email from AWS asking to stop/start a specific instance, once we stopped the instance we could not start it again with error "Insufficient capacity". We tried to use Capacity Reservation and it ends with same error "Insufficient capacity", our instances are located in "ap-southeast-1a". In addition we create an AMI image and we used this image to launch a new instance in different zone but we still had an error. this server is very critical and we need to start it as soon as possible. Please help us to resolve this issue.
instance type: m2.xlarge root device type: EBS

Max · Accepted Answer

`Insufficient capacity` is a common error that is described in [AWS Documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/troubleshooting-launch.html#troubleshooting-launch-capacity) and [Knowledge Centre](https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/ec2-insufficient-capacity-errors).

> If you get this error when you try to launch an instance or restart a stopped instance, AWS does not currently have enough available On-Demand capacity to fulfil your request.

If you need to start the instance as soon as possible, you can try to:
* [Temporarily change the instance type](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-resize.html) to another one that has enough available capacity at the moment.
* If you receive this error when trying to launch the instance in a cluster placement group that already has running instances, stop and start all of the instances in the placement group, and try the launch again. [Starting the instances may migrate them to hardware that has capacity for all of the requested instances.](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/placement-groups.html#placement-groups-strategies)

David · Answer

Hello,

If you were contacted to restart an instance it may be due to the underlying hardware experiencing instability and it should be changed to different hardware.

Insufficient Capacity Error (ICE) would mean that there are none of this instance type available at this time in that area. I recommend changing the instance to a different type or size for the time being. This would likely get you out of production pain for a while and then later try and move back to the other Instance size.  M2 is an older generation and it's recommended to move to a newer version such as M5 as well.

I hope this helps.

I can't start instance after Instance scheduled for retirement (Insufficient capacity)

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