How do I re-create a terminated Amazon EC2 instance?

Resolution

As part of an Amazon EC2 instance termination, the data on any instance store volumes associated with that instance is deleted. By default, the root Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume is automatically deleted.
It's not possible to recover either the original Amazon EC2 instance or any volumes that were deleted as part of the termination process. However, you can use these methods to re-create the terminated instance:

• Use Amazon EBS snapshots or Amazon Machine Images (AMI) backups to launch a replacement EC2 instance to that were created from the terminated Amazon EC2 instance.
• Attach an EBS volume from the terminated instance to another EC2 instance. You can then access the data contained in those volumes.

Use these methods to prevent instance termination and volume deletion:

• Activate termination protection of the EBS volume when you launch an EC2 instance. If you activate this option and the instance is later terminated, then the EBS root volume isn't deleted. You can then attach the root volume to a replacement EC2 instance. For more information, see How can I prevent my Amazon EBS volumes from being deleted when I terminate Amazon EC2 instances?
• Set the instance shutdown behavior to stop the instance instead of terminate. For more information, see Change the instance initiated shutdown behavior.
• If the instance is part of an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group, then you can customize the termination policy or use scale-in protection. For more information, see Control which Auto Scaling instances terminate during scale in.
• You can use termination protection to help prevent this issue in the future. You can also automate snapshots with Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager and AWS Backup.

Related information

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My Spot Instance was terminated. Can I recover it?

How do I protect my data against accidental EC2 instance termination?