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How do I upgrade my Amazon EC2 Windows Server instance to a later version?
I want to upgrade my Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Windows Server instance to a later Windows version.
Short description
To upgrade Windows on your EC2 instance, use one of the following methods:
- Migrate the server.
- Perform an automated upgrade.
Note: You can perform an automated upgrade only for Windows Server 2008 R2 and later. - Perform an in-place upgrade.
Note: You can perform an in-place upgrade only for Windows Server 2012 R2 and later.
Resolution
Prerequisites: To create a backup of your instance in case you encounter issues, create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of your instance. Or, create a snapshot of your instance's Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes.
Plan your upgrade
To minimize downtime, take the following actions before you upgrade the Windows version:
- Schedule the migration during an instance maintenance window or application downtime.
- Coordinate with stakeholders that use the instance.
- Test the process in a nonproduction environment.
Migrate the server
With a server migration, you copy the existing data and configuration to a new server that runs the later Windows version. This process takes longer than an in-place upgrade, but can result in fewer upgrade errors or issues.
To migrate the server, see Upgrade and migrate roles and features in Windows Server on the Microsoft website.
(Windows Server 2008 R2 and later) Perform an automated upgrade
Use AWSEC2-CloneInstanceAndUpgradeWindows to upgrade your Windows Server from Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 R2 or 2016 to Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019, or 2022,
(Windows Server 2012 R2 and later) Perform an in-place upgrade
Prerequisites: Make sure that you that you adhere to the in-place upgrade requirements.
Perform an in-place upgrade to keep your current configuration and data. This process is faster, but can result in errors because of software incompatibility issues.
Note: To perform an in-place upgrade, you create a Windows Server installation media Amazon EBS volume. After the upgrade, you can detach and delete the EBS volume.
Related information
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Troubleshoot an operating system upgrade on an EC2 Windows instance
- Language
- English
I have treid to perfrom upgrdae 2016 to 2022 but it got failed on below stpes
Execution detail - Step 8: serverUpgradeInstanceWithOriginalKeyPair
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When i try to do an in-place upgrade from 2019 Data Centre version to 2022 Data Centre version, option to keep file, folders. app is greyed out. Checked the both windows language and there is no change in edition. Any specific reason or what to debug or some solution to enable those options during upgrade?
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With an in-place upgrade, can I delete the volume created to load the new OS after the upgrade is complete, or does that volume need to stay attached? That is - AWS says to create a new volume from a public snapshot with the Windows Server edition desired. You then attach said volume, log into the instance, and use the volume to upgrade the server. After that is done, is it safe to detach and delete the volume or no? Thanks!
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This article was reviewed and updated on 2026-04-13
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