EC2 Instance has disappeared

When an EC2 instance appears to have disappeared, there are several steps you can take to investigate and potentially recover your instance:

1. Check the correct AWS region: Ensure you're looking in the right region where your instance was originally launched. Sometimes instances may appear to be missing if you're viewing the wrong region.

2. Use EC2 Global View: This tool allows you to see all your EC2 resources across all regions, which can help locate your instance if it somehow moved to a different region.

3. Check CloudTrail logs: Look for any "TerminateInstances" or "DeleteInstance" events in CloudTrail. This can provide information on when and why the instance was removed.

4. Verify instance state: Your instance might be in a "stopped" state rather than terminated. Check for stopped instances in the EC2 dashboard.

5. Look for EBS volumes and snapshots: If your instance had attached EBS storage, check the EBS dashboard for any remaining volumes or snapshots. You might be able to recover data from these.

6. Check for auto-scaling events: If your instance was part of an auto-scaling group, it might have been terminated and replaced as part of normal operations.

7. Contact AWS Support: If you can't locate your instance or determine what happened, reach out to AWS Support for assistance. They may be able to provide more information or help with recovery options.

8. Review recent maintenance notifications: Since you mentioned a recent maintenance notification, check if this maintenance could have affected your instance. Some maintenance activities might require instance stops or restarts, which could change the instance's public IP address.

If the instance was indeed terminated, recovery options are limited unless you have backups or snapshots. In the future, consider implementing regular backup strategies to protect against unexpected instance loss.

Sources
EC2 Instance Disappeared | AWS re:Post
my ec2 instance simply disappeared | AWS re:Post
i don't know where my EC2 instance has disappeared ? | AWS re:Post
My amazon aws ec2 instance disappeared or got replaced | AWS re:Post