Taking EC2 Snapshots

Question

When creating an EC2 instance, is it a default part of the setup
that a snapshot will be taken of all the EBS volumes attached
to the instance?  A snapshot was taken of the volumes of one of
my EC2 instances, and I didn't manually take this snapshot.

Answer

When you launch an EC2 instance snapshots are not automated by default.  It is your data and one of the components of the [shared responsibility model](https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/) puts the decisions of data retention for non managed services with the customer. It's your data and you decide it's residency and backup frequency.

Complete instance backups for instances with multiple EBS volumes can be automated through [AWS Backup](https://aws.amazon.com/backup/). Volume Snapshots can also be automated through [Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/snapshot-lifecycle.html).
You can define backup and retention schedules for EBS snapshots by creating lifecycle policies based on tags defined for volumes.

Regularly back up your EBS volumes using Amazon EBS snapshots, to create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) from your instance to save the configuration as a template for launching future instances.

You can also create an AMI and manual snapshot of all of the volume of an instance from the EC2 console of an instance.
Select the instance. Navigate to Image and Templates  --> Create Image (Illustrated in the attached image)

![Enter image description here](/media/postImages/original/IM_WXGKa1ZSrmJ5nkoCRtaZg)

Taking EC2 Snapshots

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