Change instance initiated shutdown behavior
Warning
Terminating an instance is permanent and irreversible.
After you terminate an instance, you can no longer connect to it, and it can't be recovered. All attached Amazon EBS volumes that are configured to be deleted on termination are also permanently deleted and can't be recovered. All data stored on instance store volumes is permanently lost. For more information, see How instance termination works.
Before you terminate an instance, ensure that you have backed up all data that you need to retain after the termination to persistent storage.
By default, when you initiate a shutdown from an Amazon EBS backed instance (using a
command such as shutdown or poweroff), the
instance stops. You can change this behavior so that the instance terminates instead by
changing the InstanceInitiatedShutdownBehavior attribute for the instance.
You can change this attribute while the instance is running or stopped.
The halt command doesn't initiate a shutdown. If used, the instance
doesn't terminate; instead, it places the CPU into HLT and the instance
continues to run.
Note
The InstanceInitiatedShutdownBehavior attribute only applies when you
perform a shutdown from the operating system of the instance itself. It doesn't
apply when you stop an instance using the StopInstances API or the
Amazon EC2 console.