Scheduled events for your instances
Amazon can schedule events for your instances, such as a reboot, stop/start, or retirement. These events do not occur frequently. If one of your instances will be affected by a scheduled event, Amazon sends an email to the email address that's associated with your Amazon account prior to the scheduled event. The email provides details about the event, including the start and end date. Depending on the event, you might be able to take action to control the timing of the event. Amazon also sends an Amazon Health event, which you can monitor and manage by using Amazon CloudWatch Events. For more information about monitoring Amazon Health events with CloudWatch, see Monitoring Amazon Health events with CloudWatch Events.
Scheduled events are managed by Amazon; you cannot schedule events for your instances. You can view the events scheduled by Amazon and perform actions when an instance is scheduled to reboot, retire, or stop.
To update the contact information for your account so that you can be sure to be
notified about scheduled events, go to the Account Settings
Note
When an instance is affected by a scheduled event, and it is part of an Auto Scaling group, Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling eventually replaces it as part of its health checks, with no further action necessary on your part. For more information about the health checks performed by Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, see Health checks for Auto Scaling instances in the Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide.
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Types of scheduled events
Amazon EC2 can create the following types of events for your instances, where the event occurs at a scheduled time:
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Instance stop: At the scheduled time, the instance is stopped. When you start it again, it's migrated to a new host. Applies only to instances backed by Amazon EBS.
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Instance retirement: At the scheduled time, the instance is stopped if it is backed by Amazon EBS, or terminated if it is backed by instance store.
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Instance reboot: At the scheduled time, the instance is rebooted.
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System reboot: At the scheduled time, the host for the instance is rebooted.
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System maintenance: At the scheduled time, the instance might be temporarily affected by network maintenance or power maintenance.
View scheduled events
In addition to receiving notification of scheduled events in email, you can check for scheduled events by using one of the following methods.
Work with instances scheduled to stop or retire
When Amazon detects irreparable failure of the underlying host for your instance, it schedules the instance to stop or terminate, depending on the type of root device for the instance. If the root device is an EBS volume, the instance is scheduled to stop. If the root device is an instance store volume, the instance is scheduled to terminate. For more information, see Instance retirement.
Important
Any data stored on instance store volumes is lost when an instance is stopped, hibernated, or terminated. This includes instance store volumes that are attached to an instance that has an EBS volume as the root device. Be sure to save data from your instance store volumes that you might need later before the instance is stopped, hibernated, or terminated.
Actions for Instances Backed by Amazon EBS
You can wait for the instance to stop as scheduled. Alternatively, you can stop and start the instance yourself, which migrates it to a new host. For more information about stopping your instance, in addition to information about the changes to your instance configuration when it's stopped, see Stop and start Amazon EC2 instances.
You can automate an immediate stop and start in response to a scheduled instance stop event. For more information, see Automating actions for Amazon EC2 instances in the Amazon Health User Guide.
Actions for Instances Backed by Instance Store
We recommend that you launch a replacement instance from your most recent AMI and migrate all necessary data to the replacement instance before the instance is scheduled to terminate. Then, you can terminate the original instance, or wait for it to terminate as scheduled.
Work with instances scheduled for reboot
When Amazon must perform tasks such as installing updates or maintaining the underlying host, it can schedule the instance or the underlying host for a reboot. You can reschedule most reboot events so that your instance is rebooted at a specific date and time that suits you.
View the reboot event type
You can view whether a reboot event is an instance reboot or a system reboot by using one of the following methods.
Actions for instance reboot
You can wait for the instance reboot to occur within its scheduled maintenance window, reschedule the instance reboot to a date and time that suits you, or reboot the instance yourself at a time that is convenient for you.
After your instance is rebooted, the scheduled event is cleared and the event's description is updated. The pending maintenance to the underlying host is completed, and you can begin using your instance again after it has fully booted.
Actions for system reboot
It is not possible for you to reboot the system yourself. You can wait for the system reboot to occur during its scheduled maintenance window, or you can reschedule the system reboot to a date and time that suits you. A system reboot typically completes in a matter of minutes. After the system reboot has occurred, the instance retains its IP address and DNS name, and any data on local instance store volumes is preserved. After the system reboot is complete, the scheduled event for the instance is cleared, and you can verify that the software on your instance is operating as expected.
Alternatively, if it is necessary to maintain the instance at a different time and you can't reschedule the system reboot, then you can stop and start an Amazon EBS-backed instance, which migrates it to a new host. However, the data on the local instance store volumes is not preserved. You can also automate an immediate instance stop and start in response to a scheduled system reboot event. For more information, see Automating Actions for EC2 Instances in the Amazon Health User Guide. For an instance store-backed instance, if you can't reschedule the system reboot, then you can launch a replacement instance from your most recent AMI, migrate all necessary data to the replacement instance before the scheduled maintenance window, and then terminate the original instance.
Work with instances scheduled for maintenance
When Amazon must maintain the underlying host for an instance, it schedules the instance for maintenance. There are two types of maintenance events: network maintenance and power maintenance.
During network maintenance, scheduled instances lose network connectivity for a brief period of time. Normal network connectivity to your instance is restored after maintenance is complete.
During power maintenance, scheduled instances are taken offline for a brief period, and then rebooted. When a reboot is performed, all of your instance's configuration settings are retained.
After your instance has rebooted (this normally takes a few minutes), verify that your application is working as expected. At this point, your instance should no longer have a scheduled event associated with it, or if it does, the description of the scheduled event begins with [Completed]. It sometimes takes up to 1 hour for the instance status description to refresh. Completed maintenance events are displayed on the Amazon EC2 console dashboard for up to a week.
Actions for Instances Backed by Amazon EBS
You can wait for the maintenance to occur as scheduled. Alternatively, you can stop and start the instance, which migrates it to a new host. For more information about stopping your instance, in addition to information about the changes to your instance configuration when it's stopped, see Stop and start Amazon EC2 instances.
You can automate an immediate stop and start in response to a scheduled maintenance event. For more information, see Automating Actions for EC2 Instances in the Amazon Health User Guide.
Actions for instances backed by instance store
You can wait for the maintenance to occur as scheduled. Alternatively, if you want to maintain normal operation during a scheduled maintenance window, you can launch a replacement instance from your most recent AMI, migrate all necessary data to the replacement instance before the scheduled maintenance window, and then terminate the original instance.
Reschedule a scheduled event
You can reschedule an event so that it occurs at a specific date and time that suits you. Only events that have a deadline date can be rescheduled. There are other limitations for rescheduling an event.
You can reschedule an event by using one of the following methods.
Limitations
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Only events with an event deadline date can be rescheduled. The event can be rescheduled up to the event deadline date. The Deadline column in the console and the
NotBeforeDeadlinefield in the Amazon CLI indicate if the event has a deadline date. -
Only events that have not yet started can be rescheduled. The Start time column in the console and the
NotBeforefield in the Amazon CLI indicate the event start time. Events that are scheduled to start in the next 5 minutes cannot be rescheduled. -
The new event start time must be at least 60 minutes from the current time.
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If you reschedule multiple events using the console, the event deadline date is determined by the event with the earliest event deadline date.