Resizing an Amazon EC2 Instance

Resizing your EBS-backed instances has been really simplified by Amazon in the last couple of years.

Compatibility checks:

Prior to initiating instance resizing, three compatibility checks need to be satisfied:

• Platform – 32 or 64-bit instances cannot be resized to the other.
• Virtualization type – You cannot resize an instance from HVM to a PM or vice verca.
• Network – Certain instance types are incompatible with EC2-Classic and necessitate launching within a VPC.

Resizing:

1. Open the EC2 console
2. Select the instance and stop it
3. Selected the instance, choose Actions > Instance Settings > Change Instance Type – top right corner
4. Choose which instance you would like to resize to – note that the list will only show compatible instance types.
5. Once applied, start the stopped instance – DON’T forget to start the instance. I had 3 mins downtime because I forgot …