Amazon EC2 Spot Lets you Pause and Resume Your Workloads

Amazon EC2 Spot can now hibernate Amazon EBS-backed instances in the event of an interruption. Spot can fulfill your request by resuming instances from a hibernated state when capacity is available. Hibernate is just like closing and opening your laptop lid, with your application starting up right where it left off.

Upon hibernation, Spot will persist your EBS root volume and any other attached EBS data volumes between sessions. Additionally, data from memory (RAM) is also saved to your EBS root volume. Upon restart, your EBS root device is restored from its prior state, including the RAM content. Previously attached data volumes are reattached and the instance retains its instance ID. You will not be charged for instance usage while your instance is hibernated. Storage is charged at standard EBS storage rates. You can cancel your bid at any time in order to terminate hibernated instances.

This feature works on all instance types in C3, C4, M4, R3 and R4 families with memory (RAM) of less than 100 GB running Amazon Linux, Ubuntu and Microsoft Windows operating systems and is supported by the EC2 Hibernation Agent. Support for M3, C5 and M5 families is coming soon. It is available for persistent Spot requests and Spot Fleets with “maintain” fleet option enabled. This feature is in addition to the “Stop-Start” feature, which lets you persist instance state minus the state of memory/RAM.

To learn more about enabling hibernation for your Spot requests, read about Spot Hibernation.