Understanding the Limitation of EBS Volumes
EBS Volumes are created inside of a specific Availability Zone [AZ]. It isn’t possible to move an EBS Volume from one AZ to another directly. An EBS Snapshot will create a backup of an EBS Volume at the time of inception.
An EBS Snapshot can be used to create an EBS Volume in a different Availability Zone.
Prerequisites
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need:
- A basic knowledge of EBS Volumes.
- A basic knowledge of EBS Snapshots.
EBS Snapshot in One Availability Zone
Initial State
- In Figure 3.1, we’re looking at the EBS Snapshots page in the us-east-2 region - we can clearly see that we have one EBS Snapshot with ID “snap-09f5b3ff7eb4d7d26.”
- In Figure 3.2, we’re looking at the EBS Snapshots page in the us-east-1 region - we can see that there are no EBS Snapshots in this region.
Creating a Copy of an EBS Snapshot Into a Different Availability Zone
Step 1 - Select an EBS Snapshot & Copy
1.1 - From the list of EBS Snapshots, choose the desired snapshot, click on “✔️.”
1.2 - From the top menu, click on “Actions.”
1.3 - From the drop-down menu, click on “Copy snapshot.”
You will be brought to a new page to confirm the parameters of the new snapshot.
Step 2 - Configure Snapshot & Confirm Copy
2.1 - From the Settings, choose the desired Availability Zone, for this tutorial, we’re using us-east-1.
2.2 - On the bottom of the page, click on “Copy snapshot.”
You’ll receive a confirmation that a snapshot has been created. If you navigate to the target region (In this case us-east-1) you’ll see that there’s a new entry with the snapshot we just copied.
Note: the copy of an EBS Snapshot will specify the snapshot it has copied by default within the description. In our case, it’s the ID “snap-09f5b3ff7eb4d7d26” as shown below.
Conclusion on Copying EBS Snapshots between Availability Zones
In this tutorials we’ve covered why you might want to copy an EBS Snapshot from one Availability Zone to another. We’ve also covered the exact steps to take and showcased a move from us-east-2 to us-east-1.
