Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling now supports root volume replacement through instance refresh

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Release Notes

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling has introduced a new feature, ReplaceRootVolume, within instance refresh. This feature allows customers to update the root volume of an EC2 instance without stopping or terminating the instance, preserving other associated resources. This reduces operational complexity, simplifies software patching, and streamlines recovery from corrupted root volumes.

Customers can use instance refresh to update instances in their Auto Scaling groups (ASGs). This is particularly useful for migrating instances to new types to leverage the latest improvements and optimizations. The new ReplaceRootVolume strategy enables EC2 Auto Scaling to replace the root Amazon EBS volume for running instances without stopping them, allowing for more efficient OS-level updates and security patches. This is especially beneficial for workloads using specialized instance types like Mac or GPU instances.

Customers with stateful applications can now refresh their fleets with confidence that their instances' data, metadata, and attachments will be preserved.

What to do

• Refer to the technical documentation to get started.

Source: AWS release notes

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