The Change EC2 Instances action can be used to change the type/size or EBS optimized property of one or more EC2 instances. Later, they can (optionally) be changed back.

For example, at 8am, a micro (t1.micro) instance can be upgraded to a large instance type (m1.large), then 8 hours later, it can be reverted back to it's original size (t1.micro).

The instance type of an EC2 instance can only be changed when the instance is stopped. When the action is executed, if the instance is running, it will be stopped so the instance type can be changed. Afterwards, it will be restarted. If an Elastic IP address was allocated to the instance, it will be restored.

If the EC2 instance is not running, it's instance type will be changed, but the instance will not be started.

Please see Common Action Settings for a description of settings common to all action types.

Instance Identification Method

Indicates the method in which instances are selected. Possible options include:

Instance IDs

Indicates the list of instance IDs of the EC2 instances that are to be reported. This value usually looks like "i-84a3dc7b". These instances must reside in the region specified.

Instance Name

The comparison to use when comparing the EC2 instance 'Name' tag.

Resource Tag Name

The name of the Resource tag used to select the instances.

Resource Tag Value

The Resource tag value used to select the instances.

Deregister from Load Balancers

When selected, the instances will be deregistered and re-registered with any Elastic Load Balancers when the instances are stopped..

Instance Type

Optional. Specify the instance type (machine size) that the instance should be changed to.

EBS Optimized

Optional. Indicates whether the instance is optimized for EBS I/O. This optimization isn't available with all instance types.

Revert the Instance Type

Indicate whether the instance type should be automatically reverted later. The running time of the instance must also be specified if this is checked.

Running Duration

Indicate the length of time the instance should remain at the new instance type before it is reverted. This value is only required if "Revert the Instance Type" is checked.

The following Amazon AWS commands are used. The access key should have permission to execute all of them.