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# EC2: Restore an Instance (Instant restore)

This article explains how to restore an EC2 instance using instant restore.

Instant restore makes the instance available in minutes instead of hours by serving data on demand while volumes hydrate in the background.
For the standard restore method that fully restores all volumes before the instance becomes available, see [EC2: Restore an Instance].

[EC2: Restore an Instance]: /data-protection/restoring/restore-cloud-workloads/aws/ec2/ec2-restore-an-instance

## Restore the instance with instant restore

#### Before you start

Before you restore an EC2 instance with instant restore, make sure:

* The source EC2 instance uses x86\_64 architecture.
  Instant restore doesn't support arm64 (Graviton) instances.

* The source EC2 instance has 24 or fewer attached volumes.

#### Find the snapshot you want to restore

1. In your

   inventory

   , select the EC2 resource you want to restore.
   The Resource Details drawer opens.

2. Click the **Eon snapshots** tab.
   You'll see a calendar view with colored dots on the days when snapshots were taken.
   There can be more than one snapshot per day.

   When you click a day, a list of Eon snapshots taken that day is displayed below the calendar.

3. Expand the snapshot you want to restore.
   Click **Instance**, and then click **Restore**.
   The **Restore EC2 Instance** wizard opens.

#### Choose the restore account and enable instant restore

In the Restore EC2 wizard, you're taken through a three-step process.
The first step is to choose a restore account and configure instant restore.

1. Choose the cloud account you want to restore the instance in.

2. Turn **Use instant restore** on.

   When instant restore is enabled, the instance restores to the same region as your vault.
   Region selection isn't available because instant restore requires the vault and restored instance to be in the same region.

3. Click **Next**.

#### Set the instance details

[Amazon EC2 Instance types]: https\://aws.amazon.com/ec-2/instance-types/

In the **Instance configuration** step, you'll set the instance details.

1. Choose a **Subnet** to deploy the restored instance to.

2. Choose the **Instance type**.
   For information on available options, see [Amazon EC2 Instance types] from AWS.

3. Optionally, select a **Security group** and **Instance profile** to apply to the restored instance.

4. If you want to retain the tags that were present when the snapshot was taken, turn **Keep original tags** on.
   Otherwise, turn **Keep original tags** off.

   In both cases, the new instance is tagged with `eon:restore=true`.
   Tags with the `eon:` prefix aren't included in the original tags because Eon uses this prefix for internal operations.

5. Click **Next**.

#### Set details for the attached volumes

In this step of the wizard, you'll set encryption, volume settings, and tags for the volumes attached to the instance at the time the snapshot was taken.
Expand individual volumes to show volume-specific settings.

#### Encryption

You can encrypt all volumes with the same key, or you set each volume's key separate from the other volumes.
If you choose to encrypt each volume separately, turn off **Encrypt all volumes with the same key**.
Encryption settings are then displayed for each volume.

You can either select an existing key or create a key and paste an ARN.

#### Volume settings

For each volume, you can keep the original volume settings, or you can customize the drive's type, size, IOPS, and throughput.

#### Tags

Each volume has its own tags, independent of the instance-level tags in the previous step.
If you want to retain the tags that were present when the snapshot was taken, turn **Keep original tags** on.
Otherwise, turn **Keep original tags** off.

In both cases, the new volume is tagged with `eon:restore=true`.
Tags with the `eon:` prefix aren't included in the original tags because Eon uses this prefix for internal operations.

#### Start the restore job

Click **Restore** to start the asynchronous restore job.

You can monitor the restore job on the

Restore jobs tab

in the Jobs page.

The instance becomes available quickly while data continues loading in the background.
Once the restore job completes and all data is hydrated, the instance transitions to a standard EC2 instance in your account after the next restart.