2025/07/23 - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud - 2 updated api methods
Changes Added support for skip-os-shutdown option for the EC2 instance stop and terminate operations. This feature enables customers to bypass the graceful OS shutdown, supporting faster state transitions when instance data preservation isn't critical.
{'SkipOsShutdown': 'boolean'}
Stops an Amazon EBS-backed instance. You can restart your instance at any time using the StartInstances API. For more information, see Stop and start Amazon EC2 instances in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
When you stop or hibernate an instance, we shut it down. By default, this includes a graceful operating system (OS) shutdown. To bypass the graceful shutdown, use the skipOsShutdown parameter; however, this might risk data integrity.
You can use the StopInstances operation together with the Hibernate parameter to hibernate an instance if the instance is enabled for hibernation and meets the hibernation prerequisites. Stopping an instance doesn't preserve data stored in RAM, while hibernation does. If hibernation fails, a normal shutdown occurs. For more information, see Hibernate your Amazon EC2 instance in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
If your instance appears stuck in the stopping state, there might be an issue with the underlying host computer. You can use the StopInstances operation together with the Force parameter to force stop your instance. For more information, see Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 instance stop issues in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
Stopping and hibernating an instance differs from rebooting or terminating it. For example, a stopped or hibernated instance retains its root volume and any data volumes, unlike terminated instances where these volumes are automatically deleted. For more information about the differences between stopping, hibernating, rebooting, and terminating instances, see Amazon EC2 instance state changes in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
We don't charge for instance usage or data transfer fees when an instance is stopped. However, the root volume and any data volumes remain and continue to persist your data, and you're charged for volume usage. Every time you start your instance, Amazon EC2 charges a one-minute minimum for instance usage, followed by per-second billing.
You can't stop or hibernate instance store-backed instances.
See also: AWS API Documentation
Request Syntax
client.stop_instances(
InstanceIds=[
'string',
],
Hibernate=True|False,
SkipOsShutdown=True|False,
DryRun=True|False,
Force=True|False
)
list
[REQUIRED]
The IDs of the instances.
(string) --
boolean
Hibernates the instance if the instance was enabled for hibernation at launch. If the instance cannot hibernate successfully, a normal shutdown occurs. For more information, see Hibernate your Amazon EC2 instance in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
Default: false
boolean
Specifies whether to bypass the graceful OS shutdown process when the instance is stopped.
Default: false
boolean
Checks whether you have the required permissions for the operation, without actually making the request, and provides an error response. If you have the required permissions, the error response is DryRunOperation. Otherwise, it is UnauthorizedOperation.
boolean
Forces the instance to stop. The instance will first attempt a graceful shutdown, which includes flushing file system caches and metadata. If the graceful shutdown fails to complete within the timeout period, the instance shuts down forcibly without flushing the file system caches and metadata.
After using this option, you must perform file system check and repair procedures. This option is not recommended for Windows instances. For more information, see Troubleshoot Amazon EC2 instance stop issues in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
Default: false
dict
Response Syntax
{
'StoppingInstances': [
{
'InstanceId': 'string',
'CurrentState': {
'Code': 123,
'Name': 'pending'|'running'|'shutting-down'|'terminated'|'stopping'|'stopped'
},
'PreviousState': {
'Code': 123,
'Name': 'pending'|'running'|'shutting-down'|'terminated'|'stopping'|'stopped'
}
},
]
}
Response Structure
(dict) --
StoppingInstances (list) --
Information about the stopped instances.
(dict) --
Describes an instance state change.
InstanceId (string) --
The ID of the instance.
CurrentState (dict) --
The current state of the instance.
Code (integer) --
The state of the instance as a 16-bit unsigned integer.
The high byte is all of the bits between 2^8 and (2^16)-1, which equals decimal values between 256 and 65,535. These numerical values are used for internal purposes and should be ignored.
The low byte is all of the bits between 2^0 and (2^8)-1, which equals decimal values between 0 and 255.
The valid values for instance-state-code will all be in the range of the low byte and they are:
0 : pending
16 : running
32 : shutting-down
48 : terminated
64 : stopping
80 : stopped
You can ignore the high byte value by zeroing out all of the bits above 2^8 or 256 in decimal.
Name (string) --
The current state of the instance.
PreviousState (dict) --
The previous state of the instance.
Code (integer) --
The state of the instance as a 16-bit unsigned integer.
The high byte is all of the bits between 2^8 and (2^16)-1, which equals decimal values between 256 and 65,535. These numerical values are used for internal purposes and should be ignored.
The low byte is all of the bits between 2^0 and (2^8)-1, which equals decimal values between 0 and 255.
The valid values for instance-state-code will all be in the range of the low byte and they are:
0 : pending
16 : running
32 : shutting-down
48 : terminated
64 : stopping
80 : stopped
You can ignore the high byte value by zeroing out all of the bits above 2^8 or 256 in decimal.
Name (string) --
The current state of the instance.
{'SkipOsShutdown': 'boolean'}
Shuts down the specified instances. This operation is idempotent; if you terminate an instance more than once, each call succeeds.
If you specify multiple instances and the request fails (for example, because of a single incorrect instance ID), none of the instances are terminated.
If you terminate multiple instances across multiple Availability Zones, and one or more of the specified instances are enabled for termination protection, the request fails with the following results:
The specified instances that are in the same Availability Zone as the protected instance are not terminated.
The specified instances that are in different Availability Zones, where no other specified instances are protected, are successfully terminated.
For example, say you have the following instances:
Instance A: us-east-1a; Not protected
Instance B: us-east-1a; Not protected
Instance C: us-east-1b; Protected
Instance D: us-east-1b; not protected
If you attempt to terminate all of these instances in the same request, the request reports failure with the following results:
Instance A and Instance B are successfully terminated because none of the specified instances in us-east-1a are enabled for termination protection.
Instance C and Instance D fail to terminate because at least one of the specified instances in us-east-1b (Instance C) is enabled for termination protection.
Terminated instances remain visible after termination (for approximately one hour).
By default, Amazon EC2 deletes all EBS volumes that were attached when the instance launched. Volumes attached after instance launch continue running.
By default, the TerminateInstances operation includes a graceful operating system (OS) shutdown. To bypass the graceful shutdown, use the skipOsShutdown parameter; however, this might risk data integrity.
You can stop, start, and terminate EBS-backed instances. You can only terminate instance store-backed instances. What happens to an instance differs if you stop or terminate it. For example, when you stop an instance, the root device and any other devices attached to the instance persist. When you terminate an instance, any attached EBS volumes with the DeleteOnTermination block device mapping parameter set to true are automatically deleted. For more information about the differences between stopping and terminating instances, see Amazon EC2 instance state changes in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
When you terminate an instance, we attempt to terminate it forcibly after a short while. If your instance appears stuck in the shutting-down state after a period of time, there might be an issue with the underlying host computer. For more information about terminating and troubleshooting terminating your instances, see Terminate Amazon EC2 instances and Troubleshooting terminating your instance in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.
See also: AWS API Documentation
Request Syntax
client.terminate_instances(
InstanceIds=[
'string',
],
SkipOsShutdown=True|False,
DryRun=True|False
)
list
[REQUIRED]
The IDs of the instances.
Constraints: Up to 1000 instance IDs. We recommend breaking up this request into smaller batches.
(string) --
boolean
Specifies whether to bypass the graceful OS shutdown process when the instance is terminated.
Default: false
boolean
Checks whether you have the required permissions for the operation, without actually making the request, and provides an error response. If you have the required permissions, the error response is DryRunOperation. Otherwise, it is UnauthorizedOperation.
dict
Response Syntax
{
'TerminatingInstances': [
{
'InstanceId': 'string',
'CurrentState': {
'Code': 123,
'Name': 'pending'|'running'|'shutting-down'|'terminated'|'stopping'|'stopped'
},
'PreviousState': {
'Code': 123,
'Name': 'pending'|'running'|'shutting-down'|'terminated'|'stopping'|'stopped'
}
},
]
}
Response Structure
(dict) --
TerminatingInstances (list) --
Information about the terminated instances.
(dict) --
Describes an instance state change.
InstanceId (string) --
The ID of the instance.
CurrentState (dict) --
The current state of the instance.
Code (integer) --
The state of the instance as a 16-bit unsigned integer.
The high byte is all of the bits between 2^8 and (2^16)-1, which equals decimal values between 256 and 65,535. These numerical values are used for internal purposes and should be ignored.
The low byte is all of the bits between 2^0 and (2^8)-1, which equals decimal values between 0 and 255.
The valid values for instance-state-code will all be in the range of the low byte and they are:
0 : pending
16 : running
32 : shutting-down
48 : terminated
64 : stopping
80 : stopped
You can ignore the high byte value by zeroing out all of the bits above 2^8 or 256 in decimal.
Name (string) --
The current state of the instance.
PreviousState (dict) --
The previous state of the instance.
Code (integer) --
The state of the instance as a 16-bit unsigned integer.
The high byte is all of the bits between 2^8 and (2^16)-1, which equals decimal values between 256 and 65,535. These numerical values are used for internal purposes and should be ignored.
The low byte is all of the bits between 2^0 and (2^8)-1, which equals decimal values between 0 and 255.
The valid values for instance-state-code will all be in the range of the low byte and they are:
0 : pending
16 : running
32 : shutting-down
48 : terminated
64 : stopping
80 : stopped
You can ignore the high byte value by zeroing out all of the bits above 2^8 or 256 in decimal.
Name (string) --
The current state of the instance.