Ensure that all servers available in your AWS account are using the latest generation of EC2 instances to get the best performance with lower costs.
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efficiency
optimisation
Using the current (latest) generation of EC2 instances instead of the previous generation has multiple advantages such as better hardware performance (faster CPUs, increased memory and network throughput), better virtualization technology (HVM) and lower costs. If you are currently using any EC2 instances from the previous generation, we highly recommend upgrading these instances with their latest generation equivalents.
Audit
The following table will help you to identify any previous generation instance type in use:
EC2 Instance Family | Previous Generation Instance Types |
General purpose | m1.small | m1.medium | m1.large | m1.xlarge | m3.medium | m3.large | m3.xlarge | m3.2xlarge |
Compute optimized | c1.medium | c1.xlarge | cc2.8xlarge | c3.large | c3.xlarge | c3.2xlarge | c3.4xlarge | c3.8xlarge |
Memory optimized | m2.xlarge | m2.2xlarge | m2.4xlarge | cr1.8xlarge | r3.large | r3.xlarge | r3.2xlarge | r3.4xlarge | r3.8xlarge |
Storage optimized | i2.xlarge | i2.2xlarge | i2.4xlarge | i2.8xlarge | hs1.8xlarge |
GPU instances | g2.2xlarge | g2.8xlarge |
Micro instances | t1.micro |
To determine if there are any EC2 instances from the previous generation currently available in your AWS account, perform the following:
Remediation / Resolution
The following table will help you choose the current generation equivalent instance type for your EC2 instances, during the upgrade (resize) process:
Previous Generation Instance Types | Current Generation Instance Types |
m1.small | m1.medium | m1.large | m1.xlarge | m3.medium | m3.large | m3.xlarge | m3.2xlarge | t2.small | t2.medium | t2.large | t2.xlarge | m5.large | m5.large | m5.xlarge | m5.2xlarge |
c1.medium | c1.xlarge | cc2.8xlarge | c3.large | c3.xlarge | c3.2xlarge | c3.4xlarge | c3.8xlarge | c5.large | c5.xlarge | r4.2xlarge | c5.large | c5.xlarge | c5.2xlarge | c5.4xlarge | c5a.8xlarge |
m2.xlarge | m2.2xlarge | m2.4xlarge | cr1.8xlarge | r3.large | r3.xlarge | r3.2xlarge | r3.4xlarge | r3.8xlarge | r4.xlarge | r4.2xlarge | r4.4xlarge | r4.8xlarge | r4.large | r4.xlarge | r4.2xlarge | r4.4xlarge | r4.8xlarge |
i2.xlarge | i2.2xlarge | i2.4xlarge | i2.8xlarge | hs1.8xlarge | i3.xlarge | i3.2xlarge | i3.4xlarge | i3.8xlarge | d2.4xlarge |
g2.2xlarge | g2.8xlarge | g3.4xlarge | g3.8xlarge |
t1.micro | t2.micro |
To upgrade your previous generation instances to their latest generation equivalents, perform the following: (!) Important note: the following process assumes that the EC2 instances selected for upgrade are NOT currently used in production or for critical operations. To upgrade (resize) production instances without any downtime, you should create a snapshot of your current image and launch a new instance from that snapshot using the required (latest generation) type.
References
- AWS Documentation
- Amazon EC2 FAQs
- Amazon EC2 Instance Types
- Previous Generation Instances
- Instance Types
- Resizing Your Instance
- AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) Documentation
- describe-snapshots
- describe-instances
- describe-instance-attribute
- stop-instances
- modify-instance-attribute
- start-instances
- describe-instance-status
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You are auditing:
EC2 Instance Generation
Risk level: Medium