start_instances

EC2.Client.start_instances(**kwargs)

Starts an Amazon EBS-backed instance that you've previously stopped.

Instances that use Amazon EBS volumes as their root devices can be quickly stopped and started. When an instance is stopped, the compute resources are released and you are not billed for instance usage. However, your root partition Amazon EBS volume remains and continues to persist your data, and you are charged for Amazon EBS volume usage. You can restart your instance at any time. Every time you start your instance, Amazon EC2 charges a one-minute minimum for instance usage, and thereafter charges per second for instance usage.

Before stopping an instance, make sure it is in a state from which it can be restarted. Stopping an instance does not preserve data stored in RAM.

Performing this operation on an instance that uses an instance store as its root device returns an error.

If you attempt to start a T3 instance with host tenancy and the unlimted CPU credit option, the request fails. The unlimited CPU credit option is not supported on Dedicated Hosts. Before you start the instance, either change its CPU credit option to standard , or change its tenancy to default or dedicated .

For more information, see Stop and start your instance in the Amazon EC2 User Guide .

See also: AWS API Documentation

Request Syntax

response = client.start_instances(
    InstanceIds=[
        'string',
    ],
    AdditionalInfo='string',
    DryRun=True|False
)
Parameters
  • InstanceIds (list) --

    [REQUIRED]

    The IDs of the instances.

    • (string) --
  • AdditionalInfo (string) -- Reserved.
  • DryRun (boolean) -- Checks whether you have the required permissions for the action, 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 .
Return type

dict

Returns

Response Syntax

{
    'StartingInstances': [
        {
            'CurrentState': {
                'Code': 123,
                'Name': 'pending'|'running'|'shutting-down'|'terminated'|'stopping'|'stopped'
            },
            'InstanceId': 'string',
            'PreviousState': {
                'Code': 123,
                'Name': 'pending'|'running'|'shutting-down'|'terminated'|'stopping'|'stopped'
            }
        },
    ]
}

Response Structure

  • (dict) --

    • StartingInstances (list) --

      Information about the started instances.

      • (dict) --

        Describes an instance state change.

        • 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.

        • InstanceId (string) --

          The ID 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.

Examples

This example starts the specified EC2 instance.

response = client.start_instances(
    InstanceIds=[
        'i-1234567890abcdef0',
    ],
)

print(response)

Expected Output:

{
    'StartingInstances': [
        {
            'CurrentState': {
                'Code': 0,
                'Name': 'pending',
            },
            'InstanceId': 'i-1234567890abcdef0',
            'PreviousState': {
                'Code': 80,
                'Name': 'stopped',
            },
        },
    ],
    'ResponseMetadata': {
        '...': '...',
    },
}