What is AWS Scheduled Instances?

AWS Scheduled Instances is a term agreement that enables you to create automatic start and stop schedules for Amazon EC2 instances.

AWS Scheduled Instances comes in handy when there are applications that need to be run on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis with a regular start time and duration throughout the year. The main advantage is that you pay for the resources or environment only when you use them. AWS Scheduled Instances comes with a one year term.

How AWS Scheduled Instances work

To start using AWS Scheduled Instances, first, check for available scheduled instances by checking across multiple pools or a single pool, and purchase more if needed.

To launch instances automatically, use a launch configuration that matches the attributes of the schedule purchased: instance type, Availability Zone, network, and platform. Three minutes before the end of the scheduled period, the instances will be terminated so that the capacity is available for any other scheduled instances it is reserved for.

Use cases

1. A logistics firm optimizes routes and shipments on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings.

2. A gaming studio performs detailed, compute-intensive 3D rendering every night.

3. A telecommunication provider runs multi-day bill calculations at the start of each month.

Add customized tags to individual scheduled instances, and track the cost using CloudSpend.