Resolution
----------

If CloudWatch determines that an EC2 instance uses instance store volumes, then the option to recover the instance is grayed out and unavailable. The recover alarm action doesn't support EC2 instances that have instance store volumes.

**Note:** You can't recover instance store volume data, but you can [back up instance store volume data](https://repost.aws/knowledge-center/back-up-instance-store-ebs).

For more information about instance store volumes, CloudWatch alarms for EC2 instances, and instance recovery, see the following documentation.

### Amazon EC2 Linux instance store volumes

[Instance store volumes](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instance-store-volumes.html)

[Block device mappings](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/block-device-mapping-concepts.html)

[Create alarms that stop, terminate, reboot, or recover an instance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/UsingAlarmActions.html)

[Amazon CloudWatch action based recovery](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-instance-recover.html#cloudwatch-recovery)

[Retrieve instance metadata](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/instancedata-data-retrieval.html)

### Amazon EC2 Windows instance store volumes

[Instance store volumes](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/instance-store-volumes.html)

[Block device mappings](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/block-device-mapping-concepts.html)

[Create alarms that stop, terminate, reboot, or recover an instance](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/UsingAlarmActions.html)

[Amazon CloudWatch action based recovery](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/ec2-instance-recover.html#cloudwatch-recovery)

[Retrieve instance metadata](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/instancedata-data-retrieval.html)

**Important:** Make sure that your instances meet all the prerequisites to create a CloudWatch alarm.

Related information
-------------------

[Using Amazon CloudWatch alarms](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html)

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Resolution

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