Amazon EBS Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR) is now available for shared EBS Snapshots

Posted on: Jul 21, 2020

Starting today, you can enable Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR) on shared snapshots.

Launched on 11/20/19, FSR eliminates the need for pre-warming data into volumes, and ensures that EBS volumes restored from FSR-enabled snapshots instantly receive full provisioned performance. While earlier you could enable FSR only for snapshots you owned, you can now enable FSR for public and private snapshots shared with you. This feature eliminates the need for you to copy snapshots from other accounts into your account to enable FSR, resulting in cost savings and simplified workflow. The improved agility benefits use cases where a central account shares snapshots with you, such as for booting from custom AMIs, and restoring volumes for Disaster Recovery (DR).  

You can enable FSR for shared snapshots using the same set of API calls that you use for enabling FSR on snapshots you own. When you enable FSR on your shared snapshot, you will be billed at standard FSR rates (see pricing pages). When the owner of the snapshot deletes the snapshot or disables permissions, the FSR for your shared snapshot is disabled automatically and FSR billing for the snapshot is terminated. 

To learn more, see the technical documentation on FSR. This feature is now available through the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS SDKs, or the AWS console in all AWS commercial regions.