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Amazon EC2 – Spot Instance Requests

  • Up to 90% cheaper than On-Demand.
  • Set a max spot price; instance runs while current spot price < max.
  • If price exceeds max, instance is stopped or terminated (2 min notice).
Spot Block:
  • Reserve Spot Instances for 1–6 hours without interruptions (rarely reclaimed).
Best for: Batch jobs, data analysis, fault-tolerant workloads.
Not for: Critical workloads or databases.

Spot Request Parameters

  • Max price
  • Desired number of instances
  • Launch specification
  • Request type: one-time or persistent
  • Valid from / Valid until

Lifecycle

  1. Create request → status = open
  1. Open → can become active, failed, or cancelled
  1. Active:
      • Persistent → may become disabled
      • One-time → may become closed
  1. Cancelled = end state
Important:
  • Can cancel only if open, active, or disabled.
  • Cancelling request does not terminate instances.
  • To fully stop usage: cancel request first, then terminate instances.