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Creating and managing instances#

This doc outlines how to create and manage On-Demand Cloud (ODC) instances. For general guidance on managing your ODC instance's system environment, see Managing your system environment.

Viewing instance configuration options#

View available instance types#

To view available instance types, navigate to the Instances page in the Lambda Cloud console and click Launch instance to start the instance creation wizard. The first page of the wizard dialog lists all of the instance types Lambda currently offers.

You can also programmatically view available instance types by using the Lambda Cloud API. For details, see List available instance types in the Lambda Cloud API browser.

View available machine images#

If you'd prefer to use a different machine image than the one Lambda uses by default, you can programmatically view other machine images Lambda offers by using the Lambda Cloud API. For details, see List available images in the Lambda Cloud API browser.

Launching instances#

To launch a new instance, navigate to the Instances page in the Lambda Cloud console, click Launch instance, and then follow the steps in the instance creation wizard.

Note

Instances might take several minutes to launch.

You can also launch instances programmatically by using the Lambda Cloud API. For details, see Launch instances in the Lambda Cloud API browser. In addition to the options provided through the Lambda Cloud console, the API allows you to use a different base image for your instance or set up launch-time configuration using cloud-init.

Viewing instance metadata#

List your instances#

To view a list of your running instances, visit the Instances page in the Lambda Cloud console.

You can also retrieve more detailed information about your instances, including their IDs, private IPs, and attached filesystems, by using the Lambda Cloud API. For details, see List running instances in the Lambda Cloud API browser.

View instance usage#

To view your monthly usage, navigate to the Usage page in the Lambda Cloud console and then click the Instances tab.

Restarting an instance#

To restart one or more instances:

  1. Navigate to the Instances page in the Lambda Cloud console.
  2. In the instance list, click the checkbox for each instance you want to restart.
  3. Click Restart to restart your instances. The Restart button is located on the right side of the page above the instance list.

You can also restart instances programmatically by using the Lambda Cloud API. For details, see Restart instances in the Lambda Cloud API browser.

Important

To use this API endpoint, you need the ID of each instance you want to restart. You can retrieve these instance IDs programmatically by calling the List running instances endpoint in the Lambda Cloud API.

Terminating an instance#

To terminate one or more instances:

  1. Navigate to the Instances page in the Lambda Cloud console.
  2. In the instance list, click the checkbox for each instance you want to restart.
  3. Click Terminate to terminate your instances. The Terminate button is located on the right side of the page above the instance list.

You can also terminate instances programmatically by using the Lambda Cloud API. For details, see Terminate instances in the Lambda Cloud API browser.

Important

To use this API endpoint, you need the ID of each instance you want to terminate. You can retrieve these instance IDs programmatically by calling the List running instances endpoint in the Lambda Cloud API.

Suspending an instance#

At the moment, Lambda Cloud instances can only be launched, restarted, or terminated. To preserve state, we recommend using Docker to containerize your environment and performing regular backups of important data. For detailed guidance, see Importing and exporting data.

Next steps#