Learn how to shelve, pause, or suspend your instance.
As part of the configuration of a high-availability infrastructure, you may encounter the need to cut access to your instances to perform different tests. OpenStack allows you to suspend, stop, or pause your instance. In each case, your IP is maintained.
NOTE: The naming of these options in the OVHcloud Control Panel is different from the naming in OpenStack/Horizon. If you are doing this via the OVHcloud Control Panel, make sure you select the right option.
Requirements
- An OVHcloud Public Cloud instance on hourly billing
- Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel or Horizon interface
- Knowledge of OpenStack API and OpenStack variables
Instructions
WARNING: You will be billed for an instance as long as it is not deleted.
The table below allows you to differentiate the options available on your instances. Continue reading this guide by clicking on the option of your choice. The terminology used in the Horizon interface is in parentheses.
| Term | Description | Billing |
| Suspend (shelve) | Retains the resources and data in your disk by creating a snapshot; all other resources are released. | You are only billed for the snapshot. |
| Stop (suspend) | Stores the VM state on disk, the resources dedicated to the instance are still reserved. | You will still be billed the same price for your instance. |
| Pause | Stores the state of the VM in RAM, a paused instance becomes frozen. | You will be billed the same price for your instance. |
Suspend (shelve) an instance
WARNING: Suspending a T2-180 instance will result in the loss of data on the NVMe passthrough drives.
Suspending this type of instance leads to its decommissioning from the host and, therefore, from the disks in passthrough.
This option will allow you to release the resources dedicated to your Public Cloud instance, but the IP address will remain. The data on your local disk will be stored in a snapshot automatically created once the instance is shelved. Data stored in the memory and elsewhere will not be retained.
In the OVHcloud Control Panel, select your project from the Public Cloud section. Click on Instances in the left side menu.
Click on the more options ... button to the right of the instance you want to suspend, then click on Suspend.
In the pop-up window, take note of the message and click on Confirm.
Once the process is completed, your instance will now appear as Suspended.
To view the snapshot, go to the left side menu and click on Instance Backup. A snapshot named xxxxx-shelved will now be visible:
To proceed, you need to configure user access to Horizon and log in to the Horizon interface.
If you have deployed instances in different regions, make sure you are in the correct region. You can verify this on the top left corner in the Horizon interface.
Click on the Compute menu on the left side and select Instances. Select Shelve Instance in the drop list for the corresponding instance.
Once the process is completed, your instance will now appear as Shelved Offloaded.
To view the snapshot, in the Compute menu, click on Images.
Before proceeding, it is recommended that you consult these guides:
Once your environment is ready, type the following at the command line:
Reactivate (unshelve) an instance
This option will allow you to re-up your instance so that you can continue using it. Please note that once this is done, the regular billing will resume.
WARNING: Any actions on the snapshot other than unshelve can be very dangerous for your infrastructure in case of misuse. Once you unshelve an instance, the snapshot is automatically deleted. It is not recommended to deploy a new instance from any snapshot created as a result of shelving (suspending) an instance.
In the OVHcloud Control Panel, select your project from the Public Cloud section and click on Instances in the left side menu.
Click on the more options ... button to the right of the instance, then click on Reactivate.
In the pop-up window, take note of the message and click on Confirm.
Once the process is completed, your instance will now appear as Activated.
In the Horizon interface, click on the Compute menu on the left and then select Instances. Select Unshelve Instance in the drop list for the corresponding instance.
Once the process is completed, your instance will now appear as Active.
Once your environment is ready, type the following at the command line:
Stop (suspend) an instance
This option will allow you to shut down your instance and store the VM state on disk, the memory will be written to the disk as well.
In the OVHcloud Control Panel, select your project from the Public Cloud section and click on Instances in the left side menu.
Click on the more options ... button to the right of the instance you want to stop, then click on Stop.
In the pop-up window, take note of the message and click on Confirm.
Once the process is completed, your instance will now appear as Off.
To resume the instance, perform the same steps as mentioned above. Click on the more options ... button to the right of the instance and select Boot. In some cases, you might need to do a cold reboot.
In the Horizon interface, click on the Compute menu on the left and then select Instances. Select Suspend Instance in the drop list for the corresponding instance.
The confirmation message will appear, indicating that the instance has been suspended.
To unsuspend the instance, perform the same steps as mentioned above. In the drop list for the corresponding instance, select Resume Instance.
Once your environment is ready, type the following at the command line:
To unsuspend the instance, type the following at the command line:
Pause an instance
This action is only possible in the Horizon interface or via the OpenStack/Nova API. It allows you to freeze your instance.
In the Horizon interface, click on the Compute menu on the left and then select Instances. Select Pause Instance in the drop list for the corresponding instance.
The confirmation message will appear, indicating that the instance has been paused.
To unpause the instance, perform the same steps as mentioned above. In the drop list for the corresponding instance, select Resume Instance.
Once your environment is ready, type the following at the command line:
To unpause the instance, type the following at the command line:
Go further
For more information and tutorials, please see our other Public Cloud support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.