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Accepted
Tim
Asked: 2016-02-14 00:59:31 +0800 CST

Can't delete AWS snapshot - refers to instance ID that doesn't exist

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I have a snapshot in AWS Oregon I can't deleted. When I try it says 

Snapshot is in use by AMI ami-d2d83cxx

I've checked every region, I have no instance with that ID. I used to run in the Sydney region, now I use Oregon. I only have one instance running anywhere, plus an RDS instance.

The description of the snapshot is

Copied for DestinationAmi ami-d2d83xx from SourceAmi ami-55cfbbxx
for SourceSnapshot snap-3bf220xx. Task created on 1,453,573,325,838.

When I click the volume link it goes to the volume page but there's no volume with that ID.

My best guess is AWS console has gotten confused. I did create the odd AMI for performance testing, but those AMIs were private and I only used them for a short time. I also moved things from Sydney to Oregan.

How do I delete this snapshot? It'll be costing me money. Not much money, but some.

amazon-ec2

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    This snapshot is not associated with an EC2 instance.

    It is associated with an AMI image as mentioned in the error message.

    AMI images that are EBS-backed have associated EBS snapshots. These associated snapshots cannot be deleted until you deregister the AMI image.

    The snapshot you are trying to delete is such a snapshot.

    If you want to delete this snapshot, then you need to deregister the AMI image first. Once that has been done, you can delete the snapshot.

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  2. Once the AMI is deleted (available under IMAGES->AMIs) then, the snapshot can be easily deleted.

    Note: AMI deleted means selecting the 'de-register' option under AMI Actions.

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