Is it possible to duplicate an AWS EC2 instance without any downtime?

Question

I've got an AWS EC2 instance that I would like to create a spin-off of in order to do some testing. I know I can create an AMI of the running instance, then launch that. But when I create the AMI, the machine goes down for a couple of minutes (at least the network connection).

Is there a setting somewhere that I am missing?

I generate the AMI by right-clicking the machine in the management console and selecting "Create AMI"

Answer 1

There is a "no reboot" option while creating an AMI. It is not the default setting, you will have to switch it on. For more information, check out this official AWS documentation to learn how to create an AMI with the reboot option.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/creating-an-ami-ebs.html