Stopping an Instance
There are several ways to stop an instance, and each has different effects:
Pause
This command stores the state of the VM in RAM. A paused instance continues to run in a frozen state.
Resources & Accelerators are NOT released, and billing will continue as normal
Suspend
This command is similar to Pause, but it stores the state of the VM on disk
Not currently supported - Do not use
Shut Off
This simply shuts down an instance.
Resources & Accelerators are NOT released, and billing will continue as normal
After starting the instance again, the instance will be on the same node it started on, and the exact same accelerators will still be attached. No one else can use these accelerators while the instance is shut down.
Shelve
Shelving is useful if you have an instance that you are not using, but would like retain in your list of servers. For example, you can stop an instance at the end of a work week, and resume work again at the start of the next week.
Shelving an instance shuts down the instance and performs a snapshot, from which the instance can be started again.
All associated data is kept; however, anything still in memory is not retained. If a shelved instance is no longer needed, it can also be entirely removed.
Resources & Accelerators are released. Shelving an instance stops billing
After starting the instance again, the instance may be on a different node than it started on. Different accelerators may be attached. Other tenants were free to use the released PCI resources while the instance was shelved.
Delete
Deleting an instance removes it from the list of servers and releases all resources. It removes all data on ephemeral disks and in memory. Other tenants will be free to use the released PCI resources.
Resources & Accelerators are released. Deleting an instance stops billing