Use one of the following methods to stop and start an instance.

To pause an instance, run the following command: $ nova pause INSTANCE_NAME This command stores the state of the VM in RAM. A paused instance continues to run in a frozen state. To unpause the instance, run the following command: $ nova unpause INSTANCE_NAME

Administrative users might want to suspend an instance if it is infrequently used or to perform system maintenance. When you suspend an instance, its VM state is stored on disk, all memory is written to disk, and the virtual machine is stopped. Suspending an instance is similar to placing a device in hibernation; memory and vCPUs become available to create other instances. To initiate a hypervisor-level suspend operation, run the following command: $ nova suspend INSTANCE_NAME To resume a suspended instance, run the following command: $ nova resume INSTANCE_NAME