Any AWS experts here that want to make a few $$$ ?

See the difference? It's a t class and a micro...although still an old generation.
Start with changing your more expensive to an m5a.large and then check performance after a few days/week. If the thing is twiddling its thumbs, then you can look at changing to a m5a.medium or change class to a t3a.

You do have to shut the instance down to do change type, so find a couple minutes in the evening when you are fine with it being off. But we're talking literally a minute or two is all.

Your m3.large is ~.25/hour, the m5a.large will be ~.18/hour.

 

Dude, that is above my pay grade.

So changing the instance type is just like changing clock speed? That's it?

 

No, for this one it is just the generation. It will be the same cpu/ram specs. Just the latest generation and their new AMD chip hardware, which we have found has zero difference in performance. So why not save the money?

Right click that instance, go to instance state, and stop. Once it is stopped, right click the instance, instance settings and change instance type. Change to the new type, then right click, instance state and start.
Super easy.

 

I think I can do that

What's the next cheapest after m5a.large?

From my illogical mind, if I'm paying $45 for the cheap one, I'd like to get the spendy one down to $175-$200, since it serves about 4X-5X customers of cheap one.

 

You can stay in the m5a class and go to .medium or .small.
Totally depends on the current server usage, but I would be surprised if you need a .large over a . medium.
You could also bump to the t3a class and go .medium or .large.

 

OK, awesome thanks. I'll try M5.medium in a few hours after I've had a few glasses of wine.

Should I do a before/after performance test? Is there one you recommend? I found this one with a quick search: https://www.dotcom-tools.com/web-server-performance-test.aspx

 

Where's that Venom guy, isn't he some kind of computer guru ?

 

You can use an external test if you'd like, or just look at the stats in AWS itself. Again, depends on the workload. If it's a webserver, the external test would be a good benchmark to have.
Do the m5a.medium. less expensive than m5.medium.

 

Welp, I gave it a try, but I don't see the .medium or any M5A options in the available list, so I ended up going from M3.Large to M3.Medium

Here's what I see as available:

 

Sorry, I meant . medium in the class of instance. So yes, m5.medium.
But it is very strange you don't see the m5.medium or m5a.medium.
You are in Oregon,and I know they are available there as both my personal account and our company accounts have them.
The m3.medium will be less expensive than the m3.large, but the m5.large may be less than the m3.medium. Just let it run as is for a few days, put in a service ticket asking if you can have the m5a types.

 

Beautiful, thanks. Speed seems fine on the m3.medium so far. I opened a ticket on adding the others.