title: Upgrading amazon EC2 m1.large instance to m3.large with mongodb installed
body: <p>If I were to upgrade an amazon instance, I'd create a snapshot of the image and create the new instance from this image and then upgrade that instance.</p>
  
  <p>My question(s) is related to mongodb and the best way upgrade from a m1.large to a m3.large instance - basically m3's are cheaper and more powerful than the old m1's.</p>
  
  <p>I currently have mongodb running on the m1.large instance backed by 3 EBS Volumes for storage, journalling and logs (essentially the mongodb image config from the MarketPlace).</p>
  
  <p>When i've gone through to setup the new m3.large instance, I noticed that it's not EBS Optimized.</p>
  
  <p>Working with mongodb and the current config, I assume for optimal performance, it's desirable to go the EBS Optimized route - if that's the case, the best upgrade path is to go for m3.xlarge? Would I hit a big performance penalty if I went with a m3.large?</p>
  
  <p>And lastly....after taking a snapshot of an image (specifically an image backed with EBS Volumes), does the new image take that same config setup? I.E The new image will be backed by the same volumes?</p>
  
  <p>I know I can stop and start the current instance, but I want to minimise any downtime.</p>
  
  <p>Any help appreciated! </p>