Snapshots of Root Device Volumes

• To create a snapshot for Amazon EBS volumes that serve as root devices, you should stop the instance before taking the snapshot.

Volumes vs Snapshots - Security

• Snapshots of encrypted volumes are encrypted automatically.
• Volumes restored from encrypted snapshots are encrypted automatically.
• You can share snapshots, but only if they are unencrypted.
• These snapshots can be shared with other AWS accounts or made public.