How to Copy Amazon EBS Volumes Across AWS Accounts

The update enables engineering teams to refresh test and development environments using live application data while maintaining strict isolation and security boundaries for production infrastructure.

Cross-Account Sharing via AWS Resource Access Manager

To initiate a cross-account volume copy, volume owners must first grant the target AWS account access using AWS Resource Access Manager, a service designed for sharing resources across accounts or within an AWS Organization. According to documentation provided in the announcement, administrators choose the share volume option for the desired EBS volume inside the Amazon EBS console.

Users can add the volume to existing resource shares or build a new resource share through the AWS RAM console. Once shared, a confirmation appears in the volume sharing tab of the volume detail page. The target account must then accept the resource share on the RAM console before the shared volume becomes visible on the EBS volume page of the destination account.

Encryption and Security Configuration Options

The feature supports unencrypted volumes and volumes encrypted with a customer managed key, according to technical details released by AWS. However, volumes encrypted with the default AWS managed key cannot be shared across accounts. When copying a shared volume that uses a customer managed key, that key must also be shared with the target account.

Administrators can specify a different customer managed key to re-encrypt the volume copy within the target account. For programmatic workflows, developers can utilize the AWS MCP Server and associated plugins with preferred AI coding tools to automate sharing and copying tasks, call APIs, and search documentation.

Monitoring, Pricing, and Regional Availability

Operations can be tracked through multiple monitoring channels. According to AWS, users can monitor the SharedVolumeCopyInitiated action via AWS CloudTrail events. Additionally, Amazon EventBridge sends notifications at the start of the copy operation when the state is initializing, and at the completion of the operation when the state changes to completed, supplying the shared volume ID, consuming account ID, and event time.

Regarding cost, initiating a copy incurs a one-time fee based on the volume size, which is billed to the account where the copy resides. AWS notes that sharing volumes through AWS RAM is free, though the newly created volume incurs regular EBS volume charges upon creation. The volume copy must reside in the exact same Availability Zone as the source volume, requiring teams to use Availability Zone IDs to identify identical physical locations across accounts. Cross-account volume clones are available immediately in all AWS Regions that support Amazon EBS Volume Clones.