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AliGibbs
Asked: 2010-11-05 08:21:45 +0800 CST

Convert Amazon AMI to local Xen machine

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I have an AMI which was created from a base AMI on Amazon. I would like to bring a copy of this internally to run for development. I have downloaded the .manifest & part00-50 files (approx 550mb) from my S3 bucket. Unsure how to convert into my local Xencenter however.

I have checked google, and nobody else seems to have tried this as yet. Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks- Alistair

virtualization xen amazon-ec2 virtual-machines

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The .img file, from ec2-unbundle, is the file that typically uses extension .raw on some virtualization platforms - It's just the raw disk contents byte-for-byte.

    Most virtualization software can use this .raw file as the disk - I haven't done much with XEN, but VirtualBox and QEMU will both use it fine - HyperV and Virtual Server will need it converted to VHD format. I would expect XEN to use it.

    A quick google for xen and raw shows this may be the command (but a lot of useless posts came back so not sure):

    disk = [ 'file:/home/xen/ec2image/ec2file.img,hda,w' ]

    NOTE: You will likely have driver issues, you didn't say if this is windows, linux or other. It will likely detect new hardware.

    LICENSES: If this is Windows you are going to have license issues (perhaps not technical but definately legally speaking).

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  2. ec2-unbundle: http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonEC2/dg/2006-10-01/CLTRG-ami-unbundle.html This is a raw disk image which is what Xen uses.

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