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Arkaaito
Asked: 2012-10-04 13:08:01 +0800 CST

How can I create an AMI from an existing instance-store EC2 instance?

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(I suspect that this may already be answered somewhere, since it seems like it would be a common operation. But I can't find it, so...)

I am a relative AWS newbie. I have inherited a running Amazon EC2 instance, with various items (Apache, MySQL, Sphinx, ...) installed on it and a bunch of configuration. I'd like to turn it into an AMI that I can spin up other instances from.

I can't find any information on creating a custom AMI on Amazon's site - only the fact that you can, repeatedly referenced, as if to taunt me...

I believe this is not an EBS-backed instance, just an "ordinary" one. I do not know what AMI it was originally created from.

How would I create an AMI that I could use for spinning up other instances which will be identical except for the hostname?

amazon-ec2

2 Answers

  1. Use ec2-ami-tools

    1. ec2-bundle-vol
    2. ec2-upload-bundle
    3. ec2-register

    Check this post for further instructions: http://alestic.com/2009/06/ec2-ami-bundle

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  2. In the console, select your instance and in the Instance Actions dropdown select Create Image (EBS AMI).

    Selecting the instance in the console and viewing the Description pane in the bottom window will provide you with a wealth of information including the zone, type, security rules, base AMI, and other useful information regarding that instance.

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