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JDS
Asked: 2016-04-16 10:59:08 +0800 CST

Ubuntu 14.04 HVM on EC2 t2.medium

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I've searched everywhere but can't find a definitive answer: Is there an official Ubuntu 14.04 AMI for HVM that runs on T2.medium? (Or T2.any, actually)

It looks like the answer is "no".

So the corollary question is: Why not? Why does Canonical limit Ubuntu from running on T2.medium?

Final corollary question: I found a community AMI that runs on T2.medium. Is this my only option? How do the community AMIs differ from the official?

Edit

I still get the experience as I've described, but it is inconsistent and buggy. I'm adding the details here in case it helps someone else. I've taken some screenshots.

  1. Launch via the EC2 web UI, T2.MEDIUM and many other instance sizes are grayed out. I get here via EC2->Instances->Launch Instance (button)->Search for "ubuntu"->Choose "Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS (HVM)"

enter image description here

  1. Launch from Ubuntu Cloud Images directory (https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/locator/), I can choose the same AMI ID by browsing the directory and clicking the AMI ID itself which is linked to the AWS EC2 Launch Instance Wizard.

enter image description here

Note: The AMI ID is the same in both URLs!

ubuntu amazon-ec2 amazon-web-services ubuntu-14.04

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I Google "AWS AMI 14.04", it was the third result. You can find it here. It's also the 4th down on the list when you hit "create instance" in the EC2 control panel - see my images below. As you can see it's actively promoted by Amazon.

    The Amazon Marketplace also has the Ubuntu 16.04 AMI.

    You can run it on any instance size you like. I run a few quiet to moderate websites on a t2.micro (1 core, 1GB RAM) and it uses almost no resources, CPU averages 1% spiking to 20% during backups, but I also use CloudFlare and Nginx caching.

    Update - I now run Nginx, MySQL, and PHP on a t2.nano. It works fine once the MySQL performance schema is disabled and MySQL is tuned for low memory use. I use a 256MB swap file as well.

    EC2 Create Instance Dialog EC2 Instance Size Selection

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  2. Tim's answer is correct.

    There is a Canonical supported Ubuntu 14.04 LTS AMI.

    Here is a link to the marketplace page:

    https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/B00JV9TBA6/ref=srh_res_product_title?ie=UTF8&sr=0-3&qid=1460761528014#support

    Whilst also in quick start if you choose the AWS Marketplace Tab and then type in 'Canonical' you will see the 14.04 HVM AMI in the list there.

    To answer your question about community AMI's versus Marketplace or quick start AMI's - here is the official information from AWS:

    How are these products different than the products I can find in the AWS >Community AMI catalog?

    The AWS Marketplace catalog contains a curated selection of open source >and commercial software from well-known vendors. Many products on AWS >Marketplace can be purchased by the hour.

    The AMI catalog is a community resource where people and development >teams can list and exchange software or projects under development, >without having to go through extensive vetting. Listings in the community >AMI catalog may or may not be from well-known vendors and generally have >not undergone additional investigations.

    https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/help/200777870

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