Create an Amazon EBS-backed AMI

You can create your own Amazon EBS-backed AMI from an Amazon EC2 instance or from a snapshot of the root device of an Amazon EC2 instance.

To create an Amazon EBS-backed AMI from an instance, start by launching an instance using an existing Amazon EBS-backed AMI. This AMI can be one you obtained from the AWS Marketplace, created using VM Import/Export, or any other AMI that you can access. After customizing the instance to meet your specific requirements, create and register a new AMI. You can then use the new AMI to launch new instances with your customizations.

The procedures described below work for Amazon EC2 instances backed by encrypted Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes (including the root volume) as well as for unencrypted volumes.

The AMI creation process is different for instance store-backed AMIs. For more information, see Create an instance store-backed AMI.

Overview of AMI creation from an instance

The following diagram summarizes the process for creating an Amazon EBS-backed AMI from a running EC2 instance: Start with an existing AMI, launch an instance, customize it, create a new AMI from it, and finally launch an instance of your new AMI. The numbers in the diagram match the numbers in the description that follows.

1 – AMI #1: Start with an existing AMI

Find an existing AMI that is similar to the AMI that you'd like to create. This can be an AMI you have obtained from the AWS Marketplace, an AMI that you have created using VM Import/Export, or any other AMI that you can access. You'll customize this AMI for your needs.

In the diagram, EBS root volume snapshot #1 indicates that the AMI is an Amazon EBS-backed AMI and that information about the root volume is stored in this snapshot.

2 – Launch instance from existing AMI

The way to configure an AMI is to launch an instance from the AMI on which you'd like to base your new AMI, and then customize the instance (indicated at 3 in the diagram). Then, you'll create a new AMI that includes the customizations (indicated at 4 in the diagram).

3 – EC2 instance #1: Customize the instance

Connect to your instance and customize it for your needs. Your new AMI will include these customizations.

You can perform any of the following actions on your instance to customize it:

• Install software and applications

• Copy data

• Reduce start time by deleting temporary files and defragmenting your hard drive

• Attach additional EBS volumes

4 – Create image

When you create an AMI from an instance, Amazon EC2 powers down the instance before creating the AMI to ensure that everything on the instance is stopped and in a consistent state during the creation process. If you're confident that your instance is in a consistent state appropriate for AMI creation, you can tell Amazon EC2 not to power down and reboot the instance. Some file systems, such as XFS, can freeze and unfreeze activity, making it safe to create the image without rebooting the instance.

During the AMI-creation process, Amazon EC2 creates snapshots of your instance's root volume and any other EBS volumes attached to your instance. You're charged for the snapshots until you deregister the AMI and delete the snapshots. If any volumes attached to the instance are encrypted, the new AMI only launches successfully on instances that support Amazon EBS encryption.

Depending on the size of the volumes, it can take several minutes for the AMI-creation process to complete (sometimes up to 24 hours). You might find it more efficient to create snapshots of your volumes before creating your AMI. This way, only small, incremental snapshots need to be created when the AMI is created, and the process completes more quickly (the total time for snapshot creation remains the same).

5 – AMI #2: New AMI

After the process completes, you have a new AMI and snapshot (snapshot #2) created from the root volume of the instance. If you added instance-store volumes or EBS volumes to the instance, in addition to the root device volume, the block device mapping for the new AMI contains information for these volumes.

Amazon EC2 automatically registers the AMI for you.

6 – Launch instance from new AMI

You can use the new AMI to launch an instance.

7 – EC2 instance #2: New instance

When you launch an instance using the new AMI, Amazon EC2 creates a new EBS volume for the instance's root volume using the snapshot. If you added instance-store volumes or EBS volumes when you customized the instance, the block device mapping for the new AMI contains information for these volumes, and the block device mappings for instances that you launch from the new AMI automatically contain information for these volumes. The instance-store volumes specified in the block device mapping for the new instance are new and don't contain any data from the instance store volumes of the instance you used to create the AMI. The data on EBS volumes persists. For more information, see Block device mappings for volumes on Amazon EC2 instances.

When you create a new instance from an EBS-backed AMI, you should initialize both its root volume and any additional EBS storage before putting it into production. For more information, see Initialize Amazon EBS volumes in the Amazon EBS User Guide.

Create an AMI from an instance

If you have an existing instance, you can create an AMI from this instance.

Console

To create an AMI

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Instances.

3. Select the instance from which to create the AMI, and then choose Actions, Image and templates, Create image.

   Tip

   If this option is disabled, your instance isn't an Amazon EBS-backed instance.

4. On the Create image page, specify the following information:

   1. For Image name, enter a unique name for the image, up to 127 characters.

   2. For Image description, enter an optional description of the image, up to 255 characters.

   3. For Reboot instance, either keep the checkbox selected (the default), or clear it.

      • If Reboot instance is selected, when Amazon EC2 creates the new AMI, it reboots the instance so that it can take snapshots of the attached volumes while data is at rest, in order to ensure a consistent state.

      • If Reboot instance is cleared, when Amazon EC2 creates the new AMI, it does not shut down and reboot the instance.

      Warning

      If you clear Reboot instance, we can't guarantee the file system integrity of the created image.

   4. Instance volumes – You can modify the root volume, and add additional Amazon EBS and instance store volumes, as follows:

      1. The root volume is defined in the first row.

         • To change the size of the root volume, for Size, enter the required value.

         • If you select Delete on termination, when you terminate the instance created from this AMI, the EBS volume is deleted. If you clear Delete on termination, when you terminate the instance, the EBS volume is not deleted. For more information, see Preserve data when an instance is terminated.

      2. To add an EBS volume, choose Add volume (which adds a new row). For Storage type, choose EBS, and fill in the fields in the row. When you launch an instance from your new AMI, additional volumes are automatically attached to the instance. Empty volumes must be formatted and mounted. Volumes based on a snapshot must be mounted.

      3. To add an instance store volume, see Add instance store volumes to an Amazon EC2 AMI. When you launch an instance from your new AMI, additional volumes are automatically initialized and mounted. These volumes do not contain data from the instance store volumes of the running instance on which you based your AMI.

   5. Tags – You can tag the AMI and the snapshots with the same tags, or you can tag them with different tags.

      • To tag the AMI and the snapshots with the same tags, choose Tag image and snapshots together. The same tags are applied to the AMI and every snapshot that is created.

      • To tag the AMI and the snapshots with different tags, choose Tag image and snapshots separately. Different tags are applied to the AMI and the snapshots that are created. However, all the snapshots get the same tags; you can't tag each snapshot with a different tag.

      To add a tag, choose Add tag, and enter the key and value for the tag. Repeat for each tag.

   6. When you're ready to create your AMI, choose Create image.

5. To view the status of your AMI while it is being created:

   1. In the navigation pane, choose AMIs.

   2. Set the filter to Owned by me, and find your AMI in the list.

      Initially, the status is pending but should change to available after a few minutes.

6. (Optional) To view the snapshot that was created for the new AMI:

   1. Note the ID of your AMI that you located in the previous step.

   2. In the navigation pane, choose Snapshots.

   3. Set the filter to Owned by me, and then find the snapshot with the new AMI ID in the Description column.

      When you launch an instance from this AMI, Amazon EC2 uses this snapshot to create its root device volume.

AWS CLI

You can use one of the following commands. For more information about these command line interfaces, see Access Amazon EC2.

• create-image (AWS CLI)

• New-EC2Image (AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell)

Create an AMI from a snapshot

If you have a snapshot of the root device volume of an instance, you can create an AMI from this snapshot.

Note

In most cases, AMIs for Windows, RedHat, SUSE, and SQL Server require correct licensing information to be present on the AMI. For more information, see Understand AMI billing information. When creating an AMI from a snapshot, the RegisterImage operation derives the correct billing information from the snapshot's metadata, but this requires the appropriate metadata to be present. To verify if the correct billing information was applied, check the Platform details field on the new AMI. If the field is empty or doesn't match the expected operating system code (for example, Windows, RedHat, SUSE, or SQL), the AMI creation was unsuccessful, and you should discard the AMI and follow the instructions in Create an AMI from an instance.

Console

To create an AMI from a snapshot

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Snapshots.

3. Select the snapshot from which to create the AMI, and then choose Actions, Create image from snapshot.

4. On the Create image from snapshot page, specify the following information:

   1. For Image name, enter a descriptive name for the image.

   2. For Description, enter a brief description for the image.

   3. For Architecture, choose the image architecture. Choose i386 for 32-bit, x86_64 for 64-bit, arm64 for 64-bit ARM, or x86_64 for 64-bit macOS.

   4. For Root device name, enter the device name to use for the root device volume. For more information, see Device names for volumes on Amazon EC2 instances.

   5. For Virtualization type, choose the virtualization type to be used by instances launched from this AMI. For more information, see Virtualization types.

   6. (For paravirtual virtualization only) For Kernel ID, select the operating system kernel for the image. If you're using a snapshot of the root device volume of an instance, select the same kernel ID as the original instance. If you're unsure, use the default kernel.

   7. (For paravirtual virtualization only) For RAM disk ID, select the RAM disk for the image. If you select a specific kernel, you may need to select a specific RAM disk with the drivers to support it.

   8. For Boot mode, choose the boot mode for the image, or choose Use default so that when an instance is launched with this AMI, it boots with the boot mode supported by the instance type. For more information, see Set the boot mode of an Amazon EC2 AMI.

   9. (Optional) Under Block device mappings, customize the root volume and add additional data volumes.

      For each volume, you can specify the size, type, performance characteristics, the behavior of delete on termination, and encryption status. For the root volume, the size can't be smaller than the size of the snapshot. For volume type, General Purpose SSD gp3 is the default selection.

   10. (Optional) Under Tags, you can add one or more tags to the new AMI. To add a tag, choose Add tag, and enter the key and value for the tag. Repeat for each tag.

   11. When you're ready to create your AMI, choose Create image.

5. (Windows, RedHat, SUSE, and SQL Server only) To verify if the correct billing information was applied, check the Platform details field on the new AMI. If the field is empty or doesn't match the expected operating system code (for example, Windows or RedHat), the AMI creation was unsuccessful, and you should discard the AMI and follow the instructions in Create an AMI from an instance.

AWS CLI

To create an AMI from a snapshot using the command line

You can use one of the following commands. For more information about these command line interfaces, see Access Amazon EC2.

• register-image (AWS CLI)

• Register-EC2Image (AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell)