| « PreviousNext » | |
   | Did this page help you? Yes | No | Tell us about it... |
Importing EC2 Instances
Topics
There are two ways you can launch an instance in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). You can launch an instance from an AMI that you created or selected from a catalog. Or, you can launch an instance from a virtual machine (VM) that you imported from a Citrix Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware Workstation, or VMware vSphere virtualization environment. This section covers using VMs from Citrix, Microsoft, or VMware to launch instances.
To use your virtual machine as an instance in Amazon EC2, you must first export it from the virtualization environment using its tools. Then you import it to Amazon EC2 using the Amazon EC2 command line or API tools.
If you are importing a VMware vSphere VM, you can also use the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware (Connector), a plug-in that integrates with VMware vSphere Client, to perform the task.
Whether you use the command line tools, the API, or the Connector, you will follow the same general process for importing VMs or volumes to Amazon EC2. You need to complete these tasks, which are all discussed in this section:
Prepare the virtual machine for import to Amazon EC2. For more information, go to Before You Get Started
Export the virtual machine from the virtualization environment.
Import the virtual machine to Amazon EC2.
For information about using the command line tools to import your VM, see Using the Command Line Tools to Import Your Virtual Machine to Amazon EC2. For information about using the Connector, see Using the Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector to Import Your Virtual Machine to Amazon EC2.
Upload the instance to Amazon EC2.
Launch the instance in Amazon EC2.
Components in Your VM Environment
The table in this section describes the typical components in your VM environment.
| Component | Description | Product Name |
|---|---|---|
|
Virtualization product |
Virtualization service for managing virtual computing infrastructure |
Citrix Xen Microsoft Hyper-V VMware Workstation VMware vSphere (vSphere) |
|
Client |
The software you need on your computer to access and manage your virtualization environment |
Citrix Xen Center Microsoft Hyper-V Manager VMware Workstation VMware vSphere Client |
|
Server |
The management platform for the virtualization environment |
Citrix XenServer Microsoft Hyper-V VMware vCenter Server |
|
Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware (Connector) |
The virtual appliance, a plug-in to the management platform of the virtualization Server, that enables the import of virtual machines into Amazon EC2 using the Client interface |
Citrix Xen (not applicable) Microsoft Hyper-V (not applicable) VMware vCenter—Amazon EC2 VM Import Connector for VMware vCenter (Connector) |
