Finding a Suitable AMI

To find a suitable AMI

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

2. In the navigation pane, click AMIs.

   The console displays any AMIs that you own.

3. To change which AMIs are displayed, select options from the Filter drop-down lists. You can see all the available options by expanding the drop-down lists at the same time. This enables you to list the types of AMIs that interest you. For example, select Public Images then Amazon Images from the drop-down lists to display only Amazon's public images.

4. As you are selecting an AMI, it's important to note whether the AMI is backed by instance store or by Amazon EBS. To verify the type of root device volume that is used by an AMI, check the value in the Root Device Type column (ebs or instance-store).

   For more information about the differences between these AMI types, see Storage for the Root Device.

   Note

   You can also inspect the details of an AMI by clicking the Go to Details Page button (the magnifying glass) for that AMI. This takes you to an information page with the AMI's details, permissions and tags.

5. After locating an AMI that meets your needs, write down its AMI ID, which has the form ami-xxxxxxxx. You can use this ID to launch instances of the AMI or register your own AMI, using this one as a baseline.

To find a suitable AMI

1. Use the ec2-describe-images command to list your AMIs and Amazon's public AMIs.

   PROMPT> ec2-describe-images -o self -o amazon

   The following example shows only part of the resulting output from the command (information for 10 AMIs).

   IMAGE	ami-d8699bb1	amazon/ami-vpc-nat-1.0.0-beta.i386-ebs	amazon	available	public		i386	machine	aki-407d9529			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-33d88c5f	8	
   IMAGE	ami-c6699baf	amazon/ami-vpc-nat-1.0.0-beta.x86_64-ebs	amazon	available	public		x86_64	machine	aki-427d952b			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-57d88c3b	8	
   IMAGE	ami-30f30659	amazon/amzn-ami-0.9.7-beta.i386-ebs	amazon	available	public		i386	machine	aki-407d9529			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-d895cdb3	10	
   IMAGE	ami-0af30663	amazon/amzn-ami-0.9.7-beta.x86_64-ebs	amazon	available	public		x86_64	machine	aki-427d952b			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-f295cd99	10	
   IMAGE	ami-3ac33653	amazon/amzn-ami-0.9.8-beta.i386-ebs	amazon	available	public		i386	machine	aki-407d9529			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-14ba967f	10	
   IMAGE	ami-38c33651	amazon/amzn-ami-0.9.8-beta.x86_64-ebs	amazon	available	public		x86_64	machine	aki-427d952b			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-10b9957b	10	
   IMAGE	ami-08728661	amazon/amzn-ami-0.9.9-beta.i386-ebs	amazon	available	public		i386	machine	aki-407d9529			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-674a930d	10	
   IMAGE	ami-2272864b	amazon/amzn-ami-0.9.9-beta.x86_64-ebs	amazon	available	public		x86_64	machine	aki-427d952b			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-8926ffe3	10	
   IMAGE	ami-76f0061f	amazon/amzn-ami-2010.11.1-beta.i386-ebs	amazon	available	public		i386	machine	aki-407d9529			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-cba692a1	8	
   IMAGE	ami-74f0061d	amazon/amzn-ami-2010.11.1-beta.x86_64-ebs	amazon	available	public		x86_64	machine	aki-427d952b			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-ffa69295	8	
   IMAGE	ami-8c1fece5	amazon/amzn-ami-2011.02.1.i386-ebs	amazon	available	public		i386	machine	aki-407d9529			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-22fc264e	8	
   IMAGE	ami-8e1fece7	amazon/amzn-ami-2011.02.1.x86_64-ebs	amazon	available	public		x86_64	machine	aki-427d952b			ebs	paravirtual	xen
   BLOCKDEVICEMAPPING	/dev/sda1		snap-a6fc26ca	8	
   

2. To reduce the number of displayed AMIs, use a filter to list only the types of AMIs that interest you. For example, use --filter "platform=windows" to display only Windows-based AMIs.

3. After locating an AMI that meets your needs, write down its AMI ID, which has the form ami-xxxxxxxx. You can use this ID to launch instances of the AMI or register your own AMI, using this one as a baseline.

To find a suitable AMI

1. Use the DescribeImages action to list all Amazon AMIs. Construct the following request.

   https://ec2.amazonaws.com/
   ?Action=DescribeImages
   &User.1=amazon
   &AUTHPARAMS

   The following is an example response.

   <DescribeImagesResponse xmlns="http://ec2.amazonaws.com/doc/2013-02-01/">
     <imagesSet>
           <item>
             <imageId>ami-8c1fece5</imageId>
             <imageLocation>amazon/amzn-ami-2011.02.1.i386-ebs</imageLocation>
             <imageState>available</imageState>
             <imageOwnerId>137112412989</imageOwnerId>
             <isPublic>true</isPublic>
             <architecture>i386</architecture>
             <imageType>machine</imageType>
             <kernelId>aki-407d9529</kernelId>
             <imageOwnerAlias>amazon</imageOwnerAlias>
             <name>amzn-ami-2011.02.1.i386-ebs</name>
             <description>Amazon Linux AMI i386 EBS</description>
             <rootDeviceType>ebs</rootDeviceType>
             <rootDeviceName>/dev/sda1</rootDeviceName>
             <blockDeviceMapping>
               <item>
                 <deviceName>/dev/sda1</deviceName>
                 <ebs>
                   <snapshotId>snap-22fc264e</snapshotId>
                   <volumeSize>8</volumeSize>
                   <deleteOnTermination>true</deleteOnTermination>
                 </ebs>
               </item>
             </blockDeviceMapping>
             <virtualizationType>paravirtual</virtualizationType>
             <hypervisor>xen</hypervisor>
           </item>
     </imagesSet>
   
   

2. To reduce the number of displayed AMIs, use a filter to list only the types of AMIs that interest you. For example, use the following to display only Windows-based AMIs.

   &Filter.1.Name=platform
   &Filter.1.Value.1=windows

3. After locating an AMI that meets your needs, write down its AMI ID, which has the form ami-xxxxxxxx. You can use this ID to launch instances of the AMI or register your own AMI, using this one as a baseline.