Launch an instance

You can launch an instance in UEFI or Legacy BIOS boot mode.

Limitations

UEFI boot is not supported in Local Zones, Wavelength Zones, or with AWS Outposts.

Considerations

Consider the following when launching an instance:

• Default boot modes:

  • Graviton instance types: UEFI

  • Intel and AMD instance types: Legacy BIOS

• Intel and AMD instance types that support UEFI, in addition to Legacy BIOS:

  • All instances built on the AWS Nitro System, except: bare metal instances, DL1, G4ad, P4, u-3tb1, u-6tb1, u-9tb1, u-12tb1, and VT1

   

  To see the available instance types that support UEFI in a specific Region

  The available instance types vary by Region. To see the available instance types that support UEFI in a Region, use the describe-instance-types command with the --region parameter. Include the --filters parameter to scope the results to the instance types that support UEFI and the --query parameter to scope the output to the value of InstanceType.

  aws ec2 describe-instance-types --filters Name=supported-boot-mode,Values=uefi --query "InstanceTypes[*].[InstanceType]" --output text | sort

  Example output

  a1.2xlarge
  a1.4xlarge
  a1.large
  a1.medium
  ...

   

  To see the available instance types that support UEFI Secure Boot and persist non-volatile variables in a specific Region

  Currently, bare metal instances do not support UEFI Secure Boot and non-volatile variables. Use the describe-instance-types command as described in the preceding example, but filter out the bare metal instances by including the Name=hypervisor,Values=nitro filter. For information about UEFI Secure Boot, see UEFI Secure Boot.

  aws ec2 describe-instance-types --filters Name=supported-boot-mode,Values=uefi Name=hypervisor,Values=nitro --query "InstanceTypes[*].[InstanceType]" --output text | sort

Requirements for launching an instance with UEFI

To launch an instance in UEFI mode, you must select an instance type that supports UEFI, and configure the AMI and the operating system for UEFI, as follows:

Instance type

When launching an instance, you must select an instance type that supports UEFI. For more information, see Determine the supported boot modes of an instance type.

AMI

When launching an instance, you must select an AMI that is configured for UEFI. The AMI must be configured as follows:

• Operating system – The operating system contained in the AMI must be configured to use UEFI; otherwise, the instance launch will fail. For more information, see Determine the boot mode of the operating system.

• AMI boot mode parameter – The boot mode parameter of the AMI must be set to uefi. For more information, see Determine the boot mode parameter of an AMI.

AWS only provides Linux AMIs configured to support UEFI for Graviton-based instance types. To use Linux on other UEFI instance types, you must configure the AMI, import the AMI through VM Import/Export, or import the AMI through CloudEndure.