Create an AMI from an Amazon EC2 Instance

From the Amazon EC2 Instances view, you can create Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) from either running or stopped instances. For more detailed information about AMIs, see the Amazon Machine Images (AMI) topic in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for Windows Instances.

To create an AMI from an instance

1. Right-click the instance you want to use as the basis for your AMI, and choose Create Image from the context menu.

   

   Create Image context menu

2. In the Create Image dialog box, type a unique name and description, and then choose Create Image. By default, Amazon EC2 shuts down the instance, takes snapshots of any attached volumes, creates and registers the AMI, and then reboots the instance. Choose No rebootif you don't want your instance to be shut down.

   Warning

   If you choose No reboot, we can't guarantee the file system integrity of the created image.

   

   Create Image dialog box

It may take a few minutes for the AMI to be created. After it is created, it will appear in the AMIs view in AWS Explorer. To display this view, double-click the Amazon EC2 | AMIs node in AWS Explorer. To see your AMIs, from the Viewing drop-down list, choose Owned By Me. You may need to choose Refresh to see your AMI. When the AMI first appears, it may be in a pending state, but after a few moments, it transitions to an available state.

List of created AMIs