AMI | Create

Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) based on an existing standalone EC2 instance in your AMS account. The instance must be in the stopped state before running this change type.

Full classification: Deployment | Advanced stack components | AMI | Create

Change Type Details

Change type ID	ct-3rqqu43krekby
Current version	2.0
Expected execution duration	360 minutes
AWS approval	Required
Customer approval	Not required
Execution mode	Automated

Additional Information

Create an AMI

Creating an AMI with the console

The following shows this change type in the AMS console.

Important

Before you begin, prepare the EC2 instance that you will use to create the AMI. Without proper preparation, the create AMI RFC is likely to be rejected or fail. For information about preparing your instance to successfully create an AMI, see the instructions included in this tutorial.

How it works:

1. Navigate to the Create RFC page: In the left navigation pane of the AMS console click RFCs to open the RFCs list page, and then click Create RFC.

2. Choose a popular change type (CT) in the default Browse change types view, or select a CT in the Choose by category view.

   • Browse by change type: You can click on a popular CT in the Quick create area to immediately open the Run RFC page. Note that you cannot choose an older CT version with quick create.

     To sort CTs, use the All change types area in either the Card or Table view. In either view, select a CT and then click Create RFC to open the Run RFC page. If applicable, a Create with older version option appears next to the Create RFC button.

   • Choose by category: Select a category, subcategory, item, and operation and the CT details box opens with an option to Create with older version if applicable. Click Create RFC to open the Run RFC page.

3. On the Run RFC page, open the CT name area to see the CT details box. A Subject is required (this is filled in for you if you choose your CT in the Browse change types view). Open the Additional configuration area to add information about the RFC.

   In the Execution configuration area, use available drop-down lists or enter values for the required parameters. To configure optional execution parameters, open the Additional configuration area.

4. When finished, click Run. If there are no errors, the RFC successfully created page displays with the submitted RFC details, and the initial Run output.

5. Open the Run parameters area to see the configurations you submitted. Refresh the page to update the RFC execution status. Optionally, cancel the RFC or create a copy of it with the options at the top of the page.

Creating an AMI with the CLI

How it works:

1. Use either the Inline Create (you issue a create-rfc command with all RFC and execution parameters included), or Template Create (you create two JSON files, one for the RFC parameters and one for the execution parameters) and issue the create-rfc command with the two files as input. Both methods are described here.

2. Submit the RFC: aws amscm submit-rfc --rfc-id ID command with the returned RFC ID.

   Monitor the RFC: aws amscm get-rfc --rfc-id ID command.

To check the change type version, use this command:

aws amscm list-change-type-version-summaries --filter Attribute=ChangeTypeId,Value=CT_ID

Note

You can use any CreateRfc parameters with any RFC whether or not they are part of the schema for the change type. For example, to get notifications when the RFC status changes, add this line, --notification "{\"Email\": {\"EmailRecipients\" : [\"[e-mail]\"]}}" to the RFC parameters part of the request (not the execution parameters). For a list of all CreateRfc parameters, see the AMS Change Management API Reference.

INLINE CREATE:

Issue the create RFC command with execution parameters provided inline (escape quotation marks when providing execution parameters inline), and then submit the returned RFC ID. For example, you can replace the contents with something like this:

aws --profile saml --region us-east-1 amscm create-rfc --change-type-id "ct-3rqqu43krekby" --change-type-version "2.0" --title "AMI-Create-IC" --execution-parameters "{\"AMIName\":\"MyAmi\",\"VpcId\":\"VPC_ID\",\"EC2InstanceId\":\"INSTANCE_ID\"}"

TEMPLATE CREATE:

1. Output the execution parameters JSON schema for this change type to a file; this example names it CreateAmiParams.json:

   aws amscm get-change-type-version --change-type-id "ct-3rqqu43krekby" --query "ChangeTypeVersion.ExecutionInputSchema" --output text > CreateAmiParams.json

2. Modify and save the execution parameters CreateAmiParams.json file. For example, you can replace the contents with something like this:

   {
   "AMIName":          "My-AMI",
   "InstanceId":    "EC2_INSTANCE_ID"
   }

3. Output the RFC template JSON file to a file in your current folder; this example names it CreateAmiRfc.json:

   aws amscm create-rfc --generate-cli-skeleton > CreateAmiRfc.json

4. Modify and save the CreateAmiRfc.json file. For example, you can replace the contents with something like this:

   {
   "ChangeTypeId":         "ct-3rqqu43krekby",
   "ChangeTypeVersion":    "2.0",
   "Title":                "AMI-Create-RFC"
   }

5. Create the RFC, specifying the CreateAmiRfc file and the CreateAmiParams file:

   aws amscm create-rfc --cli-input-json file://CreateAmiRfc.json  --execution-parameters file://CreateAmiParams.json

   You receive the ID of the new RFC in the response and can use it to submit and monitor the RFC. Until you submit it, the RFC remains in the editing state and does not start.

Tips

Note

After you have created a custom AMI, you can submit a service request to AMS to have your existing EC2 Auto Scaling group use the new AMI. For information about creating a service request, see Service Request Examples.

Important

Before you begin, prepare the EC2 instance that you will use to create the AMI. Without proper preparation, the create AMI RFC is likely to be rejected or fail.

To avoid authentication issues from instances created from the new AMI, run these system commands on the instance after applying custom changes, and prior to calling the Create AMI CT.

Important

If the specified instance isn't stopped and separated from its current domain, the AMI creation RFC fails. Prepare the instance as described.

For more information, see Create a Standard Amazon Machine Image Using Sysprep.

You can subscribe to an AMS SNS AMI notification topic to receive an alert whenever new AMS AMIs of interest to you are deployed. For more information, see AMS AMI Notification Service.

Linux Preparation for AMI Create

Download and run the following script to prepare your instance for AMI creation. You must run this script as the root user.

curl https://amazon-ams-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/latest/linux/prepare_instance_for_ami_and_shutdown.sh -o ./prepare_instance_for_ami_and_shutdown.sh
chmod 744 prepare_instance_for_ami_and_shutdown.sh
./prepare_instance_for_ami_and_shutdown.sh

Note: The preceding script performs a shut down on the instance and connected users are logged out from the session.

Windows Preparation for AMI Create

Windows Powershell (run as Administrator):

Invoke-AMSSysprep

The instance is stopped and any connected user is logged out from the current Windows RDP session.

For more info on creating AWS Windows AMIs, see Create a custom Windows AMI.

UserData for AMI Create

If you need user data to be executed on the next boot from your AMI, ensure the following:

• Registry Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Amazon\ManagedServices\RunUserDataViaAMSBootModule is present; if that key is not present, user data will not be run next time.

• To enable user data to be run on next boot:

  1. Start a Windows PowerShell under administrator privilege (run as administrator)

  2. Run the following command:

     Install-AMSDependencies

For information about failed AMI Create RFCs, see RFC failure troubleshooting.

Execution Input Parameters

For detailed information about the execution input parameters, see Schema for Change Type ct-3rqqu43krekby.

Example: Required Parameters

{
  "InstanceId": "i-01234567890abcdef",
  "AmiName": "MyAMI"
}

Example: All Parameters

{
  "InstanceId": "i-12345678",
  "AmiName": "MyAMI",
  "AmiTags": [
    {
      "Key": "foo",
      "Value": "bar"
    },
    {
      "Key": "testkey",
      "Value": "testvalue"
    }
  ]
}