I want to make exact replica of my server in non China region to China region. AWS wont allow AMI copy into china, Is there a way of achieving my goal. ?
Already tried [1], but didn't worked for me. would like to hear if anyone have done [1] successfully.
[1]https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=178941
You can easily transfer or copy your AMI to another region. There has some ways. Most easiest way is to use the Copy AMI options.
Click on your instance -> Create Image .
From AMI lists -> Select your newly created AMI -> Copy AMI -> Select region where you want to take it. After that it will be available in that region after couple mins. Then from that region, you can simply re-create your instance with this AMI. This is simple.
Another way is, if AWS don't allow you to copy your AMI in China region, then you just create another account in China Region and then from your AMI list, just give the permission to your china region AWS account, and it will be available in your china region account and you can re-create instance from there. Though, I never dealt with china region in AWS, but it should work.
Related
Im looking for some advice, this may seem like a silly question but I am having some issues with understanding how AWS EBS autoscaling works and its best practices.
I have a laravel application that is deployed to AWS EBS through bitbucket pipelines. This all works and deploys successfully.
My issue is when the autoscaling triggers it then brings up a new EC2 instance and then load balances the traffic. The problem is that the new EC2 instance in the fleet is a blank AWS Linux2 AMI so just shows the nginx welcome page.
I think the issue is that it's using a blank AMI and not getting my application. I am guessing i could create an image from the EC2 image running my application and then scale with that but i would have to do that every time i do a deployment.
Can you configure the auto scaling group to replicate the running EC2 instance?
Any help or advice as to the best way to accomplish autoscaling with my application would be great.
Its depend on the AMI selected in Launch Configuration..
You need to create AMI of your live EC2 instance after you updated your all required softwares, dbs, configurations and verified(tested) for proper work..
then add this AMI to Auto scale Launch Configuration..
you dont need to create AMI for each deployment..
Whenever you makes changes On Ec2 server , or updates your app source code, you need to create new AMI and need to specify that AMI in Autoscale launch configuration.
best practice is to config the auto scale with a user data script. So when the new AMI boots up during the auto scaling it reads the user data (cloud init/upstart). The user data script can pull the code from the git or what ever source control and run the necessary pre-deployment commands.
I know it is a newbie question but the documentation is really not clear about that.
I have successfully launched a Cluster Instances Amazon Linux AMI 2011.02.1 cc1.4xlarge instance. I need to upload and process a 15 GB text file and I don't know how to activate the "additional" storage.
By default, I have just 8 GB of storage. Can someone help me writing simple and clear instruction on how to activate all the storage (1690 GB) I should have?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Regards,
Eugenio
You should be able to mount your ephemeral drives by following this guide.
Cheers.
It's a very common question and there's a large confusion that everyone has around this when starting to work with AWS EC2.
There are 2 things to have in mind here :
Instance Type
AMI (Amazon Machine Image, basically a disk snapshot with some operating system)
Each AMI has some requirements that will dictate parts of the configuration of your created instance.
Here we're concerned with the Root Device type of an AMI :
EBS-backed AMI
These AMI's only work on instances that have an EBS volume attached. And therefore if you choose an EBS-backed AMI, the wizard will by default add an EBS volume (usually of size 8 GiB) without you noticing, and you'll be charged for this EBS separately in addition to the EC2 hourly charge. In this case when you ssh to your instance you will only find 8 GiBs of storage and not the large storage you're promised when you view the EC2 Pricing table at https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/ . And that is confusing.
If you also want to use your -usually large- instance store with these AMIs, then when you create that instance you have to explicitly add a volume and select Instance Store 0 from Volume Type (in Step 4 - Add Storage). You may have more than 1 drives assigned to your instance type, you need to add all of them in this case (Instance Store 0,1,..etc). These volumes can only be added at creation time. If the volumes were automatically mounted then you'll find them at /media/ephemral*, if not, you'll have to mount them manually.
Instance-Store-backed AMI
Those images use the Instance Storage as their root device (the OS will be installed on the instance store at / ). I think the confusion comes from the fact that these AMI's are not instantly viewable in the Quick Start tab of Step 1 at which you choose the AMI. All AMIs in the Quick Start tab are EBS-backed, and Instance Store AMIs are very uncommon these days, everyone uses EBS-backed AMIs because of their various speed and persistence benefits, and that's recommended by Amazon as well.
If you want an instance-store-backed AMI to avoid dealing with any EBS whatsoever, then in Step 1, choose the tab Community AMIs, and filter them by Root Device Type = Instance Store, then choose your AMI. Whether or not you add Instance Store 0 in Step 4 - Add Storage, the instance store will be available.
Check what Amazon Linux AMI type you're launching the image as. In my experience, if you launch with the "EBS-backed" AMI type, it won't mount the ephemeral storage. If you switch to the "Instance Store" type, it will mount it for you at /media/ephemeral0
http://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/
I understand that when I launch an instance on ec2, that the instance has to be located on a particular data center, and that after launching you can't change that. I also understand that an AMI is created from an instance.
But what I dont understand, is when I launch an instance from an AMI, why can't I specify what region I want it to run on? Seems like it shouldnt matter, once the AMI is created you should be able to launch it in any region. What does the AMI contain that ties it to a region and why?
Kernels. The kernel IDs change across regions (don't ask me why).
Meaning an AMI which specifies a kernel ID to be booted with can only be booted in the region this kernel ID exists.
AMI is region specific because AMI basically contains a software configuration (for example, an operating system, an application server, and applications). From an AMI, you launch an instance, which is a copy of the AMI running as a virtual server in the cloud. And if we consider AMI a global service, it means all AMIs are stored in one place and have access to all regions. For this, it will take more time to pull and then create instances. So if it is available in a region(region-specific), then we can quickly launch instances fast without time delay.
Or is it absolutely necessary to have an EBS backed storage? Does anyone have manuals/Howtos?
I am following the manual given on this site.
You can create an AMI from either an EBS or S3-backed running instance. The simplest way is to use the AWS Management Console to select the instance and click 'Create Image' from the Instance Actions menu.
This will create either an EBS or S3-backed AMI, depending on the type of instance.
Be aware that creating an AMI from a Running instance is inherently potentially unsafe - the storage is not imaged as a hard 'point-in-time' snapshot, so changes to the filesystem whilst the image is being created may not be recorded, and may even result in a compromised image. You should quiesce the OS as far as possible before starting.
Note also that your instance will reboot during the image-creation process, so make sure you're prepared for any temporary loss of service from the VM.
If you bundle a Windows EBS instance while it is running, its Administrator password will be reset by Amazon's rebundling tools - so you'll have to use the EC2 "get Admin password" function with instances launched from the new AMI.
If you stop your Windows instance before rebundling, its Administrator password will remain intact through the rebundling process.
I don't know if this is documented anywhere, but it's certainly been my experience with Windows 2003 instances.
you will to refer the manual for the three commands:
ec2-bundle-vol, ec2-upload-bundle, ec2-register.
Keep at hand your private and certificate key (eg. pk.pem, cert.pem files) and your access and shared key. Download the ec2 ami tools and setup the environment variables for the ec2 ami tools. This site might give you the details on how to bundle the volume, create the images, upload them to S3 and finally register it as your own ami.
http://alestic.com/2009/06/ec2-ami-bundle
It is possible to create an AMI from an EBS running instance using the AWS management console. as mentioned by Eight-Bit Guru by clicking 'Create Image' from the Instance Actions menu.
For the S3 backed instance it is currently not possible without bundling the instance.
If you are using a linux ami then you have two ways as explained in this guide:
Creating an AMI from S3 backed instance - For Linux
For windows based S3 backed instance you can follow other guide
Creating an AMI from S3 backed instance - For Windows
Hope this will help for creating an AMI for S3 backed intances.
I am new to Amazon web services. I need to create a server image with a few software packages pre installed on the EC2 instances.
One option I am considering is to create an EBS volume with these packages and then use them to launch EC2 instances.
The other option I am thinking of is to create a private AMI and then use them to launch the EC2 instances.
I am not sure which option is better.
One other slightly related question I have is can I create a private EBS volume and share it with some other account.
You should create your own AMI, as it's probably more efficient. In order to create an instance, you must specify an AMI. Specifying an EBS snapshot as the root device in addition to specifying the AMI (if this even works, I haven't tested it) would just result in the EC2 cloud launching your instance with the AMI, followed by overwriting it with the EBS snapshot for the root volume.
It's easy enough to keep the AMIs laying around as prototypes.