Is there a way to play an EC2 AMI snapshot locally on a laptop? For example, export the AMI snapshot to VMWare? We have a sales team that need this ability when on the road with no internet connectivity (we currently use VMWare player for this). Thanks.
I believe it is still not possible for an AMI to be exported direct to VMware:
VMWare - Import Amazon EC2 AMI?
However, it is possible to mount the EBS that contains the AMI of interest to a fresh, running instance and then use VMware tools to image it and distribute that to your mobile people: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/188775
Related
I want a Windows 10 x64 Professional hosted on AWS, is that possible? And if so, how might one go about it?
To expound.
I just want a real windows 10 environment hosted remotely with static IP address so i can use it like a personal computer + server for some dev stuffs.
This is likely what you are looking for:
https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/
Amazon WorkSpaces is a managed, secure cloud desktop service. You can
use Amazon WorkSpaces to provision either Windows or Linux desktops in
just a few minutes and quickly scale to provide thousands of desktops
to workers across the globe. You can pay either monthly or hourly,
just for the WorkSpaces you launch, which helps you save money when
compared to traditional desktops and on-premises VDI solutions. Amazon
WorkSpaces helps you eliminate the complexity in managing hardware
inventory, OS versions and patches, and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
(VDI), which helps simplify your desktop delivery strategy. With
Amazon WorkSpaces, your users get a fast, responsive desktop of their
choice that they can access anywhere, anytime, from any supported
device.
and this is how you can give it a static ip:
https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/associate-elastic-ip-workspace/
Edit:
Amazon WorkSpaces now offers bundles that come with a Windows 10
desktop experience, powered by Windows Server 2016. Amazon WorkSpaces
Windows 10 bundles provides you an easy way to move users to a modern
operating system, while also simplifying licensing. Amazon WorkSpaces
continues to offer bundles that come with a Windows 7 desktop
experience, provided by Windows Server 2008 R2. You can also run
Windows 7 and Windows 10 Enterprise operating systems with Amazon
WorkSpaces if your organization meets the licensing requirements set
by Microsoft.
#BrownChiLD
You can create your own AMI on AWS. Steps are below:
1. create the machine on your system by using vmware wokrstation or hyper-v
2. Export the VM
3. Upload it to S3 bucket
once your vm is uploaded to S3, follow the steps on the below link
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/vmimport-image-import.html#import-vm-image
At present time the only way to achieve what you want is by spinning your own Win10 instance assigning the static internal IP while creating it or by adding an Elastic IP if it's in an Internet Gateway enabled subnet.
It's not that convenient, you'll need to set up the environment yourself, including Security Groups, ACLs, etc to allow a bit of security and connecting using RDP will be a bit of a pain (beside doing so over internet isn't exactly advisable). You might start thinking about Chrome Remote Desktop or even Teamviewer.. and will be very pricey running it. First things first, apparently there's no Win10 available as AMI, so you'll need to deploy it yourself. Once running you'll need to license it. A type suitable for this could cost around 80$ per month.. unreserved.
Using AWS Workspaces isn't really an option: besides it is not "Windows 10" but Windows server 2016 (I needed WSL, which has been introduced with Server 2019 so, no joy), the only way to have a proper Win10 is using BYOL but... (cit from FAQ) :
You need to commit to running 200 Amazon WorkSpaces in a region per month on hardware that is dedicated to you. If you want to bring your own Windows desktop licenses for graphics use cases, you need to commit to at least 4 monthly or 20 hourly GPU-enabled WorkSpaces.
:-/
Amazon WorkSpaces is a virtual desktop that runs on AWS but you connect through an Amazon client software that acts a lot like virtualbox, except the OS that you're using is not on your local machine. So it's more like a Thin Client environment over the internet. I believe the OS through Workspaces is managed by AWS as far as patching and updates through a software called A.C.M.E. (Amazon Client Management Engine).
https://youtu.be/jsqI7KU3S8I
Amazon EC2 instances also provide Windows instances that you would connect through an RDP connection. You'll have to manage the patching and updates yourself though.
Here's a link for your reading pleasure
https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/
All the instructions I find online start with an existing AMI, but I would like to create an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) from scratch using HVM (Hardware virtual machine) instead of PV (Paravirtualazation).
I would like to build or create new HVM AMI for montavista linux.
I did not find any existing public AMI available for montavista linux operating system.
SO i need to create new HVM-AMI from scratch. Could you please anyone share the process of creating HVM AMI or point to existing AMI for montavista linux if available.
I have a free micro instance launched in AWS EC2, I want to change the instance's OS to Cent OS. How would I be able to change the AMI <- (OS Image) of the instance?
Edit (Solved):
Terminated existing instance and launched a new one.
You cannot update the AMI on an existing instance in AWS. The only way to do that is to terminate the current instance and relaunch the instances with the desired the AMI
Background
AMI is a special type of virtual appliance that is used to instantiate (create) a virtual machine within the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud ("EC2") and I always refer to it as .iso image file.
Now I can use an .iso image file of a particular OS say Ubuntu to install it on a partition of my choice and if I want to change the OS on that partition then only way for me to do is by formatting that partition and installing a new OS from its .iso image file.
I need to install linux from existing VMware VMDK on EC2. For first time I can do this manually, later I will need to do this in automated way.
Could you please help me with link to relevant documentation. Also any tips and experiences are welcome.
Why do I need this?
At my company developers and QA are running our PHP apps on a virtual machine hosted on local machine. We want to move these virtual machines to the cloud, so each developer can easily set up a sandbox in simple web interface.
Amazon does not officially support importing Linux. However, an article from 2008 claims it can be done. If you try this, note this URL as well.
Finally, an AWS employee posted this too:
You can use ec2-import-volume to turn a local disk in a RAW, VMDK or VHD file format into an EBS volume in EC2. This turns a full disk, with MBR, into an EBS disk. If the guest is PV, with the Xen PV drivers installed, you could take a snapshot and create an AMI from that snapshot, inserting the correct AKI.
Follow the instructions of creating your own AMI. Also check out the following articles on EBS volumes: article1, article2. Here's some steps on how to create EBS-backed AMI instance.
You will have to manually create your own images. The ec2 api tools do not support linux/esxi 5 images. I just found out after spending 2 hours on a vmware linux to amazon port.
We are looking to move all of our systems to a virtualized env.
We will be going with EC2 and it appears that if we can install something like vmware or KVM on EC2 then create VMs as needed it would be the most cost effective solution for us.
Is this possible?
thanks!
EC2 is already a virtualized environment; it uses the Xen virtualization manager, which is an open source equivalent to VMWare server. You can create VMs with EC2, customize them and save them as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).
See the Amazon documentation for a more comprehensive introduction.