EC2 - Create AMI - Cannot connect to new instance - amazon-ec2

Question

I am experiencing difficulty trying to launch a AMI from an EBS volume. I am basically trying to launch another instance of a Linux (i386) based AMI that I have already configured the way I want. I have followed many guides for the past week. So far, I am able to create the custom private AMI but I am unable to connect to it after launching the new instance. I suspect that the AMI I have created is miss-configured in some way (maybe files didnt get fully copied over).
Anyhow here are the basic steps I'm going through to try to create the AMI:
ec2-create-volume -K pk-xxxxxx.pem -C
cert-xxxxxx.pem --size 10
--availability-zone us-east-1a
ec2-attach-volume -K pk-xxxxxx.pem -C
cert-xxxxxx.pem vol-xxxxxx --instance
xxxxxx --device /dev/sdh
yes | mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdh
mkdir/mnt/ebsimage
echo '/dev/sdh /mnt/ebsimage ext3
defaults,noatime 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
mount /mnt/ebsimage
umount /mnt/ebsimage
ec2-detach-volume -K pk-xxxxxx.pem -C
cert-xxxxxx.pem vol-xxxxxx --instance
xxxxxx
ec2-create-snapshot -K pk-xxxxxx.pem
-C cert-xxxxxx.pem vol-xxxxxx
ec2reg -K pk-xxxxxx.pem -C
cert-xxxxxx.pem -s snap-xxxxx -a i386
-d -n --kernel aki-xxxxx --ramdisk ari-xxxxxx
I'm pretty sure either my commands around mount are messed up or my commands around ec2reg are messed up. Any suggestions?
I have also tried replacing
yes | mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdh
mkdir/mnt/ebsimage
echo '/dev/sdh
/mnt/ebsimage ext3 defaults,noatime 0
0' >> /etc/fstab
mount /mnt/ebsimage
with a script designed to use rsync and add some other details but again the new instance of the ami launched cannot be connected to. Here is a copy of the script.
#!/bin/sh
vol=/dev/sdh
ebsmnt=/mnt/ebsimage
mkdir ${ebsmnt}
mkfs.ext3 -F ${vol}
sync
echo "mount $vol $ebsmnt"
mount $vol $ebsmnt
mkdir ${ebsmnt}/mnt
mkdir ${ebsmnt}/proc
mkdir ${ebsmnt}/sys
devdir=${ebsmnt}/dev
echo "mkdir ${devdir}"
mkdir ${devdir}
mknod ${devdir}/null c 1 3
mknod ${devdir}/zero c 1 5
mknod ${devdir}/tty c 5 0
mknod ${devdir}/console c 5 1
ln -s null ${devdir}/X0R
rsync -rlpgoD -t -r -S -l -vh \
--exclude /sys --exclude /proc \
--exclude /dev \
--exclude /media --exclude /mnt \
--exclude /sys --exclude /ebs --exclude /mnt \
-x /* ${ebsmnt}
df -h
Because I have the same results as the first example, I'm not sure if I'm closer to solving this issue or further away. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

To create your EBS AMI from an S3 based AMI, you can use my blog post:
http://www.capsunlock.net/2009/12/create-ebs-boot-ami.html

Answer 2

I don't know which distribution you are trying to run, but if you want to run debian, there is a script which manages the entire bootstrapping process including ami creation (EBS boot).
You can find it on my github account:
https://github.com/andsens/ec2debian-build-ami
The script has been thoroughly tested and allows you to include other scripts in order to customize your ami. If you want to modify the script itself, just fork it, at least you then have a base to work from, where you know everything works.
I would not recommend the process you outlined though, it seems quite 'messy'.