Move Amazon EC2 AMIs between regions via web-interface?

Question

Any easy way to move and custom AMI image between regions? (tokyo -> singapore)

I know you can mess up with API and S3 to get it done, but there there any easier way to do it?

Answer 1

As of December, 2012, Amazon now supports migrating an AMI to another region through the UI tool (Amazon Management Console). See their documentation here

So, how I've done it is..

1. From the AMI find out the Snapshot-ID and how it is attached (e.g. /dev/sda1)
2. Select the Snapshot, click "Copy", set Destination region and make the copy (takes a while!)
3. Select the new Snapshot, click "Create Image"

        Architecture: (choose 32 or 64 bit)

        Name/Description: (give it one)

        Kernel ID: when migrating a Linux AMI, if you choose "default" it may fail. What worked for me was to go to the Amazon Kernels listing here to find the kernels Amazon supports, then specify it when creating the image)

        Root Device Name: /dev/sda1

        Click "Yes, Create"

  4.Launch an instance from the new AMI and test that you can connect.

Answer 2

You can do it using Eric's post: http://alestic.com/2010/10/ec2-ami-copy

Answer 3

The following assumes your AWS Console utilities are installed in /opt/aws/bin/, JAVA_HOME=/usr and you are running i386 architecture, otherwise replace with x86_64.

1) Run a live snapshot, where you believe your image can fit in 1.5GB and you have that to spare in /mnt (check running df)

/opt/aws/bin/ec2-bundle-vol -d /mnt -k /home/ec2-user/.ec2/pk-XXX.pem -c /home/ec2-user/.ec2/cert-XXX.pem -u 123456789 -r i386 -s 1500

2) Upload to current region's S3 bucket

/opt/aws/bin/ec2-upload-bundle -b S3_BUCKET -m /mnt/image.manifest.xml -a abcxyz -s SUPERSECRET

3) Transfer the image to EU S3 bucket

/opt/aws/bin/ec2-migrate-image -K /home/ec2-user/.ec2/pk-XXX.pem -C /home/ec2-user/.ec2/cert-XXX.pem -o abcxyz -w SUPERSECRET --bucket S3_BUCKET_US --destination-bucket S3_BUCKET_EU --manifest image.manifest.xml --location EU

4) Register your AMI so you can fire up the instance in Ireland

/opt/aws/bin/ec2-register –K /home/ec2-user/.ec2/pk-XXX.pem –C /home/ec2-user/.ec2/cert-XXX.pem http://s3.amazonaws.com:80/S3_BUCKET/image.manifest.xml --region eu-west-1 -name DEVICENAME -a i386 --kernel aki-xxx

Answer 4

There are API tools for this. http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/CommandLineReference/ApiReference-cmd-MigrateImage.html

Answer 5

I think that is now outdated by ec2-bundle-vol and ec2-migrate-image, BTW you can also take a look at this Perl script by Lincoln D. Stein: http://search.cpan.org/~lds/VM-EC2/bin/migrate-ebs-image.pl

Usage:

$ migrate-ebs-image.pl --from us-east-1 --to ap-southeast-1 ami-123456

Answer 6

Amazon have just announced support for this functionality in this blog post. Note that the answer from dmohr relates to copying EBSs, not AMIs.

In case the blog post is unavailable, quoting the relevant parts:

To use AMI Copy, simply select the AMI to be copied from within the AWS Management Console, choose the destination region, and start the copy. AMI Copy can also be accessed via the EC2 Command Line Interface or EC2 API as described in the EC2 User’s Guide. Once the copy is complete, the new AMI can be used to launch new EC2 instances in the destination region.

Answer 7

AWS now supports the copy of an EBS snapshot to another region via UI/CLI/API. You can copy the snapshot and then make an AMI from it. Direct AMI copy is coming - from AWS:

"We also plan to launch Amazon Machine Image (AMI) Copy as a follow-up to this feature, which will enable you to copy both public and custom-created AMIs across regions.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ebs-copy-snapshot.html?ref_=pe_2170_27415460

Answer 8

Ylastic allows you to move EBS backed linux images between regions.

Its $25 or $50 per month but it looks like you can evaluate it for a week.

Answer 9

I just did this using a script on CloudyScripts, worked fantastically: https://cloudyscripts.com/tool/show/5 (and it's free).

Answer 10

As of 2017, it's pretty simple.. just follow the screenshots:

Answer 11

I'll add Scalr to the list of tools you can use (Disclaimer: I work there). Within Scalr, you can create your own AMI (we call them roles). Once your role is ready, you just have to choose where you want to deploy it (so in any regions).

Scalr is open-source released under the Apache 2 license: you can to download it and install it yourself. Otherwise, it is also available through a hosted version including support. Alternatives to Scalr includes RightScale and enStratus.