How can I convert the OpenGeo EC2 AMI to an EBS backed one?

Question

I'm a newbie and my knowledge is very low, so sorry if I'm not making myself clear. I would like to launch an EC2 instance of the OpenGeo AMI, but I noticed that I can't stop this instance because it doesn't use EBS. I tried to launch an instance of OpenGeo and then attach an EBS volume, but there is still no stop function available. I think I should create an EBS volume with commands inserted in user text when I'm launching the instance, but that is only a theory. Can you provide me a solution, thanks.

Answer 1

Update

Just realized that there appears to be a free OpenGeo Suite Community Edition on Amazon Web Services as well indeed. Consequently you might be able to succeed by means of the articles referenced in my initial answer below.

Good luck!

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Initial Answer

Given this appears to be a paid AMI, I'm afraid that it isn't possible, see the FAQ Can I create paid AMIs backed by Amazon EBS snapshots?:

No. Currently Amazon DevPay only supports AMIs that are backed by Amazon S3. This means that your customers cannot use Amazon EC2 instances that leverage Amazon EBS backed root devices yet.

Otherwise I'd recommend to first ask the AMI creator to provide EBS backed ones instead or as well, see Eric Hammond's excellent summary You Should Use EBS Boot Instances on Amazon EC2 for why this is almost always preferable.

Finally, section Converting Amazon EC2 instance store-backed AMIs to EBS-Backed AMIs within Creating Amazon EBS-Backed AMIs answers your question, which is no easy process though:

There's no simple API or button in the AWS Management Console that converts an existing Amazon EC2 instance store-backed AMI to an Amazon EBS-backed AMI. [...]

The required steps are only briefly outlined in the following paragraphs there accordingly.

There are quite some other posts around going into more detail though, e.g. Creating an EBS-backed AMI from an S3-backed AMI, Amazon EC2 – Boot from EBS and AMI conversion or Amazon EC2 - Swap root instance store device with EBS device.