Bootable EBS Snapshot
Table of Contents
Objective
Launch an EC2 instance using a bootable EBS Snapshot as the AMI.
Table of Contents
Overview
In December 2009, Amazon introduced the ability to boot instances directly from Amazon EBS snapshots (EBS-based AMIs). An EBS-based AMI is an alternative to the S3-based AMI. In addition to faster boot times, one of the key advantages of bootable EBS snapshots is that you can start/stop the instance because the root partition of the instance is created on an Amazon EBS volume instead of on the instance itself, which allows you to preserve data that's saved to the volume. When an instance is stopped, you are no longer being charged for instance usage. However, you will be charged for the volume while it still exists. You can also modify some of its properties while it's in the stopped state such as instance size or kernel image. Another advantage is that the AMIs and root partitions are no longer limited to 10GB, but can be up to 1TB in size, which allows you to have more complex images.
Steps
Find a Bootable EBS Snapshot
If you plan to launch a Server using an EBS-based AMI, import a MultiCloud Image from the library. Navigate to:
- Design -> Library -> MultiCloud Images
RightScale publishes MCIs that reference EBS-based RightImages. The MCIs will include 'EBS' in the name. (e.g. RightImage_CentOS_5.4_x64_v4.4_EBS_Alpha)
If you are looking for just an EBS-based AMI and not an MCI, they can also be found in these locations since they are both an EBS Snapshot and an AMI:
- Clouds -> AWS Region -> EBS Snapshots
- Clouds -> AWS Region -> EC2 Images (screenshot below)
Bootable EBS snapshot (EBS-based AMI) will be denoted as having an 'ebs' root device.
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