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What is the difference between Amazon AMI and an EBS snapshot

My main need is that I can create a new instance from my saved image for the current current Centos with all the settings.

I think of two options

  • Create AMI from any state
  • Create EBS Snapshots

I am confused that between them. They are the same or different.

Can I create new instances from EBS snapshots /

I can also use AMI on my local host to create the same OS

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2 answers

There are two types of AMI / instances: EBS loading and instance storage (sometimes called the S3 base). You are probably using EBS loading, so this answer will be of this type.

EBS Boot AMI is an EBS snapshot of an EBS boot EBS volume with some additional attributes, including:

  • Registered as AMI with the identifier AMI
  • AKI (core)
  • ARI (ramdisk) Architecture
  • (e.g. 64-bit)
  • device block mapping (for example, when volumes should be created / attached)
  • description, name
  • (who is allowed to run AMI)

If you create an AMI of a working instance, you can start new instances in the same state. Make sure you test this process so that you know that it works.

If you simply remove the EBS volume of your executable instance, you can create volumes from these snapshots to access configuration and data.

You can also take an EBS snapshot of the EBS boot volume and register it as AMI boot AMI so that you can run more instances starting from this state. When registering AMI, you will need to specify the correct AKI, architecture, and other metadata for this to work, so research and practice before trusting this approach.

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It took me a while to figure this out, since I'm new to this, but here's what if you use EBS support:

  • If you want to immediately create an AMI image (which creates an OS image and store the data as an EBS image), then the entire AMI image contains the current state of your instance in which the OS is installed, which is the entire configuration and data files.

  • If you take a snapshot of only EBS, then to restore you need to run a new AMI, and you can connect this volume to it only for access to data. If your new AMI has a different OS or is upgraded, it may be that some of your configurations will not work, and you will need to install your packages from scratch. Therefore, you must first verify this.

In simple words, Ecc Snapshot cannot be used as the root volume unless you create and use its AMI image :-)

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