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Amazon EC2 - VM Import-Export User Guide Flipbook PDF

Amazon EC2 - VM Import-Export User Guide

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VM Import/Export User Guide

VM Import/Export User Guide

VM Import/Export: User Guide

Copyright © 2019 Amazon Web Services, Inc. and/or its aﬃliates. All rights reserved. Amazon's trademarks and trade dress may not be used in connection with any product or service that is not Amazon's, in any manner that is likely to cause confusion among customers, or in any manner that disparages or discredits Amazon. All other trademarks not owned by Amazon are the property of their respective owners, who may or may not be aﬃliated with, connected to, or sponsored by Amazon.

VM Import/Export User Guide

Table of Contents What Is VM Import/Export? ................................................................................................................. 1 Features of VM Import/Export ..................................................................................................... 1 How to Get Started with VM Import/Export .................................................................................. 1 Accessing VM Import/Export ....................................................................................................... 1 Pricing ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Related Services ......................................................................................................................... 2 How It Works ............................................................................................................................ 2 Beneﬁts ............................................................................................................................ 3 Diﬀerences Between Image Import and Instance Import .......................................................... 3 Image Import .................................................................................................................... 3 Instance Import ................................................................................................................. 4 Requirements .................................................................................................................................... 5 Prerequisites .............................................................................................................................. 5 Operating Systems ............................................................................................................. 5 Image Formats ................................................................................................................... 6 Instance Types ................................................................................................................... 6 Volume Types and File Systems ........................................................................................... 6 Licensing Options ....................................................................................................................... 7 Licensing for Linux ............................................................................................................. 7 Licensing for Windows ........................................................................................................ 7 Limitations ................................................................................................................................ 8 Required Permissions for IAM Users .............................................................................................. 9 Prepare Your VM ...................................................................................................................... 10 Image Import ................................................................................................................................... 13 Export Your VM from its Virtualization Environment ..................................................................... 13 Import Your VM as an Image ..................................................................................................... 14 Prerequisites .................................................................................................................... 14 Upload the Image to Amazon S3 ....................................................................................... 16 Import the VM ................................................................................................................. 16 Check the Status of the Import Task ................................................................................... 17 (Optional) Cancel an Import Task ....................................................................................... 17 Next Steps ....................................................................................................................... 17 Instance Import ................................................................................................................................ 19 Snapshot Import .............................................................................................................................. 20 Canceling an Import Task .......................................................................................................... 22 VM Export ....................................................................................................................................... 23 Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................ 23 Considerations When Using VM Export ....................................................................................... 24 Export an Instance ................................................................................................................... 24 Monitor Instance Export ............................................................................................................ 25 Cancel or Stop Instance Export .................................................................................................. 25 Troubleshooting ............................................................................................................................... 26 ImportImage Errors .................................................................................................................. 26 ImportInstance Errors ............................................................................................................... 27 VM Export Errors ...................................................................................................................... 27 Windows VM Errors .................................................................................................................. 28 ClientError: Booter Networking failure/instance not reachable. Please retry after installation of .Net framework 3.5 SP1 or greater. ................................................................................. 28 FirstBootFailure: This import request failed because the Windows instance failed to boot and establish network connectivity. .......................................................................................... 28 Linux VM Errors ....................................................................................................................... 29 Document History ............................................................................................................................ 31

iii

VM Import/Export User Guide Features of VM Import/Export

What Is VM Import/Export? VM Import/Export enables you to import virtual machine (VM) images from your existing virtualization environment to Amazon EC2, and then export them back. This enables you to migrate applications and workloads to Amazon EC2, copy your VM image catalog to Amazon EC2, or create a repository of VM images for backup and disaster recovery. For more information, see VM Import/Export.

Note

For most VM import needs, we recommend that you use the AWS Server Migration Service. AWS SMS automates the import process (reducing the workload of migrating large VM infrastructures), adds support for incremental updates of changing VMs, and converts your imported VMs into ready-to-use Amazon machine images (AMIs). To get started with AWS SMS, see AWS Server Migration Service.

Features of VM Import/Export VM Import provides the following features: • The ability to import a VM from your virtualization environment to Amazon EC2 as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). You can launch EC2 instances from your AMI any time. • The ability to import a VM from your virtualization environment to Amazon EC2 as an EC2 instance. The instance is initially in a stopped state. You can create an AMI from the instance. • The ability to export a VM that was previously imported from your virtualization environment. • The ability to import disks as Amazon EBS snapshots. • VM import supports ENA drivers for Linux. ENA support will be enabled only if the original VM has ENA and/or NVMe drivers installed. We recommend installing the latest drivers.

How to Get Started with VM Import/Export First, you must decide whether you will import your VMs as AMIs or instances. To get started, read about how image import and instance import work. You can also read through the prerequisites and limitations of each method. For more information, see: • How VM Import/Export Works (p. 2) • Importing a VM as an Image Using VM Import/Export (p. 13) • Importing a VM as an Instance Using VM Import/Export (p. 19)

Accessing VM Import/Export You can access VM Import/Export using the following interfaces:

1

VM Import/Export User Guide Pricing

AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) Provides commands for a broad set of AWS products, and is supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux. To get started, see AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. For more information about the commands for Amazon EC2, see ec2 in the AWS CLI Command Reference. AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell Provides commands for a broad set of AWS products for those who script in the PowerShell environment. To get started, see the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell User Guide. For more information about the cmdlets for Amazon EC2, see the AWS Tools for PowerShell Cmdlet Reference. Amazon EC2 API Amazon EC2 provides a Query API. These requests are HTTP or HTTPS requests that use the HTTP verbs GET or POST and a Query parameter named Action. For more information about the API actions for Amazon EC2, see Actions in the Amazon EC2 API Reference. AWS SDKs and Tools If you prefer to build applications using language-speciﬁc APIs instead of submitting a request over HTTP or HTTPS, AWS provides libraries, sample code, tutorials, and other resources for software developers. These libraries provide basic functions that automate tasks such as cryptographically signing your requests, retrying requests, and handling error responses, making it is easier for you to get started. For more information, see AWS SDKs and Tools.

Pricing With Amazon Web Services, you pay only for what you use. There is no additional fee to use VM Import/ Export. You pay the standard fees for the S3 buckets and EBS volumes used during the import and export processes, and for the EC2 instances that you run.

Related Services VM Import/Export works with the following services: • To plan your application migration, you can use the Application Discovery Service. This service identiﬁes assets, maps the dependencies between assets, and provides an inventory of assets that you can query. For more information, see the Application Discovery Service User Guide. • If you're using VMware vSphere, you can use the AWS Connector for vCenter to export a VM from VMware and import it into Amazon EC2. For more information, see Migrating Your Virtual Machine to Amazon EC2 Using AWS Connector for vCenter in the AWS Management Portal for vCenter User Guide. • If you use Microsoft Systems Center, you can use AWS Systems Manager for Microsoft SCVMM to import Windows VMs from SCVMM to Amazon EC2. For more information, see Importing Your Virtual Machine Using AWS Systems Manager for Microsoft SCVMM in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Windows Instances.

How VM Import/Export Works To use your VM in Amazon EC2, you must ﬁrst export it from the virtualization environment, and then import it into Amazon EC2 as either an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) or an instance.

2

VM Import/Export User Guide Beneﬁts

Beneﬁts You can use VM Import/Export to migrate applications and workloads, copy your VM image catalog, or create a disaster recovery repository for VM images. • Migrate existing applications and workloads to Amazon EC2—When you migrate your VM-based applications and workloads to Amazon EC2, you preserve their software and conﬁguration settings. When you create an AMI from your VM, you can run multiple instances based on the same imported VM. You can also use the AMI to replicate your applications and workloads around the world using AMI copy. For more information, see Copying an AMI in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances. • Import your VM image catalog to Amazon EC2— If you maintain a catalog of approved VM images, you can copy your image catalog to Amazon EC2 and create AMIs from the imported images. You can import your existing software, including products that you have installed such as anti-virus software, intrusion detection systems, and so on, along with your VM images. You can use the AMIs you create as your Amazon EC2 image catalog. • Create a disaster recovery repository for VM images—You can import your local VM images into Amazon EC2 for backup and disaster recovery purposes. You can import your VMs and store them as AMIs. The AMIs you create will be ready to launch in Amazon EC2 when you need them. If your local environment suﬀers an event, you can quickly launch your instances to preserve business continuity while simultaneously exporting them to rebuild your local infrastructure.

Diﬀerences Between Image Import and Instance Import The following table summarizes the key diﬀerences between image import and instance import.

Characteristic

Image import

Instance import

CLI support

AWS CLI

Amazon EC2 CLI

Supported formats for import

OVA, VHD, VHDX, VMDK, raw

VHD, VMDK, raw

Multi-disk support

✔

Windows BYOL support

✔

Image Import First, you prepare your virtual machine for export, and then export it using one of the supported formats. Next, you start the import task, which uploads the VM image to Amazon S3 and creates an AMI. After the import task is complete, you can launch an instance from the AMI. If you want, you can copy the AMI to other regions so that you can launch instances in those regions. The following diagram shows the process of exporting a VM from your virtualization environment to Amazon EC2 as an AMI.

3

VM Import/Export User Guide Instance Import

Instance Import First, you prepare your virtual machine for export, and then export it using one of the supported formats. Next, you start the import task, which uploads the VM image to Amazon S3 and launches it as a stopped instance. After the import task is complete, you can create an AMI from the instance. If you want, you can copy the AMI to other regions so that you can launch instances in those regions. You can also export a previously imported instance to your virtualization environment. The following diagram shows the process of exporting a VM from your virtualization environment to Amazon EC2 as an instance.

4

VM Import/Export User Guide Prerequisites

VM Import/Export Requirements Before attempting to import a VM, take action as needed to meet the following requirements. You may also need to prepare your AWS environment by creating a service account with appropriate permissons, and you must prepare your locally hosted VM so that it will be accessible once it is imported into AWS.

Note

For most VM import needs, we recommend that you use the AWS Server Migration Service. AWS SMS automates the import process (reducing the workload of migrating large VM infrastructures), adds support for incremental updates of changing VMs, and converts your imported VMs into ready-to-use Amazon machine images (AMIs). To get started with AWS SMS, see AWS Server Migration Service.

Prerequisites You can import or export a VM using the AWS CLI. If you have not already installed the AWS CLI, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. Before you begin, you must be aware of the operating systems and image formats that VM Import/ Export supports, and understand the limitations on importing instances and volumes.

Operating Systems The following operating systems can be imported to and exported from Amazon EC2.

Windows (32- and 64-bit) • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise) with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later (32- and 64-bit) • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 (Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise) (32- and 64-bit) • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise) (32- and 64-bit) • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard, Web Server, Datacenter, Enterprise) (64-bit only) • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only) • Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only) (Nano Server installation not supported) • Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only) • • • •

Microsoft Windows Server 1709 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only) Microsoft Windows Server 1803 (Standard, Datacenter) (64-bit only) Microsoft Windows 7 (Home, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate) (US English) (32- and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows 8 (Home, Professional, Enterprise) (US English) (32- and 64-bit)

• Microsoft Windows 8.1 (Professional, Enterprise) (US English) (64-bit only) • Microsoft Windows 10 (Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education) (US English) (64-bit only)

Linux/Unix (64-bit) • Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 16.04, 16.10, 17.04, 18.04 • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.1-5.11, 6.1-6.9, 7.0-7.6 (6.0 lacks required drivers) • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with Service Pack 1 and kernel 2.6.32.12-0.7

5

VM Import/Export User Guide Image Formats

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with Service Pack 2 and kernel 3.0.13-0.27 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with Service Pack 3 and kernel 3.0.76-0.11, 3.0.101-0.8, or 3.0.101-0.15 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with Service Pack 4 and kernel 3.0.101-63 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 with kernel 3.12.28-4 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 with Service Pack 1 and kernel 3.12.49-11 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 with Service Pack 2 and kernel 4.4 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 with Service Pack 3 and kernel 4.4 • CentOS 5.1-5.11, 6.1-6.6, 7.0-7.6 (6.0 lacks required drivers) • Debian 6.0.0-6.0.8, 7.0.0-7.8.0, 8.0.0 • Oracle Linux 5.10-5.11 with el5uek kernel suﬃx • Oracle Linux 6.1-6.10 using RHEL-compatible kernel 2.6.32 or UEK kernels 3.8.13, 4.1.12 • Oracle Linux 7.0-7.6 using RHEL compatible kernel 3.10.0 or UEK kernels 3.8.13, 4.1.12, 4.14.35 • Fedora Server 19-21

Image Formats VM Import/Export supports the following image formats for importing both disks and VMs: • Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) image format, which supports importing images with multiple hard disks. • Stream-optimized ESX Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) image format, which is compatible with VMware ESX and VMware vSphere virtualization products. Note that you can only import VMDK ﬁles into Amazon EC2 that were created through the OVF export process in VMware. • Fixed and Dynamic Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX) image formats, which are compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Azure, and Citrix Xen virtualization products. • Raw format for importing disks and VMs.

Instance Types VM Import/Export supports importing Windows instances into most instance types. For more information about using Windows and other Microsoft products within AWS, including "bring your own license" (BYOL), see Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Frequently Asked Questions. Linux instances can be imported into the following instance types: • General purpose: t2.micro | t2.small | t2.medium | m3.medium | m3.large | m3.xlarge | m3.2xlarge • Compute optimized: c3.large | c3.xlarge | c3.2xlarge | c3.4xlarge | c3.8xlarge | cc1.4xlarge | cc2.8xlarge • Memory optimized: r3.large | r3.xlarge | r3.2xlarge | r3.4xlarge | r3.8xlarge | cr1.8xlarge • Storage optimized: i2.xlarge | i2.2xlarge | i2.4xlarge | i2.8xlarge | hi1.4xlarge | hi1.8xlarge • Accelerated computing: cg1.4xlarge

Volume Types and File Systems VM Import/Export supports importing Windows and Linux instances with the following ﬁle systems:

6

VM Import/Export User Guide Licensing Options

Windows (32– and 64-bit) MBR-partitioned volumes and GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioned volumes that are formatted using the NTFS ﬁle system. For GPT-partitioned volumes, only VHDX is supported as an image format. Linux/Unix (64-bit) MBR-partitioned volumes that are formatted using the ext2, ext3, ext4, Btrfs, JFS, or XFS ﬁle system. GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioned volumes are not supported.

Licensing Options When you create a new VM Import task, the possible values for the --license-type parameter include: • Auto (default) Detects the source-system operating system (OS) and applies the appropriate license to the migrated virtual machine (VM). • AWS Replaces the source-system license with an AWS license, if appropriate, on the migrated VM. • BYOL Retains the source-system license, if appropriate, on the migrated VM.

Note

If you choose a license type that is incompatible with your VM, the VM Import task fails with an error message. For more information, see the OS-speciﬁc information below. Leaving the --license-type parameter unset is the same as choosing Auto.

Licensing for Linux Linux operating systems support only BYOL licenses. Choosing Auto means that a BYOL license is used. Migrated Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) VMs must use Cloud Access (BYOL) licenses. For more information, see Red Hat Cloud Access on the Red Hat website. Migrated SUSE Linux Enterprise Server VMs must use SUSE Public Cloud Program (BYOS) licenses. For more information, see SUSE Public Cloud Program—Bring Your Own Subscription.

Licensing for Windows Windows server operating systems support either BYOL or AWS licenses. Windows client operating systems (such as Windows 10) support only BYOL licenses. If you choose Auto (the default), the AWS license will be used if the VM has a server OS. Otherwise, the BYOL license is used. The following rules apply when you use your BYOL Microsoft license, either through MSDN or Windows Software Assurance Per User: • Your BYOL instances are priced at the prevailing Amazon EC2 Linux instance pricing, provided that you meet the following conditions: • Run on a Dedicated Host (Dedicated Hosts).

7

VM Import/Export User Guide Limitations

• Launch from VMs sourced from software binaries provided by you using AWS VM Import/Export, which are subject to the current terms and abilities of AWS VM Import/Export. • Designate the instances as BYOL instances. • Run the instances within your designated AWS regions, and where AWS oﬀers the BYOL model. • Activate using Microsoft keys that you provide or which are used in your key management system. • You must account for the fact that when you start an Amazon EC2 instance, it can run on any one of many servers within an Availability Zone. This means that each time you start an Amazon EC2 instance (including a stop/start), it may run on a diﬀerent server within an Availability Zone. You must account for this fact in light of the limitations on license reassignment as described in Microsoft's document Volume Licensing Product Terms, or consult your speciﬁc use rights to determine if your rights are consistent with this usage. • You must be eligible to use the BYOL program for the applicable Microsoft software under your agreements with Microsoft, for example, under your MSDN user rights or under your Windows Software Assurance Per User Rights. You are solely responsible for obtaining all required licenses and for complying with all applicable Microsoft licensing requirements, including the PUR/PT. Further, you must have accepted Microsoft's End User License Agreement (Microsoft EULA), and by using the Microsoft Software under the BYOL program, you agree to the Microsoft EULA. • AWS recommends that you consult with your own legal and other advisers to understand and comply with the applicable Microsoft licensing requirements. Usage of the Services (including usage of the licenseType parameter and BYOL ﬂag) in violation of your agreements with Microsoft is not authorized or permitted.

Limitations Importing AMIs and snapshots is subject to the following limitations: • UEFI/EFI boot partitions are supported only for Windows boot volumes with VHDX as the image format. Otherwise, a VM's boot volume must use Master Boot Record (MBR) partitions. In either case, boot volume cannot exceed 2 TiB (uncompressed) due to MBR limitations. Additional non-bootable volumes may use GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning but cannot be bigger than 16 TiB. If you are use VMIE APIs (instead of AWS Server Migration Service), you will have to construct a manifest ﬁle for disks larger than 4TiB. For more information, see VM Import Manifest.

Note

When AWS detects a Windows GPT boot volume with an UEFI boot partition, it converts it on-the-ﬂy to an MBR boot volume with a BIOS boot partition. This is because EC2 does not directly support GPT boot volumes. • An imported VM may fail to boot if the root partition is not on the same virtual hard drive as the MBR. • A VM import task will fail for VMs with more than 22 volumes attached. Additional disks can be individually imported using the ImportSnapshot API. • AMIs with volumes using EBS encryption are not supported. • Importing VMs with dual-boot conﬁgurations is not supported. • VM Import/Export does not support VMs that use Raw Device Mapping (RDM). Only VMDK disk images are supported. • Imported Linux VMs must use 64-bit images. Migrating 32-bit Linux images is not supported. • Imported Linux VMs should use default kernels for best results. VMs that use custom Linux kernels might not migrate successfully. • When preparing Amazon EC2 Linux VMs for import, make sure that at least 250 MiB of disk space is available on the root volume for installing drivers and other software. For Microsoft Windows VMs, conﬁgure a ﬁxed pageﬁle size and ensure that at least 6 GiB of free space is available on the root volume. If Windows is conﬁgured to use the "Automatically manage paging ﬁle size for all drives", it may create 16 GB pagefile.sys ﬁles on the C drive of the instance.

8

VM Import/Export User Guide Required Permissions for IAM Users

• Multiple network interfaces are not currently supported. After import, your VM will have a single virtual network interface that uses DHCP to assign addresses. Your instance receives a private IP address. • A VM migrated into a VPC does not receive a public IP address, regardless of the auto-assign public IP setting for the subnet. Instead, you can allocate an Elastic IP address to your account and associate it with your instance. • Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) IP addresses are not supported. • VMs that are created as the result of a P2V conversion are not supported. A P2V conversion occurs when a disk image is created by performing a Linux or Windows installation process on a physical machine and then importing a copy of that Linux or Windows installation to a VM. • VM Import/Export does not install the single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) drivers except with imports of Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs. These drivers are not required unless you plan to use enhanced networking, which provides higher performance (packets per second), lower latency, and lower jitter. For Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 VMs, SR-IOV drivers are automatically installed as a part of the import process. • VM Import/Export does not currently support VMware SEsparse delta-ﬁle format. • Windows language packs that use UTF-16 (or non-ASCII) characters are not supported for import. We recommend using the English language pack when importing Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012 R1 VMs.

Required Permissions for IAM Users If you're logged in as an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user, you'll need the following permissions in your IAM policy to use VM Import/Export: {

"Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "s3:ListAllMyBuckets" ], "Resource": "*" }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "s3:CreateBucket", "s3:DeleteBucket", "s3:DeleteObject", "s3:GetBucketLocation", "s3:GetObject", "s3:ListBucket", "s3:PutObject" ], "Resource": ["arn:aws:s3:::mys3bucket","arn:aws:s3:::mys3bucket/*"] }, { "Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "iam:CreateRole", "iam:PutRolePolicy" ], "Resource": "*" }, {

9

VM Import/Export User Guide Prepare Your VM

}

]

}

"Effect": "Allow", "Action": [ "ec2:CancelConversionTask", "ec2:CancelExportTask", "ec2:CreateImage", "ec2:CreateInstanceExportTask", "ec2:CreateTags", "ec2:DeleteTags", "ec2:DescribeConversionTasks", "ec2:DescribeExportTasks", "ec2:DescribeInstanceAttribute", "ec2:DescribeInstanceStatus", "ec2:DescribeInstances", "ec2:DescribeTags", "ec2:ImportInstance", "ec2:ImportVolume", "ec2:StartInstances", "ec2:StopInstances", "ec2:TerminateInstances", "ec2:ImportImage", "ec2:ImportSnapshot", "ec2:DescribeImportImageTasks", "ec2:DescribeImportSnapshotTasks", "ec2:CancelImportTask" ], "Resource": "*"

Prepare Your VM Use the following guidelines to conﬁgure your VM before exporting it from the virtualization environment.

General • Install the AWS CLI on the workstation you will use to issue import commands. For more information, see Installing the AWS Command Line Interface in the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. • Disable any antivirus or intrusion detection software on your VM. These services can be re-enabled after the import process is complete. • Uninstall the VMware Tools from your VMware VM. • Disconnect any CD-ROM drives (virtual or physical). • Your source VM must have a functional DHCP client service. Ensure that the service can start and is not disabled administratively. All static IP addresses currently assigned to the source VM will be removed during import. When your imported instance is launched in an Amazon VPC, it receives a primary private IP address from the IPv4 address range of the subnet. If you don't specify a primary private IP address when you launch the instance, we select an available IP address in the subnet's IPv4 range for you. For more information, see VPC and Subnet Sizing. • Shut down your VM before exporting it.

Windows • Enable Remote Desktop (RDP) for remote access. • Make sure that your host ﬁrewall (Windows ﬁrewall or similar), if conﬁgured, allows access to RDP. Otherwise, you will not be able to access your instance after the import is complete.

10

VM Import/Export User Guide Prepare Your VM

• Make sure that the administrator account and all other user accounts use secure passwords. All accounts must have passwords or the importation might fail. • Install the appropriate version of .NET Framework on the VM. Note that .NET Framework 4.5 or later will be installed automatically on your VM if required.

Windows Version

.NET Framework Version

Windows Server 2003

3.5 or later

Windows Server 2008

3.5 or later

Windows Server 2008 R2 or later

4.5 or later

Windows 8.1 or earlier

3.5 or later

Windows 10 or later

4.5 or later

• You can run System Preparation (Sysprep) on your Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 VM images before or after they are imported. If you run Sysprep before importing your VM, the importation process adds an answer ﬁle (unattend.xml) to the VM that automatically accepts the End User License Agreement (EULA) and sets the locale to EN-US. If you choose to run Sysprep after importation, we recommend that you use the Amazon EC2 Conﬁg service to run Sysprep.

To include your own answer ﬁle instead of the default (unattend.xml) 1.

Copy the following sample ﬁle below and set the processorArchitecture parameter to x86 or amd64, depending on your OS architecture:

en-US en-US en-US en-US

true true true

2.

Save the ﬁle in the C:\Windows\Panther directory with the name unattend.xml.

3.

Run Sysprep with the /oobe and /generalize options.

Note

These options strip all unique system information from the Microsoft Windows installation and prompt you to reset the administrator password. 4.

Shut down the VM and export it from your virtualization environment.

• Disable Autologon on your Windows VM. 11

VM Import/Export User Guide Prepare Your VM

• Open Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update. In the left pane, choose Change settings. Choose the desired setting. Be aware that if you choose Download updates but let me choose whether to install them (the default value) the update check can temporarily consume between 50% and 99% of CPU resources on the instance. The check usually occurs several minutes after the instance starts. Make sure that there are no pending Microsoft updates, and that the computer is not set to install software when it reboots. • Apply the following hotﬁxes: • You cannot change system time if RealTimeIsUniversal registry entry is enabled in Windows • High CPU usage during DST changeover in Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2 • Set the RealTimeIsUniversal registry key. For more information, see Setting the Time in the Amazon EC2 User Guide for Windows Instances. Linux • Enable Secure Shell (SSH) for remote access. • Make sure that your host ﬁrewall (such as Linux iptables) allows access to SSH. Otherwise, you won't be able to access your instance after the import is complete. • Make sure that you have conﬁgured a non-root user to use public key-based SSH to access your instance after it is imported. The use of password-based SSH and root login over SSH are both possible, but not recommended. The use of public keys and a non-root user is recommended because it is more secure. VM Import will not conﬁgure an ec2-user account as part of the import process. • Make sure that your Linux VM uses GRUB (GRUB legacy) or GRUB 2 as its bootloader. • Make sure that your Linux VM uses one of the following for the root ﬁle system: EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, Btrfs, JFS, or XFS. Programmatic Modiﬁcations to VMs When importing a VM, AWS modiﬁes the ﬁle system to make the imported VM accessible to the customer. The following actions may occur: • [Linux] Installing Citrix PV drivers either directly in OS or modify initrd/initramfs to contain them. • [Linux] Modifying network scripts to replace static IPs with dynamic IPs. • [Linux] Modifying /etc/fstab, commenting out invalid entries and replacing device names with UUIDs. If no matching UUID can be found for a device, the nofail option is added to the device description. You will need to correct the device naming and remove nofail after import. As a best practice when preparing your VMs for import, we recommend that you specify your VM disk devices by UUID rather than device name. Entries in /etc/fstab that contain non-standard ﬁle system types (cifs, smbfs, vboxsf, sshfs, etc.) will be disabled. • [Linux] Modifying grub bootloader settings such as the default entry and timeout. • [Windows] Modifying registry settings to make the VM bootable. When writing a modiﬁed ﬁle, AWS retains the original ﬁle at the same location under a new name.

12

VM Import/Export User Guide Export Your VM from its Virtualization Environment

Importing a VM as an Image Using VM Import/Export You can use VM Import/Export to import virtual machine (VM) images from your virtualization environment to Amazon EC2 as Amazon Machine Images (AMI), which you can use to launch instances. Subsequently, you can export the VM images from an instance back to your virtualization environment. This enables you to leverage your investments in the VMs that you have built to meet your IT security, conﬁguration management, and compliance requirements by bringing them into Amazon EC2.

Note

For most VM import needs, we recommend that you use the AWS Server Migration Service. AWS SMS automates the import process (reducing the workload of migrating large VM infrastructures), adds support for incremental updates of changing VMs, and converts your imported VMs into ready-to-use Amazon machine images (AMIs). To get started with AWS SMS, see AWS Server Migration Service. Contents • Export Your VM from its Virtualization Environment (p. 13) • Import Your VM as an Image (p. 14)

Export Your VM from its Virtualization Environment After you have prepared your VM for export, you can export it from your virtualization environment. When importing a VM as an image, you can import disks in the following formats: Open Virtualization Archive (OVA), Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX), and raw. With some virtualization environments, you would export to Open Virtualization Format (OVF), which typically includes one or more VMDK, VHD, or VHDX ﬁles. For more information, see the documentation for your virtualization environment. For example: • VMware — Export an OVF Template on the VMware website • Citrix — Import and export VMs on the Citrix website • Microsoft Hyper-V — Overview of exporting and importing a virtual machine on the Microsoft website • Microsoft Azure — Download a Windows VHD from Azure or Download a Linux VHD from Azure on the Microsoft website

Note

From Azure Portal, choose the VM you want to migrate, then choose Disks. For each disk (either OS or data), complete the following: 1.

Choose the disk.

2.

Choose Create Snapshot.

3.

On the completed snapshot resource, choose Export. This creates a URL that you can use to download the virtual image. 13

VM Import/Export User Guide Import Your VM as an Image

Import Your VM as an Image After exporting your VM from your virtualization environment, you can import it to Amazon EC2. The import process is the same regardless of the origin of the VM. Tasks • Prerequisites (p. 14) • Upload the Image to Amazon S3 (p. 16) • Import the VM (p. 16) • Check the Status of the Import Task (p. 17) • (Optional) Cancel an Import Task (p. 17) • Next Steps (p. 17)

Prerequisites You must provide an Amazon S3 bucket and an IAM role named vmimport.

Amazon S3 Bucket VM Import requires an Amazon S3 bucket to store your disk images, in the region where you want to import your VMs. You can create a bucket as follows, or use an existing bucket if you prefer.

(Optional) To create an S3 bucket 1.

Open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.

2.

Choose Create Bucket.

3.

In the Create a Bucket dialog box, do the following: a.

For Bucket Name, type a name for your bucket. This name must be unique across all existing bucket names in Amazon S3. In some regions, there might be additional restrictions on bucket names. For more information, see Bucket Restrictions and Limitations in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Developer Guide.

b.

For Region, select the region that you want for your AMI.

c.

Choose Create.

VM Import Service Role VM Import requires a role to perform certain operations in your account, such as downloading disk images from an Amazon S3 bucket. You must create a role named vmimport with a trust relationship policy document that allows VM Import to assume the role, and you must attach an IAM policy to the role.

To create the service role 1.

Create a ﬁle named trust-policy.json with the following policy: {

"Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ {

14

VM Import/Export User Guide Prerequisites

}

]

}

"Effect": "Allow", "Principal": { "Service": "vmie.amazonaws.com" }, "Action": "sts:AssumeRole", "Condition": { "StringEquals":{ "sts:Externalid": "vmimport" } }

You can save the ﬁle anywhere on your computer. Take note of the location of the ﬁle, because you'll specify the ﬁle in the next step. 2.

Use the create-role command to create a role named vmimport and give VM Import/Export access to it. Ensure that you specify the full path to the location of the trust-policy.json ﬁle, and that you preﬁx file:// to it: aws iam create-role --role-name vmimport --assume-role-policy-document "file://trustpolicy.json"

Note

If you encounter an error stating that "This policy contains invalid Json," double-check that the path to the JSON ﬁle is provided correctly. 3.

Create a ﬁle named role-policy.json with the following policy, where disk-image-filebucket is the bucket where the disk images are stored: {

}

4.

"Version":"2012-10-17", "Statement":[ { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "s3:GetBucketLocation", "s3:GetObject", "s3:ListBucket" ], "Resource":[ "arn:aws:s3:::disk-image-file-bucket", "arn:aws:s3:::disk-image-file-bucket/*" ] }, { "Effect":"Allow", "Action":[ "ec2:ModifySnapshotAttribute", "ec2:CopySnapshot", "ec2:RegisterImage", "ec2:Describe*" ], "Resource":"*" } ]

Use the following put-role-policy command to attach the policy to the role created above. Ensure that you specify the full path to the location of the role-policy.json ﬁle. aws iam put-role-policy --role-name vmimport --policy-name vmimport --policy-document "file://role-policy.json"

15

VM Import/Export User Guide Upload the Image to Amazon S3

For more information about IAM roles, see IAM Roles in the IAM User Guide.

Upload the Image to Amazon S3 Upload your VM image ﬁle to your Amazon S3 bucket using the upload tool of your choice. For information about uploading ﬁles through the S3 console, see Uploading Objects into Amazon S3. For information about the Enhanced Uploader Java applet, see Using the Enhanced Uploader.

Import the VM After you upload your VM image ﬁle to Amazon S3, you can use the AWS CLI to import the image. These tools accept either the Amazon S3 bucket and path to the ﬁle or a URL for a public Amazon S3 ﬁle. Private Amazon S3 ﬁles require a signed GET URL. The following examples use the AWS CLI command import-image to create import tasks. Example 1: Import an OVA aws ec2 import-image --description "Windows 2008 OVA" --license-type --diskcontainers "file://containers.json"

The following is an example containers.json ﬁle. [

{

}]

"Description": "Windows 2008 OVA", "Format": "ova", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "my-import-bucket", "S3Key": "vms/my-windows-2008-vm.ova" }

Example 2: Import Multiple Disks $ C:\> aws ec2 import-image --description "Windows 2008 VMDKs" --license-type -disk-containers "file://containers.json"

The following is an example containers.json ﬁle. [

{

"Description": "First disk", "Format": "vmdk", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "my-import-bucket", "S3Key": "disks/my-windows-2008-vm-disk1.vmdk" }

}, {

}

"Description": "Second disk", "Format": "vmdk", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "my-import-bucket", "S3Key": "disks/my-windows-2008-vm-disk2.vmdk" }

16

VM Import/Export User Guide Check the Status of the Import Task ]

Check the Status of the Import Task Use the describe-import-image-tasks command to return the status of an import task. Status values include the following: • active — The import task is in progress. • deleting — The import task is being canceled. • deleted — The import task is canceled. • updating — Import status is updating. • validating — The imported image is being validated. • validated — The imported image was validated. • converting — The imported image is being converted into an AMI. • completed — The import task is completed and the AMI is ready to use.

aws ec2 describe-import-image-tasks --import-task-ids import-ami-abcd1234

You can also use the older EC2 CLI command ec2 describe-conversion-tasks to achieve the same purpose: aws ec2 describe-conversion-tasks --region

(Optional) Cancel an Import Task Use the cancel-import-task command to cancel an active import task. aws ec2 cancel-import-task --import-task-id import-ami-abcd1234

Next Steps Now that you have an AMI, you can launch it as an instance or copy it to another region. For more information, see the following topics in the Amazon EC2 documentation.

Note

Some device drivers, such as the drivers for Amazon EC2 enhanced networking and for NVMe block devices on Nitro-based instances, are not installed automatically during import. If you require these for your instance type, you must install them manually. To do this, launch an instance from your newly imported AMI, install the needed drivers using instructions available from the OS-speciﬁc links below, and then create a new AMI from the customized instance.

Windows • Launching an Instance • Installing the Latest Version of EC2Conﬁg (recommended) • Copying an AMI • Enhanced Networking on Windows • AWS NVMe Drivers for Windows Instances

17

VM Import/Export User Guide Next Steps

Linux • Launching an Instance • Copying an AMI • Enhanced Networking on Linux

18

VM Import/Export User Guide

Importing a VM as an Instance Using VM Import/Export You can use VM Import/Export to import virtual machine (VM) images from your virtualization environment to Amazon EC2 as instances. Subsequently, you can export the VM images from the instance back to your virtualization environment. This enables you to leverage your investments in the VMs that you have built to meet your IT security, conﬁguration management, and compliance requirements by bringing them into Amazon EC2.

Note

For most VM import needs, we recommend that you use the AWS Server Migration Service. AWS SMS automates the import process (reducing the workload of migrating large VM infrastructures), adds support for incremental updates of changing VMs, and converts your imported VMs into ready-to-use Amazon machine images (AMIs). To get started with AWS SMS, see AWS Server Migration Service. To import your VM to Amazon EC2 as an instance, you must ﬁrst export it from your virtualization environment, and then import it to Amazon EC2 using the Amazon EC2 CLI. For more information, see Importing a Virtual Machine Using the Amazon EC2 CLI in the Amazon EC2 Command Line Reference. Note that the AWS CLI does not support importing a VM as an instance. If you prefer to use the AWS CLI, you must import the VM as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) instead. For more information, see Importing a VM as an Image Using VM Import/Export (p. 13). If you're importing a Windows instance that uses the bring your own license (BYOL) model, you must import the VM as an AMI instead. For more information, see Importing a VM as an Image Using VM Import/Export (p. 13). If you're importing a VM from VMware vCenter, you can alternatively use the AWS Connector for vCenter to export a VM from VMware and import it to Amazon EC2. For more information, see Migrating Your Virtual Machine to Amazon EC2 Using AWS Connector for vCenter in the AWS Management Portal for vCenter User Guide.

19

VM Import/Export User Guide

Importing a Disk as a Snapshot Using VM Import/Export VM Import/Export enables you to import your disks as Amazon EBS snapshots. You can create an EBS volume from an EBS snapshot, and then attach the volume to an instance.

Prerequisites • The following disk formats are supported: Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX), ESX Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), and raw. • You must ﬁrst upload your disks to Amazon S3.

To import a disk image 1.

Use the following import-snapshot command to import a disk. You can specify the URL of the S3 bucket, or provide the S3 bucket name and key. aws ec2 import-snapshot --description "Windows 2008 VMDK" --disk-container file:// containers.json

The ﬁle containers.json is a JSON document that contains required information. {

}

"Description": "Windows 2008 VMDK", "Format": "vmdk", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "mys3bucket", "S3Key": "vms/Win_2008_Server_Enterprise_R2_64-bit.vmdk" }

The following is an example response: {

}

"ImportTaskId": "import-snap-abcd1234", "SnapshotTaskDetail":[ { "DiskImageSize": "0.0", "Progress": "3", "Status": "active", "Description": "Windows 2008 VMDK", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "mys3bucket", "S3Key": "vms/Win_2008_Server_Enterprise_R2_64-bit.vmdk" }, "StatusMessage": "pending" } ], "Description": "Windows 2008 VMDK"

20

VM Import/Export User Guide

2.

Use the describe-import-snapshot-tasks command to conﬁrm that your snapshot imported successfully. aws ec2 describe-import-snapshot-tasks --import-task-ids import-snap-fgr1mmg7

The following is an example response. The status shown is active, which means the import is in progress. {

}

3.

"ImportSnapshotTasks": [ { "SnapshotTaskDetail": [ "DiskImageSize": "3.115815424E9", "Progress": "22", "Status": "active", "Description": "Windows 2008 VMDK", "Format": "VMDK", "UserBucket": { "S3Bucket": "mys3bucket", "S3Key: "vms/Win_2008_Server_Enterprise_R2_64-bit.vmdk" } "StatusMessage": "Validated" ], "ImportTaskId": "import-snap-fgr1mmg7", "Description": "Windows 2008 VMDK" } ]

Use the following create-volume command to create a volume from the snapshot. You must select the Availability Zone of the instance to which you'll attach the volume. aws ec2 create-volume --availability-zone us-east-1a -snapshot-id snap-1234567890abcdef0

The following is example output: {

}

4.

"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1a", "VolumeId": "vol-1234567890abcdef0", "State": "creating", "SnapshotId": "snap-1234567890abcdef0"

Use the following attach-volume command to attach the EBS volume that you created in the previous step to one of your existing instances. aws ec2 attach-volume --volume-id vol-1234567890abcdef0 --instance-id i-1234567890abcdef0 --device /dev/sdf

The following is example output: {

"AttachTime": "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.000Z", "InstanceId": "i-1234567890abcdef0", "VolumeId": "vol-1234567890abcdef0", "State": "attaching", "Device": "/dev/sdf"

21

VM Import/Export User Guide Canceling an Import Task }

Canceling an Import Task You can cancel an import task that is in progress.

To cancel a snapshot import task 1.

Use the describe-import-snapshot-tasks command to determine the ImportTaskId of the import task you want to cancel. aws ec2 describe-import-snapshot-tasks

2.

Cancel the task with cancel-import-task. command. aws ec2 cancel-import-task --import-task-id "import-snap-abcd1234"

22

VM Import/Export User Guide Prerequisites

Exporting an Instance as a VM Using VM Import/Export Exporting a VM is useful when you want to deploy a copy of your Amazon EC2 instance in your onsite virtualization environment. You can export most EC2 instances to Citrix Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V, or VMware vSphere.

Important

When you export an instance, you are charged the standard Amazon S3 rates for the bucket where the exported VM is stored. In addition, there might be a small charge for the temporary use of an Amazon EBS snapshot. For more information about Amazon S3 pricing, see Amazon Simple Storage Service Pricing. If you're using VMware vSphere, you can alternatively use the AWS Connector for vCenter to export a VM from Amazon EC2. For more information, see Exporting a Migrated Amazon EC2 Instance in the AWS Management Portal for vCenter User Guide. Contents • Prerequisites (p. 23) • Considerations When Using VM Export (p. 24) • Export an Instance (p. 24) • Monitor Instance Export (p. 25) • Cancel or Stop Instance Export (p. 25)

Prerequisites To export a VM from Amazon EC2, install the AWS CLI on the instance. For more information, see the AWS Command Line Interface User Guide. You can create an Amazon S3 bucket for storing the exported instances and grant VM Import/Export permission to access the bucket. If you already have a bucket and want to use it, you can use it instead of creating a bucket.

(Optional) To create an S3 bucket 1.

Open the Amazon S3 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/s3/.

2.

Choose Create Bucket.

3.

In the Create a Bucket dialog box, do the following: a.

For Bucket Name, type a name for your bucket. This name must be unique across all existing bucket names in Amazon S3. In some regions, there might be additional restrictions on bucket names. For more information, see Bucket Restrictions and Limitations in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Developer Guide.

b.

For Region, select a region.

c.

Choose Create. When the bucket is created, the details pane opens with the Permissions section expanded.

d.

Choose Add More Permissions.

e.

For Grantee, type the appropriate region-speciﬁc canonical account ID:

23

VM Import/Export User Guide Considerations When Using VM Export

f.

• China (Beijing): 834bafd86b15b6ca71074df0fd1f93d234b9d5e848a2cb31f880c149003ce36f • AWS GovCloud (US-West): af913ca13efe7a94b88392711f6cfc8aa07c9d1454d4f190a624b126733a5602 • All other regions: c4d8eabf8db69dbe46bfe0e517100c554f01200b104d59cd408e777ba442a322 Select Upload/Delete and View Permissions.

g.

Choose Save.

For more information, see Editing Bucket Permissions in the Amazon Simple Storage Service Console User Guide.

Considerations When Using VM Export Exporting instances and volumes is subject to the following limitations: • You cannot export a VM if it contains third-party software provided by AWS. For example, VM Export cannot export Windows or SQL Server instances, or any instance created from an image in the AWS Marketplace. • You must export your instances and volumes to one of the following image formats that your virtualization environment supports: • Open Virtual Appliance (OVA), which is compatible with VMware vSphere versions 4, 5, and 6. • Virtual Hard Disk (VHD), which is compatible with Citrix Xen and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization products. • Stream-optimized ESX Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), which is compatible with VMware ESX and VMware vSphere versions 4, 5, and 6. • You can't export Amazon EBS data volumes. • You can't export an instance that has more than one virtual disk. • You can't export an instance that has more than one network interface. • You can't export an instance from Amazon EC2 if you've shared it from another AWS account. • You can't have more than ﬁve export tasks per region in progress at the same time. • VMs with volumes larger than 1 TiB are not supported.

Export an Instance To export your instance, use the create-instance-export-task command. You must provide the information required to properly export the instance to the selected virtualization format. The exported ﬁle is saved in the S3 bucket that you specify. aws ec2 create-instance-export-task --instance-id id --targetenvironment target_environment \ --export-to-s3-task DiskImageFormat=disk_image_format,ContainerFormat=ova,S3Bucket=bucket,S3Prefix=prefix

Options id The ID of the instance.

24

VM Import/Export User Guide Monitor Instance Export

target_environment The target environment (vmware | citrix | microsoft). disk_image_format The disk image format (VMDK | VHD). bucket The name of the S3 bucket. preﬁx The image is written to an object in the S3 bucket using the following S3 key: preﬁx/exporti-xxxxxxxx.format (for example, my-exports/export-i-12345678.ova).

Monitor Instance Export To monitor the export of your instance, use the following describe-export-tasks command: aws ec2 describe-export-tasks --export-task-ids export-i-12345678

Cancel or Stop Instance Export You can use the following cancel-export-task command to cancel or stop the export of an instance up to the point of completion. aws ec2 cancel-export-task --export-task-id export-i-12345678

The cancel-export-task command removes all artifacts of the export, including any partially created Amazon S3 objects. If the export task is complete or is in the process of transferring the ﬁnal disk image, the command fails and returns an error.

25

VM Import/Export User Guide ImportImage Errors

Troubleshooting VM Import/Export When importing or exporting a virtual machine (VM), most errors occur because of an attempt to do something that isn't supported. To avoid these errors, be sure to check the requirements and limitations carefully. Errors • ImportImage Errors (p. 26) • ImportInstance Errors (p. 27) • VM Export Errors (p. 27) • Windows VM Errors (p. 28) • Linux VM Errors (p. 29)

ImportImage Errors AWS Error Code: InvalidParameter, AWS Error Message: Message: Parameter disk-image-size=0 has an invalid format The speciﬁed image format is not supported. Retry the operation using one of the following supported image formats: VHD, VHDX, VMDK, or raw. A client error (MalformedPolicyDocument) occurred when calling the CreateRole operation: Syntax errors in policy You must include the file:// preﬁx before the policy document name. The service role does not exist or does not have suﬃcient permissions for the service to continue The VM import service role is missing or incorrect. You may also receive this error if the IAM user trying to start the import does not have suﬃcient access privileges on Amazon EC2 resources. This error can also occur if the user calling ImportImage has Decrypt permission but the vmimport role does not. If you use Server-Side Encryption with AWS KMS–Managed Keys (SSE-KMS) to secure your at-rest data in Amazon S3, you need to assign additional Decrypt permission to your service role as shown in the following JSON code:

{

"Sid":"Allow vmimport to decrypt SSE-KMS key", "Effect":"Allow", "Principal":{ "AWS":[ "arn:aws:iam::accountid:role/vmimport" ] }, "Action":[ "kms:Decrypt" ], "Resource":"*"

26

VM Import/Export User Guide ImportInstance Errors }

ImportInstance Errors AWS Error Code: InvalidParameter, AWS Error Message: Message: Parameter disk-image-size=0 has an invalid format The speciﬁed image format is not supported. Retry the operation using one of the following supported image formats: OVA, VHD, VMDK, or raw. Client.Unsupported: No bootable partition found. (Service: AmazonEC2; Status Code: 400; Error Code: Unsupported; Request ID: ) The root volume is GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioned. GPT partitioned volumes are not supported. Convert the root volume to an MBR partition and try again. ClientError: Footers not identical You attempted to import a diﬀerencing VHD, or there was an error in creating the VHD. Export your VM again and retry importing it into Amazon EC2. ClientError: Uncompressed data has invalid length The VMDK ﬁle is corrupted. You can try repairing or recreating the VMDK ﬁle, or use a diﬀerent ﬁle. ERROR: Bucket is not in the region, it's in The Amazon S3 bucket is not in the same region as the instance you want to import. Try adding the --ignore-region-affinity option, which ignores whether the bucket's region matches the region where the import task is created. You can also create an Amazon S3 bucket using the Amazon Simple Storage Service console and set the region to the region where you want to import the VM. Run the command again and specify the new bucket you just created. ERROR: File uses unsupported compression algorithm 0 The VMDK was created using OVA format instead of OVF format. Create the VMDK in OVF format. Invalid S3 source location The command syntax or Amazon S3 bucket name is incorrect. Create an Amazon S3 bucket in the appropriate region solely for VM Import and upload the VM ﬁles to the root of the bucket. The given S3 bucket is not local to the region The Amazon S3 Bucket used for VM Import must reside in the same AWS region where you want to import the VM.

VM Export Errors Client.UnsupportedOperation: This instance has multiple volumes attached. Please remove additional volumes. Detach volumes other than the root volume and try again. If you need the data from the volumes, you can copy it to the root volume or import the volumes to Amazon EBS. Client.NotExportable: Only imported instances can be exported. (Service: AmazonEC2; Status Code: 400; Error Code: NotExportable; Request ID: ) VM Export is supported only with instances that you previously imported to Amazon EC2 using VM Import.

27

VM Import/Export User Guide Windows VM Errors

Error starting instances: Invalid value for instanceId. Instance does not have a volume attached at root (/dev/sda1). You attempted to start the instance before the VM import process and all conversion tasks were complete. Wait for the VM import process and all conversion tasks to completely ﬁnish, and then start the instance.

Windows VM Errors ClientError: Booter Networking failure/instance not reachable. Please retry after installation of .Net framework 3.5 SP1 or greater. The EC2 Conﬁg Service requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 or later. Install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 or later on your Windows VM and try again.

FirstBootFailure: This import request failed because the Windows instance failed to boot and establish network connectivity. When you import a VM using the ec2-import-instance command, the import task might stop before its completed, and then fail. To investigate what went wrong, you can use the ec2-describe-conversiontasks command to describe the instance. When you receive the FirstBootFailure error message, it means that your virtual disk image was unable to perform one of the following steps: • Boot up and start Windows. • Install Amazon EC2 networking and disk drivers. • Use a DHCP-conﬁgured network interface to retrieve an IP address. • Activate Windows using the Amazon EC2 Windows volume license. The following best practices can help you to avoid Windows ﬁrst boot failures: • Disable anti-virus and anti-spyware software and ﬁrewalls — These types of software can prevent installing new Windows services or drivers or prevent unknown binaries from running. Software and ﬁrewalls can be re-enabled after importing. • Do not harden your operating system — Security conﬁgurations, sometimes called hardening, can prevent unattended installation of Amazon EC2 drivers. There are numerous Windows conﬁguration settings that can prevent import. These settings can be reapplied once imported. • Disable or delete multiple bootable partitions — If your virtual machine boots and requires you to choose which boot partition to use, the import may fail. This inability of the virtual disk image to boot up and establish network connectivity could be due to any of the following causes: TCP/IP networking and DHCP are not enabled Cause: TCP/IP networking and DHCP must be enabled.

28

VM Import/Export User Guide Linux VM Errors

Resolution: Ensure that TCP/IP networking is enabled. For more information, see "Setting up TCP/ IP" in Windows Server 2003/2003 R2 Retired Content or Conﬁguring TCP/IP (Windows Server 2008) at the Microsoft TechNet website. Ensure that DHCP is enabled. For more information, see What is DHCP at the Microsoft TechNet web site. A volume that Windows requires is missing from the virtual machine Cause: Importing a VM into Amazon EC2 only imports the boot disk, all other disks must be detached and Windows must able to boot before importing the virtual machine. For example, Active Directory often stores the Active Directory database on the D:\ drive. A domain controller cannot boot if the Active Directory database is missing or inaccessible. Resolution: Detach any secondary and network disks attached to the Windows VM before exporting. Move any Active Directory databases from secondary drives or partitions onto the primary Windows partition. For more information, see "Directory Services cannot start" error message when you start your Windows-based or SBS-based domain controller at the Microsoft Support website. Windows always boots into System Recovery Options Cause: Windows can boot into System Recovery Options for a variety of reasons, including when Windows is pulled into a virtualized environment from a physical machine, also known as P2V. Resolution: Ensure that Windows boots to a login prompt before exporting and preparing for import. Do not import virtualized Windows instances that have come from a physical machine. The virtual machine was created using a physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion process Cause: A P2V conversion occurs when a disk image is created by performing the Windows installation process on a physical machine and then importing a copy of that Windows installation into a VM. VMs that are created as the result of a P2V conversion are not supported by Amazon EC2 VM import. Amazon EC2 VM import only supports Windows images that were natively installed inside the source VM. Resolution: Install Windows in a virtualized environment and migrate your installed software to that new VM. Windows activation fails Cause: During boot, Windows will detect a change of hardware and attempt activation. During the import process we attempt to switch the licensing mechanism in Windows to a volume license provided by Amazon Web Services. However, if the Windows activation process does not succeed, then the import fails. Resolution: Ensure that the version of Windows that you are importing supports volume licensing. Beta or preview versions of Windows might not. No bootable partition found Cause: During the import process of a virtual machine, we could not ﬁnd the boot partition. Resolution: Ensure that the disk you are importing has a boot partition.

Linux VM Errors ClientError: Invalid conﬁguration - Could not read fstab Linux VMs with multi-boot volumes or multiple /etc directories are not supported. ClientError: Unsupported conﬁguration - Logical volume group activation failed A logical volume on your virtual disk image failed to activate. This may indicate ﬁle or disk corruption. Verify the uploaded disk image ﬁles.

29

VM Import/Export User Guide Linux VM Errors

ClientError: Unsupported conﬁguration - Multiple directories found Linux VMs with multi-boot volumes or multiple /etc directories are not supported. Linux is not supported on the requested instance Linux VMs can be imported to speciﬁc instance types. Try again using one of the following supported instance types. • General purpose: t2.micro | t2.small | t2.medium | m3.medium | m3.large | m3.xlarge | m3.2xlarge • Compute optimized: c3.large | c3.xlarge | c3.2xlarge | c3.4xlarge | c3.8xlarge | cc1.4xlarge | cc2.8xlarge • Memory optimized: r3.large | r3.xlarge | r3.2xlarge | r3.4xlarge | r3.8xlarge | cr1.8xlarge • Storage optimized: i2.xlarge | i2.2xlarge | i2.4xlarge | i2.8xlarge | hi1.4xlarge | hi1.8xlarge • Accelerated computing: cg1.4xlarge

30

VM Import/Export User Guide

Document History for VM Import/ Export The following table describes the documentation for this release of VM Import/Export. Change

Description

Date

Operating system additions

Added support for importing Windows 10, SUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11-12, Fedora 19-21, and Oracle Enterprise Linux 6-7 operating system images.

9 December 2015

Import VMs with multiple volumes as images

Added support for importing VMs as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) using the ImportImage API. ImportInstance also supports importing VMs with multiple volumes. The new API has improved performance and ﬂexibility.

23 April 2015

Import Linux virtual machines

Added support for importing Linux instances.

16 December 2013

EC2 instance export

Added support for exporting Windows Server instances that you originally imported into Amazon EC2.

25 May 2012

Added support for exporting Linux instances to Citrix Xen, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere. Import in VHD ﬁle format

Added support for importing virtual machine image ﬁles in VHD format. With this release, VM Import now supports RAW, VHD, and VMDK (VMware ESXcompatible) image formats.

31

24 August 2011