AMI - FAQ - AMI Types

You can select an AMI to use based on the following characteristics:

• Region (see Regions and Availability Zones)
• Operating system
• Architecture (32-bit or 64-bit)
• Launch Permissions
• Storage for the Root Device

Launch Permissions

The owner of an AMI determines its availability by specifying launch permissions. Launch permissions fall into the following categories.

Amazon and the Amazon EC2 community provide a large selection of public AMIs. For more information, see Shared AMIs. Developers can charge for their AMIs. For more information, see Paid AMIs.

Storage for the Root Device

All AMIs are categorized as either backed by Amazon EBS or backed by instance store. The former means that the root device for an instance launched from the AMI is an Amazon EBS volume created from an Amazon EBS snapshot. The latter means that the root device for an instance launched from the AMI is an instance store volume created from a template stored in Amazon S3. For more information, see Amazon EC2 Root Device Volume.

The following table summarizes the important differences when using the two types of AMIs.

* By default, Amazon EBS-backed instance root volumes have the DeleteOnTermination flag set to true. For information about how to change this flag so that the volume persists after termination, see Changing the Root Device Volume to Persist.

Determining the Root Device Type of Your AMI

To determine the root device type of an AMI using the console

1. Open the Amazon EC2 console.
2. In the navigation pane, click AMIs, and select the AMI.
3. Check the value of Root Device Typein the Details tab as follows:
   • If the value is ebs, this is an Amazon EBS-backed AMI.
   • If the value is instance store, this is an instance store-backed AMI.

To determine the root device type of an AMI using the command line

You can use one of the following commands. For more information about these command line interfaces, see Accessing Amazon EC2.

• describe-images(AWS CLI)
• Get-EC2Image(AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell)

Stopped State

You can stop an Amazon EBS-backed instance, but not an Amazon EC2 instance store-backed instance. Stopping causes the instance to stop running (its status goes from running to stopping to stopped). A stopped instance persists in Amazon EBS, which allows it to be restarted. Stopping is different from terminating; you can't restart a terminated instance. Because Amazon EC2 instance store-backed instances can't be stopped, they're either running or terminated. For more information about what happens and what you can do while an instance is stopped, see Stop and Start Your Instance.

Default Data Storage and Persistence

Instances that use an instance store volume for the root device automatically have instance store available (the root volume contains the root partition and you can store additional data). You can add persistent storage to your instance by attaching one or more Amazon EBS volumes. Any data on an instance store volume is deleted when the instance fails or terminates. For more information, see Instance Store Lifetime.

Instances that use Amazon EBS for the root device automatically have an Amazon EBS volume attached. The volume appears in your list of volumes like any other. With most instance types, Amazon EBS-backed instances don't have instance store volumes by default. You can add instance store volumes or additional Amazon EBS volumes using a block device mapping. For more information, see Block Device Mapping.

Boot Times

Instances launched from an Amazon EBS-backed AMI launch faster than instances launched from an instance store-backed AMI. When you launch an instance from an instance store-backed AMI, all the parts have to be retrieved from Amazon S3 before the instance is available. With an Amazon EBS-backed AMI, only the parts required to boot the instance need to be retrieved from the snapshot before the instance is available. However, the performance of an instance that uses an Amazon EBS volume for its root device is slower for a short time while the remaining parts are retrieved from the snapshot and loaded into the volume. When you stop and restart the instance, it launches quickly, because the state is stored in an Amazon EBS volume.

AMI Creation

To create Linux AMIs backed by instance store, you must create an AMI from your instance on the instance itself using the Amazon EC2 AMI tools.

AMI creation is much easier for AMIs backed by Amazon EBS. The CreateImage API action creates your Amazon EBS-backed AMI and registers it. There's also a button in the AWS Management Console that lets you create an AMI from a running instance. For more information, see Creating an Amazon EBS-Backed Linux AMI.

How You're Charged

With AMIs backed by instance store, you're charged for instance usage and storing your AMI in Amazon S3. With AMIs backed by Amazon EBS, you're charged for instance usage, Amazon EBS volume storage and usage, and storing your AMI as an Amazon EBS snapshot.

With Amazon EC2 instance store-backed AMIs, each time you customize an AMI and create a new one, all of the parts are stored in Amazon S3 for each AMI. So, the storage footprint for each customized AMI is the full size of the AMI. For Amazon EBS-backed AMIs, each time you customize an AMI and create a new one, only the changes are stored. So the storage footprint for subsequent AMIs you customize after the first is much smaller, resulting in lower AMI storage charges.

When an Amazon EBS-backed instance is stopped, you're not charged for instance usage; however, you're still charged for volume storage. As soon as you start your instance, we charge a minimum of one minute for usage. After one minute, we charge only for the seconds used. For example, if you run an instance for 20 seconds and then stop it, we charge for a full one minute. If you run an instance for 3 minutes and 40 seconds, we charge for exactly 3 minutes and 40 seconds of usage. We charge you for each second, with a one-minute minimum, that you keep the instance running, even if the instance remains idle and you don't connect to it.

If you continue to experience difficulties removing the client please open a case with the DLT Opscenter using the following contact information:

1-888-358-7658

Opscenter@dlt.com