Is it possible to clone a EC2 instance data and all?
7 Answers
The easier way is through the web management console:
- go to the instance
- select the instance and click on instance action
- create image
Once you have an image you can launch another cloned instance, data and all. :)
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3sure but it is so much easier from the new web console :) you also don't have all the issues with keys etc – devnull Oct 13 '12 at 19:17
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3After you create an image and click on snapshots wait until the snapshot is done. Afterwards go to AMIs (you won't see your image under 'owned by me') - **** click refresh in this screen **** to see it :) – thedrs Dec 07 '12 at 08:27
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2With the current web interface, you need to `right click` on the desired instance. – Lemmings19 Sep 11 '13 at 23:57
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1i want to clone the amazon ec2 instance i have create the ami for that ec2 but i want to also clone the security groups elastic ips and all the other configurations for that ec2 into other one then i want to stop that instance can you please let me know how can i do this – usama Jul 10 '17 at 18:35
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2and the data needs to be inside root partition (not on /mnt) or you can use EBS for data. – bhups Feb 02 '10 at 04:27
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1http://instantbadger.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-create-and-save-ami-image-from.html – Mike Sherov Feb 02 '10 at 04:28
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1use ami-tools, which provides ec2-bundle-vol, ec2-upload-bundle utilities. Then use ec2-register from ec2-api-tools for registering your ami with Amazon. – bhups Feb 02 '10 at 04:31
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1The problem is I can't SSH into this instance due to a problem with the keypair. Ideas? – Josh Scott Feb 02 '10 at 04:52
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1What's the OS of your instance?? There is a bug in ec2-bundle-vol and Ubuntu 10.04 / 10.10. There is a fix but i'm not sure it's in the main repository: https://groups.google.com/group/ec2ubuntu/browse_frm/thread/5d392b2325269484 – JPelletier Feb 07 '11 at 15:49
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5You can take an image (AMI) of the instance, and launch a new instance from that AMI with a different keypair. – siebo Apr 05 '11 at 04:38
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1i want to clone the amazon ec2 instance i have create the ami for that ec2 but i want to also clone the security groups elastic ips and all the other configurations for that ec2 into other one then i want to stop that instance can you please let me know how can i do this – usama Jul 10 '17 at 18:35
There is no explicit Clone
button. Basically what you do is create an image, or snapshot of an existing EC2 instance, and then spin up a new instance using that snapshot.
First create an image from an existing EC2 instance.
Check your snapshots list to see if the process is completed. This usually takes around 20 minutes depending on how large your instance drive is.
Then, you need to create a new instance and use that image as the AMI.
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1What is the "Launch More like this" whats the difference between this and create image. Please tell me.. – msnfreaky Oct 07 '14 at 07:12
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2got it from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19660931/aws-documentation-for-ec2-launch-more-like-this – msnfreaky Oct 07 '14 at 07:14
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10"Launch more like this" will clone all of the instance-level SETTINGS but none of the FILES or DATA (and none of the modifications to system files, either, such as cron jobs). If you want the files and data, also, then you must perform the steps indicated in one of the answers here. – Dan Nissenbaum Dec 11 '16 at 02:35
Nowadays it is even easier to clone the machine with EBS-backed instances released a while ago. This is how we do it in BitNami Cloud Hosting. Basically you just take a snapshot of the instance which can be used later to launch a new server. You can do it either using AWS console (saving the EBS-backed instance as AWS AMI) or using the EC2 API tools:
- create a snapshot with ec2-create-snapshot
- and then launch an instance from a snapshot
Cloning the instance is nothing else but creating the backup and then launching a new server based on that. You can find bunch of articles out there describing this problem, try to find the info about "how to ..." backup or resize the whole EC2 instance, for example this blog is a really good place to start: alestic.com
To Answer your question: now AWS make cloning real easy see Launch instance from your Existing Instance
- On the EC2 Instances page, select the instance you want to use
- Choose Actions, and then Launch More Like This.
- Review & Launch
This will take the existing instance as a Template for the new once.
or you can also take a snapshot of the existing volume and use the snapshot with the AMI (existing one) which you ping during your instance launch
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5This doesn't work if the underlying AMI is no longer available. I just tried to clone one this way and the AMI is missing, thus it won't clone...you need to create a snapshot into an AMI in this case. – Evan R. May 25 '17 at 23:58
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13Careful! Will not clone data, only launch parameters, as clearly noted in: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/launch-more-like-this.html – bavaza Dec 24 '17 at 13:39
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[Launch More Like This] Clone only the configuration without data – Elinaldo Monteiro Mar 22 '21 at 00:26
You can use AWS API or console UI to create an AMI(Amazon Machine Image) of your running instance. You can specify to reboot the instance when create your AMI. Then you can use AWS API or console UI to launch more instances with the AMI you created.
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