packer-cn/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.markdown

layout	page_title
docs	Amazon AMI Builder

Amazon AMI Builder

Packer is able to create Amazon AMIs. To achieve this, Packer comes with multiple builders depending on the strategy you want to use to build the AMI. Packer supports the following builders at the moment:

• amazon-ebs - Create EBS-backed AMIs by launching a source instance and re-packaging it into a new AMI after provisioning. If in doubt, use this builder, which is the easiest to get started with.

• amazon-instance - Create instance-store AMIs by launching and provisioning a source instance, then rebundling it and uploading it to S3.

• amazon-chroot - Create EBS-backed AMIs from an existing EC2 instance by mounting the root device and using a Chroot environment to provision that device. This is an advanced builder and should not be used by newcomers. However, it is also the fastest way to build an EBS-backed AMI since no new EC2 instance needs to be launched.

Don't know which builder to use? If in doubt, use the amazon-ebs builder. It is much easier to use and Amazon generally recommends EBS-backed images nowadays.

Using an IAM Instance Profile

If AWS keys are not specified in the template or through environment variables Packer will use credentials provided by the instance's IAM profile, if it has one.

The following policy document provides the minimal set permissions necessary for Packer to work:

{
  "Statement": [{
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action" : [
        "ec2:AttachVolume",
        "ec2:CreateVolume",
        "ec2:DeleteVolume",
        "ec2:CreateKeypair",
        "ec2:DeleteKeypair",
        "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup",
        "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup",
        "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress",
        "ec2:CreateImage",
        "ec2:RunInstances",
        "ec2:TerminateInstances",
        "ec2:StopInstances",
        "ec2:DescribeVolumes",
        "ec2:DetachVolume",
        "ec2:DescribeInstances",
        "ec2:CreateSnapshot",
        "ec2:DeleteSnapshot",
        "ec2:DescribeSnapshots",
        "ec2:DescribeImages",
        "ec2:RegisterImage",
        "ec2:CreateTags",
        "ec2:ModifyImageAttribute"
      ],
      "Resource" : "*"
  }]
}

Depending on what setting you use the following Actions might have to be allowed as well:

• ec2:ModifyImageAttribute when using ami_description