AWS: create server from ebs snapshot

[David Kerr]

Howdy!

I'm hoping someone can give me an example of how to create an AWS instance
from a snapshot. (basically, I want to clone a server)

I'm able to get the volumes snapshotted ok
box = $ec2.servers.get(x.resource_id)
box.volumes.all.each { |x|
snapshot = x.snapshot
// do stuff
}

so now that i've got these snapshots, I'm not entirely sure how to create
the new instance with them, i could create the instance
and add the volumes after the fact, but I'm looking to replace the root
partition, so it seems like i'd want to replace them on creation.
For a while i thought block_device_mapping was what I wanted, but there
doesn't seem to be a snapshot-id for that.

Any help would be awesome,

Thanks

[Frederick Cheung]

Post by David Kerr
Howdy!
I'm hoping someone can give me an example of how to create an AWS instance from a snapshot. (basically, I want to clone a server)
I'm able to get the volumes snapshotted ok
box = $ec2.servers.get(x.resource_id)
box.volumes.all.each { |x|
snapshot = x.snapshot
// do stuff
}
so now that i've got these snapshots, I'm not entirely sure how to create the new instance with them, i could create the instance
and add the volumes after the fact, but I'm looking to replace the root partition, so it seems like i'd want to replace them on creation.
For a while i thought block_device_mapping was what I wanted, but there doesn't seem to be a snapshot-id for that.

You can set a snapshot id with a block device mapping - i've got code that looks like this (creating spot instances, but the basic principle is the same

compute.request_spot_instances DeploymentConfig['ami_64bit'], 'm2.xlarge', 0.60, {
'InstanceCount' => 1,
'LaunchSpecification.SecurityGroup' => 'compute_node',
'Type' => 'one-time',
'LaunchSpecification.BlockDeviceMapping' =>
[{'DeviceName' => '/dev/sdg',
'Ebs.SnapshotId' => DeploymentConfig['snapshot_id'],
'Ebs.VolumeSize' => 3,
'Ebs.DeleteOnTermination' => true}]
}

However I don't think you can do this with the boot volume - I've always built custom AMIs when I want to do that (the AMI is itself backed by a snapshot), although to be fair I've never tried

Fred

[David Kerr]

Post by David Kerr

Post by David Kerr
Howdy!
I'm hoping someone can give me an example of how to create an AWS

instance from a snapshot. (basically, I want to clone a server)

Post by David Kerr
I'm able to get the volumes snapshotted ok
box = $ec2.servers.get(x.resource_id)
box.volumes.all.each { |x|
snapshot = x.snapshot
// do stuff
}
so now that i've got these snapshots, I'm not entirely sure how to

create the new instance with them, i could create the instance

Post by David Kerr
and add the volumes after the fact, but I'm looking to replace the root

partition, so it seems like i'd want to replace them on creation.

Post by David Kerr
For a while i thought block_device_mapping was what I wanted, but there

doesn't seem to be a snapshot-id for that.
You can set a snapshot id with a block device mapping - i've got code that
looks like this (creating spot instances, but the basic principle is the
same
compute.request_spot_instances DeploymentConfig['ami_64bit'], 'm2.xlarge', 0.60, {
'InstanceCount' => 1,
'LaunchSpecification.SecurityGroup' => 'compute_node',
'Type' => 'one-time',
'LaunchSpecification.BlockDeviceMapping' =>
[{'DeviceName' => '/dev/sdg',
'Ebs.SnapshotId' => DeploymentConfig['snapshot_id'],
'Ebs.VolumeSize' => 3,
'Ebs.DeleteOnTermination' => true}]
}
However I don't think you can do this with the boot volume - I've always
built custom AMIs when I want to do that (the AMI is itself backed by a
snapshot), although to be fair I've never tried
Fred

I just found the section for creating an AMI image and I agree that seems
like the more sane way to go. Thanks!

Dave