Use ImportImage with an Amazon SDK or CLI

To import a VM image file as an AMI

The following import-image example imports the specified OVA.

aws ec2 import-image \
  --disk-containers Format=ova,UserBucket="{S3Bucket=my-import-bucket,S3Key=vms/my-server-vm.ova}"

Output:

{
    "ImportTaskId": "import-ami-1234567890abcdef0",
    "Progress": "2",
    "SnapshotDetails": [
        {
            "DiskImageSize": 0.0,
            "Format": "ova",
            "UserBucket": {
                "S3Bucket": "my-import-bucket",
                "S3Key": "vms/my-server-vm.ova"
            }
        }
    ],
    "Status": "active",
    "StatusMessage": "pending"
}

Example 1: This example imports a single-disk virtual machine image from the specified Amazon S3 bucket to Amazon EC2 with an idempotency token. The example requires that a VM Import Service Role with the default name 'vmimport' exists, with a policy allowing Amazon EC2 access to the specified bucket, as explained in the VM Import Prequisites topic. To use a custom role, specify the role name using the -RoleName parameter.

$container = New-Object Amazon.EC2.Model.ImageDiskContainer
$container.Format="VMDK"
$container.UserBucket = New-Object Amazon.EC2.Model.UserBucket
$container.UserBucket.S3Bucket = "myVirtualMachineImages"
$container.UserBucket.S3Key = "Win_2008_Server_Standard_SP2_64-bit-disk1.vmdk"

$parms = @{
    "ClientToken"="idempotencyToken"
    "Description"="Windows 2008 Standard Image Import"
    "Platform"="Windows"
    "LicenseType"="AWS"
}

Import-EC2Image -DiskContainer $container @parms

Output:

Architecture    : 
Description     : Windows 2008 Standard Image
Hypervisor      : 
ImageId         : 
ImportTaskId    : import-ami-abcdefgh
LicenseType     : AWS
Platform        : Windows
Progress        : 2
SnapshotDetails : {}
Status          : active
StatusMessage   : pending