Use ImportSnapshot with an Amazon SDK or CLI

To import a snapshot

The following import-snapshot example imports the specified disk as a snapshot.

aws ec2 import-snapshot \
    --description "My server VMDK" \
    --disk-container Format=VMDK,UserBucket={S3Bucket=my-import-bucket,S3Key=vms/my-server-vm.vmdk}

Output:

{
    "Description": "My server VMDK",
    "ImportTaskId": "import-snap-1234567890abcdef0",
    "SnapshotTaskDetail": {
        "Description": "My server VMDK",
        "DiskImageSize": "0.0",
        "Format": "VMDK",
        "Progress": "3",
        "Status": "active",
        "StatusMessage": "pending"
        "UserBucket": {
            "S3Bucket": "my-import-bucket",
            "S3Key": "vms/my-server-vm.vmdk"
        }
    }
}

Example 1: This example imports a VM disk image of format 'VMDK' to an Amazon EBS snapshot. The example requires a VM Import Service Role with the default name 'vmimport', with a policy allowing Amazon EC2 access to the specified bucket, as explained in the VM Import Prequisites topic in http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/VMImportPrerequisites.html. To use a custom role, specify the role name using the -RoleName parameter.

$parms = @{
    "ClientToken"="idempotencyToken"
    "Description"="Disk Image Import"
    "DiskContainer_Description" = "Data disk"
    "DiskContainer_Format" = "VMDK"
    "DiskContainer_S3Bucket" = "myVirtualMachineImages"
    "DiskContainer_S3Key" = "datadiskimage.vmdk"
}

Import-EC2Snapshot @parms

Output:

Description            ImportTaskId               SnapshotTaskDetail                                                          
-----------------      --------------------       ------------------                                                          
Disk Image Import      import-snap-abcdefgh       Amazon.EC2.Model.SnapshotTaskDetail