VSS components
To create application-consistent snapshots on Windows operating systems, the
AwsVssComponents package must be installed on the instance. The
package contains an on-instance EC2 VSS Agent that functions as the VSS requester,
and an EC2 VSS provider for EBS volumes.
There are several ways that you can install the component onto an existing instance:
-
(Recommended) Run the AWSEC2-VssInstallAndSnapshot command document (recommended). This automatically installs or updates if needed every time it runs.
You can also create an AMI with EC2 Image Builder that uses the
aws-vss-components-windows managed component to install the
AwsVssComponents package for the image. The managed component
uses Amazon Systems Manager Distributor to install the package. After Image Builder creates the image, every
instance that you launch from the associated AMI will have the VSS package installed
on it. For more information about how you can create an AMI with the VSS package installed,
see Distributor
package managed components for Windows in the
EC2 Image Builder User Guide.