Create a container image pipeline from the Amazon CLI - EC2 Image Builder
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Create a container image pipeline from the Amazon CLI

You can create a container image pipeline using a JSON file as input to the create-image-pipeline command in the Amazon CLI.

How often your pipeline builds a new image to incorporate any pending updates from your base image and components depends on the schedule that you have configured. A schedule has the following attributes:

  • scheduleExpression – Sets the schedule for when your pipeline runs to evaluate the pipelineExecutionStartCondition and determine if it should start a build. The schedule is configured with cron expressions. For more information on how to format a cron expression in Image Builder, see Use cron expressions in Image Builder.

  • pipelineExecutionStartCondition – Determines if your pipeline should start the build. Valid values include:

    • EXPRESSION_MATCH_ONLY – your pipeline will build a new image every time the cron expression matches the current time.

    • EXPRESSION_MATCH_AND_DEPENDENCY_UPDATES_AVAILABLE – your pipeline will not start a new image build unless there are pending changes to your base image or components.

When you run the create-image-pipeline command in the Amazon CLI, many of the configuration resources are optional. However, some of the resources have conditional requirements, depending on what type of image the pipeline creates. The following resources are required for container image pipelines:

  • Container recipe ARN

  • Infrastructure configuration ARN

If you do not include a distribution configuration resource when you run the create-image-pipeline command, the output image is stored in the ECR repository that you specify as the target repository in your container recipe in the Region where you run the command. If you include a distribution configuration resource for your pipeline, the target repository that you have specified for the first Region in the distribution is used.

  1. Create a CLI input JSON file

    Use your favorite file editing tool to create a JSON file with the following keys, plus values that are valid for your environment. This example uses a file named create-image-pipeline.json:

    {
	"name": "MyWindows2019Pipeline",
	"description": "Builds Windows 2019 Images",
	"enhancedImageMetadataEnabled": true,
	"containerRecipeArn": "arn:aws:imagebuilder:us-west-2:123456789012:container-recipe/my-example-recipe/2020.12.03",
	"infrastructureConfigurationArn": "arn:aws:imagebuilder:us-west-2:123456789012:infrastructure-configuration/my-example-infrastructure-configuration",
	"distributionConfigurationArn": "arn:aws:imagebuilder:us-west-2:123456789012:distribution-configuration/my-example-distribution-configuration",
	"imageTestsConfiguration": {
		"imageTestsEnabled": true,
		"timeoutMinutes": 60
	},
	"schedule": {
		"scheduleExpression": "cron(0 0 * * SUN *)",
		"pipelineExecutionStartCondition": "EXPRESSION_MATCH_AND_DEPENDENCY_UPDATES_AVAILABLE"
	},
	"status": "ENABLED"
}
    Note

    • You must include the file:// notation at the beginning of the JSON file path.

    • The path for the JSON file should follow the appropriate convention for the base operating system where you are running the command. For example, Windows uses the backslash (\) to refer to the directory path, while Linux and macOS use the forward slash (/).

  2. Run the following command, using the file you created as input.

    aws imagebuilder create-image-pipeline --cli-input-json file://create-image-pipeline.json