Programmatic modifications made to VMs by VM Import/Export - VM Import/Export
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).

Programmatic modifications made to VMs by VM Import/Export

When importing a VM using the ImportImage API, Amazon modifies the file system to make the imported VM accessible. When writing a modified file, Amazon retains the original file at the same location under a new name. The following actions may occur:

General

  • For parity with images provided by Amazon, the Amazon Systems Manager client is installed on the VM.

Windows

  • Modifying registry settings to make the VM bootable.

Linux

  • Installing Citrix PV drivers either directly in OS or modify initrd/initramfs to contain them.

  • Modifying network scripts to replace static IPs with dynamic IPs.

  • Modifying /etc/fstab, commenting out invalid entries and replacing device names with UUIDs. If no matching UUID can be found for a device, the nofail option is added to the device description. You must correct the device naming and remove nofail after import. As a best practice when preparing your VMs for import, we recommend that you specify your VM disk devices by UUID rather than device name.

    Entries in /etc/fstab that contain non-standard file system types (cifs, smbfs, vboxsf, sshfs, etc.) are disabled.

  • Modifying grub bootloader settings such as the default entry and timeout.