Requirements for resources that you import with VM Import/Export - VM Import/Export
Image formats supported by VM Import/ExportOperating systems supported by VM Import/ExportBoot modesVolume types and file systems
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Requirements for resources that you import with VM Import/Export

Before you begin, you must be aware of the operating systems and image formats that VM Import/Export supports, and understand the limitations on importing instances and volumes.

Image formats supported by VM Import/Export

VM Import/Export supports the following image formats for importing both disks and VMs:

  • Open Virtual Appliance (OVA) image format, which supports importing images with multiple hard disks.

  • Stream-optimized ESX Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK) image format, which is compatible with VMware ESX and VMware vSphere virtualization products.

  • Fixed and Dynamic Virtual Hard Disk (VHD/VHDX) image formats, which are compatible with Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Azure, and Citrix Xen virtualization products.

  • Raw format for importing disks and VMs.

Important

VMs that are created as the result of a physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion are not supported. For more information, see Limitations for resources being imported with VM Import/Export.

Operating systems supported by VM Import/Export

The following operating systems (OS) can be imported to and exported from Amazon EC2. VMs using ARM64 architecture are not currently supported.

The following Linux/Unix operating systems are support by VM Import/Export.

Operating system Version Kernel Service pack

Amazon Linux 2

-

4.14, 4.19, 5.4, 5.10

-

CentOS

5.1–5.11

2.6.18

-

6.1–6.8

2.6.32

-

7.0–7.9

3.10.0

-

8.0–8.2

4.18.0

-

9

5.14.0

-

Debian

6.0.0–6.0.8

2.6.32

-

7.0.0–7.8.0

3.2.0

-

10

4.19.0

-

11

5.10.0

-

12.2

6.1.0

-

12.4

6.1.0

-

Fedora

18

3.2.5

-

19

3.9.5

-

20

3.11.10

-

37

6.0.7

-

38

6.2.9

-

39

6.5.6

-

Oracle Linux

5.10–5.11

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) el5uek kernel suffixes

-

6.1–6.10

Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 2.6.32, 2.6.39

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 3.8.13, 4.1.12

-

7.0–7.6

Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 3.10.0

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 3.8.13, 4.1.12, 4.14.35, 5.4.17

-

8.0–8.9

Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 4.18.0

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 5.15.0 (el8uek)

-

9.0–9.4

Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) 5.14.0

Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) 5.15.0 (el9uek)

-

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

5

2.6.18

-

6

2.6.32 (except 2.6.32-71)

-

7

3.10.0

-

8.0–8.9

4.18.0

-

9.0–9.4

5.14.0

-

Rocky Linux

9.0–9.4

5.14.0

-

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

11

2.6.32.12

1

3.0.13

2

3.0.76, 3.0.101

3

3.0.101

4

12

3.12.28

None

3.12.49

1

4.4

2, 3

4.12

4, 5

15

4.12

None, 1

5.3

2, 3

5.14.21

4, 5

Ubuntu

12.04

3.2.0

-

12.10

3.5.0

-

13.04

3.8.0

-

13.10

3.11

-

14.04

3.13.0, 3.16.0, 3.19.0

-

14.10

3.16

-

15.04

3.19.0

-

16.04

4.2.0, 4.4.0, 4.8.0, 4.10.0, 4.15.0

-

16.10

4.8.0

-

17.04

4.10.0

-

18.04

4.15.0, 5.4.0

-

20.04

5.4.0

-

22.04

5.15.0

-

23.04

5.15.0

-

The following Windows operating systems are supported by VM Import/Export.

Operating system Edition Bit version Available with non-default Regions

Windows Server 2003 (Service Pack 1 or later)

Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise

32, 64

No

Windows Server 2003 R2

Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise

32, 64

No

Windows Server 2008

Standard, Datacenter, Enterprise

32, 64

No

Windows Server 2008 R2

Standard, Web Server, Datacenter, Enterprise

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 2012

Standard, Datacenter

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 2012 R2

Standard, Datacenter

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 2016

Standard, Datacenter 3

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 1709

Standard, Datacenter

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 1803

Standard, Datacenter

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 2019

Standard, Datacenter

64

Yes 5

Windows Server 2022

Standard, Datacenter

64

Yes 5,6

Windows 7 1

Home, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate

32, 64 4

Yes 5

Windows 8 1

Home, Professional, Enterprise

32, 64 4

Yes 5

Windows 8.1 1

Professional, Enterprise

64

Yes 5

Windows 10 1

Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education

64

Yes 5

Windows 11 1,2

Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education

64

Yes 5,7

1 The operating system must have its language set as US English during import.

2 Windows 11 requires the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot mode to function. To help ensure a successful import of your VM, we recommend that you specify the optional --boot-mode parameter as uefi. For more information, see Boot modes supported by VM Import/Export.

3 Nano Server installations are not supported.

4 Only the 64-bit version of the OS is supported when launching instances within non-default Amazon Web Services Regions. For more information, see Available Regions in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

5 You must first enable the Region before you can use the operating system there. For more information, see Manage which Amazon Web Services Regions your account can use in the Amazon Account Management Reference Guide.

6 Windows Server 2022 isn't supported in the China (Beijing) and China (Ningxia) Regions.

7 Windows 11 isn't supported in the Asia Pacific (Hyderabad), Asia Pacific (Jakarta), Asia Pacific (Melbourne), China (Beijing), China (Ningxia), Europe (Spain), Europe (Zurich), and Middle East (UAE) Regions.

Boot modes supported by VM Import/Export

When a computer boots, the first software that it runs is responsible for initializing the platform and providing an interface for the operating system to perform platform-specific operations. VM Import/Export supports two variants of the boot mode: Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) and Legacy BIOS. You can choose whether to specify the optional --boot-mode parameter as legacy-bios or uefi when importing your VM.

Refer to the Boot Modes section of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for more information about specifying a boot mode, and UEFI variables.

Volume types and file systems supported by VM Import/Export

VM Import/Export supports importing Windows and Linux VMs with the following file systems.

MBR partitioned volumes and GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioned volumes that are formatted using the ext2, ext3, ext4, Btrfs, JFS, or XFS file system are supported.

Important

Btrfs subvolumes are not supported.

GUID Partition Table (GPT) and Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioned volumes that are formatted using the NTFS file system are supported. If no boot parameter is specified, and the VM is compatible in both boot modes, the GPT volumes will be converted to MBR partitioned volumes.

VM Import/Export will automatically detect the boot modes your Windows VM is compatible with. If the Windows VM is only compatible in a single boot mode, you don't need to specify a specific --boot-mode parameter.

If your Windows VM is compatible with both boot modes, and the following criteria is met for the imported disk, VM Import/Export will select Legacy BIOS by default. You can specify uefi for the --boot-mode parameter to override this behavior.

  • The disk is smaller than 2 terabytes

  • The disk does not contain more than 4 primary partitions

  • The disk is not a Windows dynamic disk

  • The file format is VHDX