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| :) |
Checking Out of EC2
Getting your instance out of EC2 is... interesting. Unlike most actions in AWS, exporting an instance requires the use of a command-line toolkit that you need to download. I can tell you that, at this point, many people would throw in the towel. It's clear that getting your VM is not going to be an easy task; the process alone will intimidate many people who launched EC2 instances because Amazon made the provisioning process so easy. What took a few clicks to create will take a bit more work to export. And here's an observation I made during this experience: Hemingway wrote the on-boarding script; Kafka wrote the off-boarding.
Once you've downloaded the tools and configured them according to the instructions for your OS, you're ready to move on.
In other words, you need to use S3 to store your exported instance until you download it. But that's relatively easy: just follow these instructions. Keep in mind that the bucket itself costs nothing. Using the bucket, that is transferring data into or out from the bucket, will cost you.
You'll end up with a command along these lines:
I forgot to mention something: prepare to be disappointed. Because you can only export an ec2 instance if it was originally imported into AWS. Any instance you create on ec2 cannot be imported using Amazon's tools.
So this is where the story ends. Hotel California moniker: well earned. Getting your instance out of ec2 will require the use of third-party tools, such as VMware's Converter, running inside the instance.
EC2 tools will never dismantle AWS's house. Or something along those lines.
1 My consulting business (www.holdenllc.com) partners with both VMware and Amazon. It's similar to registering as a Democrat and a Republican, and experiencing the feelings of elation and outrage simultaneously, all the time.
2 I mean, I certainly wouldn't have made that mistake, if someone had advised me not to. But they didn't, so I did.
Installing the Amazon EC2 Tools
I'm following the steps listed in this article from Amazon: Setting Up the Amazon EC2 CLI and AMI Tools. More specifically, I'm following these instructions because OS X. I'll spare you the tedium of these instructions, and you'll have to trust that I've followed them properly. Just follow those links to get a sense of what's required. And be glad that you've created an IAM user instead of using a keypair that's bound to the root account2.Once you've downloaded the tools and configured them according to the instructions for your OS, you're ready to move on.
Creating your S3 Bucket
"Oh, you want to stop using an AWS service? No worries! Just make sure you sign up for another one while you're on the way out." -AmazonIn other words, you need to use S3 to store your exported instance until you download it. But that's relatively easy: just follow these instructions. Keep in mind that the bucket itself costs nothing. Using the bucket, that is transferring data into or out from the bucket, will cost you.
Exporting...
Once you've got everything set up (and I do mean everything; follow the steps to set up your ec2 tools environment exactly as documented, or it simply will not work. And this process requires you to review the particulars of your ec2 instance, including the region where your instance lives), you're ready to export. Just make certain you shut your instance down first; it can't be running during the export.You'll end up with a command along these lines:
./ec2-create-instance-export-task <your-instance-id> -e VMware -f VMDK -c OVA -b export-mc-server --region us-west-2c
I forgot to mention something: prepare to be disappointed. Because you can only export an ec2 instance if it was originally imported into AWS. Any instance you create on ec2 cannot be imported using Amazon's tools.
So this is where the story ends. Hotel California moniker: well earned. Getting your instance out of ec2 will require the use of third-party tools, such as VMware's Converter, running inside the instance.
EC2 tools will never dismantle AWS's house. Or something along those lines.
1 My consulting business (www.holdenllc.com) partners with both VMware and Amazon. It's similar to registering as a Democrat and a Republican, and experiencing the feelings of elation and outrage simultaneously, all the time.
2 I mean, I certainly wouldn't have made that mistake, if someone had advised me not to. But they didn't, so I did.