Description
The Export EC2 Instances action will export EC2 instances to an Amazon S3 bucket as a virtual machine image. In order to ensure consistency, the instances can be stopped and restarted when the snapshots are created.
For example, an export can be done every day at 1am.
Note: To export an EC2 instance, the instance must have previously been imported from a virtual machine image. Please see Importing and Exporting Instances for more information.
Settings
Please see Common Action Settings for a description of settings common to all action types.
Instance Identification Method
Indicate the method in which the instances are to be identified. Valid options are:
- Instance ID - Identify the instances by their unique instance ID value.
- Instance Name - Identify the instances by their "Name" tag.
- EC2 Tag - Identify the instances by comparing EC2 tag values.
- All Instances - Export all instances.
Instance IDs
Indicate the list of instance IDs of your EC2 instances. Instance IDs usually looks like "i-84a3dc7b". All instances must reside in the region specified. Required only if Instance Identification Method is set to "Instance ID".
Multiple instances can be added by clicking "Add many instances". In the dialog that appears, enter a space-, comma-, or line-seperated list of instance IDs.
Comparison
Indicates how the Instance Name field is compared to the instance "Name" tags. Required only if Instance Identification Method is set to "Instance Name".
Instance Name
Indicate the value of the "Name" tag of the EC2 instances. This instances must reside in the region specified. Required only if Instance Identification Method is set to "Instance Name".
EC2 Tag Name
Required if Instance Identification Method is "EC2 Tag". Indicates the name of the EC2 tag used to compare.
EC2 Tag Value
Required if Instance Identification Method is "EC2 Tag". Indicates the value of the EC2 tag used to compare.
Consistency Method
Indicate the method in which to ensure volume consistency. Currently, two options exist:
- None - do nothing
- Stop Instance - Stop and restart the instances
Deregister from Load Balancers
If the instance will be stopped, indicate whether the instance should also be deregistered from any load balancers. The instance will automatically be re-registered with the load balancers.
Bucket Name
Name of the Amazon S3 bucket into which the exported virtual machine will be saved. This bucket must reside in the same region as the original EC2 instance.
Prefix
Optional. Specify a prefix to append to the saved virtual machine's object key with. Macros can be used to specify run-time data.
Target Type
Indicates the virtual machine environment type that the instance will be saved as. Possible options include:
- Citrix (VHD)
- Microsoft (VHD)
- VMware (OVA)
- VMware (VMDK)
Macros
The following macros can be used to include some run-time information.
$(DATE)
Date of snapshot in year-month-day format
$(TIME)
Time of snapshot in 24-hour format
$(DOW)
Day of the week, as a short name.
- Sun
- Mon
- Tue
- Wed
- Thu
- Fri
- Sat
$(DAYOFWEEK)
Day of the week, as a long name.
- Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Saturday
$(DAYOFMONTH)
Day of the month.
$(WEEKOFMONTH)
Week of the month, starting at day 1 of the month.
- Day 1 - 7 is week 1
- Day 8 - 14 is week 2
- Day 15 - 21 is week 3
- Day 22 - 28 is week 4
- Day 29 - 31 is week 5
$(INVWEEKOFMONTH)
Week to the end of the month, ending at the last day of the month. For example, for a 31-day month:
- Day 25 - 31 is week 1
- Day 18 - 24 is week 2
- Day 11 - 17 is week 3
- Day 4 - 10 is week 4
- Day 1 - 3 is week 5
$(MOY)
Month of the year, as a short name.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
$(MONTHOFYEAR)
Month of the year, as a long name.
- January
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- December
$(INSTANCEID)
ID of the instance
$(INSTANCENAME)
Name of the instance
Macros are case-sensitive. For example, $(Time) is not valid. $(TIME) must be used.
Amazon Commands Used
The following Amazon AWS commands are used. The access key should have permission to execute all of them.
- ec2:AssociateAddress
- ec2:CreateSnapshot
- ec2:CreateTags
- ec2:DescribeAddresses
- ec2:DescribeInstances
- ec2:DescribeSnapshots
- ec2:DescribeTags
- ec2:StartInstances
- ec2:StopInstances