github.com/askholme/packer@v0.7.2-0.20140924152349-70d9566a6852/website/source/docs/builders/amazon.html.markdown (about) 1 --- 2 layout: "docs" 3 page_title: "Amazon AMI Builder" 4 --- 5 6 # Amazon AMI Builder 7 8 Packer is able to create Amazon AMIs. To achieve this, Packer comes with 9 multiple builders depending on the strategy you want to use to build the 10 AMI. Packer supports the following builders at the moment: 11 12 * [amazon-ebs](/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html) - Create EBS-backed AMIs 13 by launching a source instance and re-packaging it into a new AMI after 14 provisioning. If in doubt, use this builder, which is the easiest to get 15 started with. 16 17 * [amazon-instance](/docs/builders/amazon-instance.html) - Create 18 instance-store AMIs by launching and provisioning a source instance, then 19 rebundling it and uploading it to S3. 20 21 * [amazon-chroot](/docs/builders/amazon-chroot.html) - Create EBS-backed AMIs 22 from an existing EC2 instance by mounting the root device and using a 23 [Chroot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroot) environment to provision 24 that device. This is an **advanced builder and should not be used by 25 newcomers**. However, it is also the fastest way to build an EBS-backed 26 AMI since no new EC2 instance needs to be launched. 27 28 <div class="alert alert-block alert-info"> 29 <strong>Don't know which builder to use?</strong> If in doubt, use the 30 <a href="/docs/builders/amazon-ebs.html">amazon-ebs builder</a>. It is 31 much easier to use and Amazon generally recommends EBS-backed images nowadays. 32 </div> 33 34 ## Using an IAM Instance Profile 35 36 If AWS keys are not specified in the template or through environment variables 37 Packer will use credentials provided by the instance's IAM profile, if it has one. 38 39 The following policy document provides the minimal set permissions necessary for Packer to work: 40 41 <pre class="prettyprint"> 42 { 43 "Statement": [{ 44 "Effect": "Allow", 45 "Action" : [ 46 "ec2:AttachVolume", 47 "ec2:CreateVolume", 48 "ec2:DeleteVolume", 49 "ec2:CreateKeypair", 50 "ec2:DeleteKeypair", 51 "ec2:CreateSecurityGroup", 52 "ec2:DeleteSecurityGroup", 53 "ec2:AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress", 54 "ec2:CreateImage", 55 "ec2:RunInstances", 56 "ec2:TerminateInstances", 57 "ec2:StopInstances", 58 "ec2:DescribeVolumes", 59 "ec2:DetachVolume", 60 "ec2:DescribeInstances", 61 "ec2:CreateSnapshot", 62 "ec2:DeleteSnapshot", 63 "ec2:DescribeSnapshots", 64 "ec2:DescribeImages", 65 "ec2:RegisterImage", 66 "ec2:CreateTags", 67 "ec2:ModifyImageAttribute" 68 ], 69 "Resource" : "*" 70 }] 71 } 72 </pre> 73 74 Depending on what setting you use the following Actions might have to be allowed as well: 75 * `ec2:ModifyImageAttribute` when using `ami_description`