github.com/phobos182/packer@v0.2.3-0.20130819023704-c84d2aeffc68/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>