Build Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) with Packer using the amazon-ebs builder. Use when creating custom AMIs for EC2 instances.
Build custom Amazon Machine Images with Packer's amazon-ebs builder.
Automates AMI creation from source AMIs using HCL templates with provisioners for customization (shell scripts, file uploads, configuration management)
Supports multi-region AMI distribution via ami_regions and flexible source AMI filtering by name, owner, and virtualization type
Authenticates via environment variables, AWS credentials file, or IAM instance profiles; includes validation and build commands for template management
Common use cases include OS patching, software pre-installation, and hardened base image creation; builds typically take 10–30 minutes and incur AWS costs for compute and storage
AWS AMI Builder
Build Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) using Packer's amazon-ebs builder.
Reference: Amazon EBS Builder
Note: Building AMIs incurs AWS costs (EC2 instances, EBS storage, data transfer). Builds typically take 10-30 minutes depending on provisioning complexity.
Basic AMI Template
packer {
required_plugins {
amazon = {
source = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon"
version = "~> 1.3"
}
}
}don't have the plugin yet? install it then click "run inline in claude" again.