Great article. I remember having a ridiculously hard time getting munin set up the first time.

thanks for the great post. I tried to create a ebs backed ami from instance store ami following your post, everything goes through well and my ebs backed ami is created. but when i launch an instance from the newly created ami, i am unable to ssh and connect to the instance.

i am using xvdf in following commands instead of the sdf
# mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdf
# mkdir /mnt/target && mount /dev/sdf /mnt/target
# rsync -avHx / /mnt/target
# rsync -avHx /dev /mnt/target
# sync;sync;sync;sync && umount /mnt/target

but while registering the ami, i am specifiying sda as the block-device-mapping. would that be the reason for the problem? also i cannot use xvdf while registering the ami, i get following error – Client.InvalidBlockDeviceMapping: Invalid device name /dev/xvda1. please let me know.

the cert file is part of your security credentials with amazon web services. you can find more information about it on their website: http://bit.ly/pcGd3c

you can get the cert file under my account > access credentials on the aws page.

hope that helps!
rosalyn

am I right ?

now a couple of questions:
1. I know the pk file, what is the cert file ? the public key file ?
2. I want to do this, to backup my instance ( system, pkgs and my data). Is this the right way ? I know you can create an AMI and always create an instance out of it. But I didnt feel creating AMI for everytime I back an elegant solution.

thanks,

heres the system log:

Xen Minimal OS!
start_info: 0xb10000(VA)
nr_pages: 0x6a400
shared_inf: 0xaf117000(MA)
pt_base: 0xb13000(VA)
nr_pt_frames: 0×9
mfn_list: 0×967000(VA)
mod_start: 0×0(VA)
mod_len: 0
flags: 0×0
cmd_line: root=/dev/sda1 ro 4
stack: 0×946780-0×966780
MM: Init
_text: 0×0(VA)
_etext: 0x621f5(VA)
_erodata: 0×76000(VA)
_edata: 0x7b6d4(VA)
stack start: 0×946780(VA)
_end: 0x966d34(VA)
start_pfn: b1f
max_pfn: 6a400
Mapping memory range 0xc00000 – 0x6a400000
setting 0×0-0×76000 readonly
skipped 0×1000
MM: Initialise page allocator for e6c000(e6c000)-0(6a400000)
MM: done
Demand map pfns at 6a401000-7a401000.
Heap resides at 7a402000-ba402000.
Initialising timer interface
Initialising console … done.
gnttab_table mapped at 0x6a401000.
Initialising scheduler
Thread “Idle”: pointer: 0x7a402008, stack: 0x6a030000
Initialising xenbus
Thread “xenstore”: pointer: 0x7a402478, stack: 0x6a040000
Dummy main: start_info=0×966880
Thread “main”: pointer: 0x7a4028e8, stack: 0x6a050000
“main” “root=/dev/sda1″ “ro” “4″
vbd 2049 is hd0
******************* BLKFRONT for device/vbd/2049 **********

backend at /local/domain/0/backend/vbd/194/2049
Failed to read /local/domain/0/backend/vbd/194/2049/feature-barrier.
Failed to read /local/domain/0/backend/vbd/194/2049/feature-flush-cache.
73400320 sectors of 0 bytes
**************************
vbd 2051 is hd1
******************* BLKFRONT for device/vbd/2051 **********

backend at /local/domain/0/backend/vbd/194/2051
Failed to read /local/domain/0/backend/vbd/194/2051/feature-barrier.
Failed to read /local/domain/0/backend/vbd/194/2051/feature-flush-cache.
1835008 sectors of 0 bytes
**************************

[H
[J

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (1740800K lower / 0K upper memory)

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Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted.

Press enter to boot the selected OS, ‘e’ to edit the

commands before booting, or ‘c’ for a command-line.
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[J Booting ‘SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 – 2.6.16.60-0.31 (smp)’

root (hd0,1)

Error 5: Partition table invalid or corrupt

Press any key to continue…

Just to tell you that today I had to use your procedure. Now I understand what you told me the first day ;)

Thanks a lot

Thanks for your answer, it will help :)

You can register your AMI if you’re already using an existing running AMI. In the example I’m explaining, I’m creating an EBS backed AMI from scratch, not from an existing one. So yes your explanation will work if you’re creating an EBS backed AMI from an EBS backed AMI, but if you’re creating an EBS backed AMI from an instance store AMI, you would want to follow directions like this.

Rosalyn

I’m not sure if I’m talking about the same thing, but just from the AWS Console, right clicking over the instance and then choosing “Create Image (EBS AMI)” will do the same and after a few minutes I’m getting my AMI registered.

Please let me know if I’m wrong and you are talking about another thing. I’ve just started with AWS 2 days ago so I’m not completely sure about it.

Best Regards :)