Start an export image task - VM Import/Export

Start an export image task

When you export your image using VM Import/Export, the exported file is written to the specified S3 bucket using the following S3 key:

prefixexport-ami-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.format

For example, if the bucket name is amzn-s3-demo-export-bucket, the prefix is exports/, and the format is VMDK, the exported image is written to amzn-s3-demo-export-bucket/exports/export-ami-1234567890abcdef0.vmdk.

For information about the supported formats, see Considerations for image export.

AWS CLI
To export an image

Use the export-image command.

aws ec2 export-image \
    --description "$(date '+%b %d %H:%M') My image export" \
    --image-id ami-1234567890abcdef0 \
    --disk-image-format VMDK \
    --s3-export-location S3Bucket=amzn-s3-demo-export-bucket,S3Prefix=exports/

The following is example output.

{
    "Description": "Jul 15 16:31 My image export",
    "DiskImageFormat": "VMDK",
    "ExportImageTaskId": "export-ami-36a041c1000000000",
    "ImageId": "ami-1234567890abcdef0",
    "Progress": "0",
    "S3ExportLocation": {
        "S3Bucket": "amzn-s3-demo-export-bucket",
        "S3Prefix": "exports/"
    },
    "Status": "active",
    "StatusMessage": "validating"
}
PowerShell
To export an image

Use the Export-EC2Image cmdlet.

Export-EC2Image `
    -Description ((Get-Date -Format "MMM dd HH:mm ") + "My image export") `
    -ImageId ami-1234567890abcdef0 `
    -DiskImageFormat VMDK `
    -S3ExportLocation_S3Bucket amzn-s3-demo-export-bucket `
    -S3ExportLocation_S3Prefix exports/

The following is example output.

Description       : Jul 15 16:35 My image export
DiskImageFormat   : VMDK
ExportImageTaskId : export-ami-36a041c1000000000
ImageId           : ami-1234567890abcdef0
Progress          : 0
RoleName          : 
S3ExportLocation  : Amazon.EC2.Model.ExportTaskS3Location
Status            : active
StatusMessage     : validating
Tags              : {}