Amazon Machine Images (AMI) are templates that contain a software configuration (for example, an operating system, an application server, and applications). From an AMI, you launch an instance, which is a copy of the AMI running as a virtual server in the cloud. You can launch different types of instances from a single AMI. An instance type defines the hardware of the host computer for your instance. After launching an instance, you can connect to it and use it like a computer running your own data center. Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a wide selection of instance types to suit a variety of workloads.
You can select an AMI or create your own AMI when you launch an instance. You can also purchase pre-configured AMIs from a marketplace, launch an instance from certain AWS services, or migrate your on-premises virtual machines into Amazon EC2. To create an AMI for Amazon EBS or create a snapshot for Amazon EBS, see Creating an Amazon EBS-Backed Linux AMI or Creating Snapshots for Your Volumes in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud User Guide for
