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- Now let's talk about
the Amazon Machine Image

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or the AMI.

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Within EC2

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when we create a virtual machine

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we have to have something to begin with.

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We have to have a way for that machine

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to boot into some kind of an environment.

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We have to have an operating system

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and perhaps even applications

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or other configurations already done

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and so, that's what the
machine image is for.

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The machine image is, essentially

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a bit-for-bit copy of the root volume.

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It contains the operating system

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and anything else that was installed.

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And so, we generally have
our choice of Windows,

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Linux, FreeBSD...

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and many different flavors
of those operating systems.

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At this time, we don't
have access to Solaris

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but we should be able to choose

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and make use of those other three.

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Now, we can find machine images

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in a number of different places.

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We have machine images
that are provided by AWS

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such as Amazon, Linux,

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different flavors of Ubuntu, or Red Hat,

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or Microsoft Windows

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and then we also have
trusted publishers like

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Canonical, or Red Hat, or Microsoft

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for other flavor, or specialized flavors

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of those operating systems.

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We also have community AMIs.

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Community AMIs are publicly available

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being provided by other AWS customers.

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So...

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I could shell into a machine,
a virtual machine in instance

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and I could install whatever I wanted.

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I can install, you know, perhaps Nginx,

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or, you know, certain flavors of Node.js,

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or Phyton, or what have you

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and configure a machine in a certain way

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that might be useful for
myself as a developer

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and then realize, you know what?

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This is useful for a lot of developers

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so let's make this publicly available

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as a community AMI.

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Now, generally, the way
I approach community AMIs

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considering that they are
published by who knows who

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is that if I wanted to
experiment with something

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then I might look to the community

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to see if somebody has
already compiled, or installed

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a particular configuration of
different pieces of software

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so that I have a fresh place to start.

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And then once I run that
prototype and check it out

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and feel satisfied that
yeah, that does work

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I think I do want to invest more time

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into that particular, you know

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configuration of software

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then my policy is well, I
don't know who created that.

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I don't know what else they
may have put on that machine

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and Amazon will also tell you,
if you read the documentation

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Amazon says that AWS will
not vouch for the security

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or the integrity of
community based images.

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So, it is our responsibility as a customer

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to ensure that we are using
things that are secure, right?

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So, in terms of the community images

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I would just leave you
with the warning that

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you don't really know what went into them.

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They might be fine to try and experiment

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a little prototype, or something,
in a sandboxed environment

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but when it comes to production

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I would always start with a machine image

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from Amazon, or another trusted provider

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and then whatever software I needed

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I would install and configure myself

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so I know exactly what
is on that instance.

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And then lastly, like we mentioned earlier

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we have the AWS Marketplace

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where we can find those canned solutions.

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So, in terms of launching an instance

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we first choose the machine image

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whatever that is, right?

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Again, it's gonna be the operating system

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and any software that's installed

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any configuration that was put in place

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any users or group that were put in place

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within the realm of authentication

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that is the operating system.

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And once we choose the AMI

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we then launch the instance
by choosing, you know

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what type instance do we want?

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Do we want, you know, like a T2 small?

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Do we want a C4 large?

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An M5 extra large?

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We choose the family
and the type of instance

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and once we launch that instance

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we could stop there, and we
could have that machine running

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doing its job, using the
software that was installed

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as a part of the image.

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We could go further and
install different applications,

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configure, what have you

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and then go on to create our
own private machine image.

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When we create images of instances

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those images default to being private

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only accessible by the account
in which they were created

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but you could go on to share that image

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with another account

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you could share it to the public

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by making it a community AMI

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and any instances that are
launched from that private AMI

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will all, essentially, be
clones of one another, right?

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So, creating custom machine images

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is a really good way to give yourself

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a known state, right?

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So, when a machine comes to life

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you know exactly what is installed

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and what is available on that machine.