How does one attach a raw arm64 disk image to an EC2 instance?

Question

Hi,

I have an arm64 raw disk image.  I want to create an EC2 instance and have it attach to this disk image.  It seems that one can create/upload bundles or import VMs.  But you can ONLY do this for x86 and not for ARM.

The ONLY way it seems that one can upload an ARM64 raw disk image is to start an instance, attach a volume to that instance, login to that instance, copy the raw content onto the attached volume, logout, detach the volume from the instance, and then reboot with that volume attached to another instance or the same instance.  Is that the only way one can install an arm64 disk image and boot it?  Have I missed something?  Put simply, I want to upload a raw disk image and then boot an instance with it.

Thanks,
Josh

dsilvajd · Answer

Hey Josh,

You cannot launch an EC2 instance using raw disk image. It needs to be converted to an AMI (amazon machine image).
You can create a local VM using the raw disk image and then replicate it to AWS using [AWS application migration service](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/mgn/latest/ug/what-is-application-migration-service.html).

rePost-User-8775469 · Answer

Hello,

Thank you for querying in this forum.

I understand that you would like to import arm64 raw disk image, however import or export of ARM64 based images is currently not supported. Hence, you are looking for a workaround to achieve this.

Unfortunately, ARM is currently not supported for VMIE import-image. The alternative would be for you to make use of import-snapshot API [1]. Import-snapshot differs in that it DOESN'T perform any kernel checks, boot tests, etc. What it essentially means is that it doesn't try to "fix" the image to work in AWS. It simply copies the contents of the VM image to an EBS snapshot, which you can then register an AMI and launch. If you have any boot issues, it will need to be troubleshooted as a general EC2 OS boot issue.

However, if you still have followup queries/concerns around the same, please create a support case with AWS Premium Support and we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you for your interest in re:Post community. Have a great day!

#### References:
[1] Importing a disk as a snapshot using VM Import/Export - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vm-import/latest/userguide/vmimport-import-snapshot.html

How does one attach a raw arm64 disk image to an EC2 instance?

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