AMI

 AMI = Amazon Machine Image

AMI are a customization of an EC2 instance.

•     you can add your own software,configuration,OS,monitoring,etc
•     faster boot/configuration time because all your software is pre-packaged

AMI are built for a specific region and can be copied across regions.

You can launch EC2 instances from:

1.  A public AMI: AWS provided
2.  your own AMI: you make and maintain them yourself.
3.  An AWS marketplace AMI: an AMI someone else made (and potentially sells)

AMI process (from an EC2 instance)

• Start an EC2 instance and customize it
• Stop the EC2 instance (for data integrity)
• Build and AMI - this will also create EBS snapshots
• Launch EC2 instance from other AMIs

Steps:

• Right clock on instance and "Images and templates" --> Create Image 
• Launch instance --> choose image from - my ami --> other steps same as new ec2 instance steps.