_customImageStartingAnInstance

After you have selected an existing AMI to customise, the next step is to start an instance of the AMI.Use the ec2-run-instances command to start your instance, as follows:

$EC2_HOME/bin/ec2-run-instances <image_name> -k <key_pair_name>

where <image_name> is the name of the AMI selected in the previous step and <key_pair_name> is the name of the registered key pair generated previously (see '1. Requirements of 'Creating a custom elastic image'). Please note, the public certificate of this key will be injected into your instance.

For example, if you wanted to start an instance of image ami-e55bbd8c using key pair my-keypair, you would run the following command:

$EC2_HOME/bin/ec2-run-instances ami-e55bbd8c -k my-keypair

This command would produce the following command-line output:

INSTANCE i-25b86743 ami-e55bbd8c running my-keypair

i-25b86743 is the name of your new instance, in the above example. Note this down, as you will need the instance name to access your instance (see 'Accessing your Instance' in 'Creating a custom elastic image') in the next step.

Please note, once you start an instance, you will be billed by Amazon for instance uptime. If you decide to abandon the setup of a custom elastic image after this step, please ensure that you shut down your instance via the AWS console.