Packer amazon-ebs Configuration
External
Internal
Overview
amazon-ebs creates Amazon AMIs backed by EBS volumes for use in EC2.
The builder launches an EC2 instance from a source AMI, provisions that running VM, and then creates an AMI from that VM, in the AWS account whose credentials are specified as shown here. The instance will be brought up in the default VPC of the user. The builder will create temporary keypairs, security group rules, etc. that provide it temporary access to the instance while the image is being created. This simplifies configuration quite a bit.
The builder does not manage the AMIs.
Builder Parameters
ami_name
Required parameter, which carries the name of the resulting AMI to be used when managing AMIs in the AWS console or with the API. Must be unique. How is this consistent with the fact that at the end of the build, Packer reports a seemingly unique AMI name, similar to ami-08a10aecf9c8cf75d?
ssh_username
Required.
instance_type, spot_instance_types
One of them is required.