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Convert the file and deploy the AMI image

Published: August 20, 2025

Last Update: August 20, 2025

 

Convert server file to snapshot​

This part of the document will guide you through the commands needed to convert the server file to a snapshot file within the EC2 service. This snapshot will be later use to create an image which can be used to launch an EC2 machine.

To convert the file, follow these steps:

  1. Create a containers.json file in a directory on your laptop/desktop computer. The file should contain the following JSON for the VMDK.
REMEMBER

The fields that are surrounded by double square brackets ([[example]]) is information that you need to modify according to your S3 name or preference (Depending on the field)

{
  "Description": "[[A Short Description]]",
  "Format": "VMDK",
  "UserBucket": {
    "S3Bucket": "[[Your S3 Bucket Name]]",
    "S3Key": "[[Server File Name]].vmdk"
  }
}

The following is an example of the containers.json file:

{
  "Description": "Blackboard Learn 3900.112",
  "Format": "VMDK",
  "UserBucket": {
    "S3Bucket": "MyLearnImages",
    "S3Key": "export-ami-0e0a6b40cd7b773ca.vmdk"
  }
}
  1. Once the file is created, execute the following command in your terminal to start the VMDK file conversion:
aws ec2 import-snapshot --description "[[A short description of this job]]" --disk-container "file://[[Path to your containers.json file]]"

Example:

aws ec2 import-snapshot --description "Blackboard Learn 3900.112" --disk-container "file:///Users/developer/Desktop/containers.json"
File Path

Make sure the file path for your file starts with file://. Excluding this identifier will result in "unexpected format" errors from the CLI

  1. After the command is executed, you will see a response on the terminal with a ImportTaskId field which represents the Job ID create to conver the file.

To monitor the status of the conversion, you can execute the following command on your terminal:

aws ec2 describe-import-snapshot-tasks --import-task-ids [[ImportTaskId]]

The response will have a property called Status which you can monitor. When the status is set to "Completed", you will also receive a SnapshotId, please save this ID since you will need it to locate the correct server through the GUI

Use the snapshot to create an EC2 Image​

Once the conversion process is completed, follow these steps to create an EC2 machine with your snapshot:

  1. Access to the AWS Console through the browser
  2. Use the top search bar to search for EC2 and select the first option called EC2
  3. In the left navigation menu, select Snapshots under "Elastic Block Store"
  4. Search for the snapshot that was just created using the SnapshotId
  5. Click the checkbox next to the snapshot name, click the Actions button (top right) and then, select Create image from snapshot
  6. Assign a Name and Description to the image and then, click on Create image at the bottom of the page
  7. In the left navigation menu, select AMIs under "Images"
  8. In there you should see the image you just created, ready to be used in an EC2 machine

Now that the file was converted and an AMI image is available for use, you can continue to the next section where you can configure the server and deploy Blackboard Learn.