How Amazon creates AWS Windows AMIs - AWS Windows AMIs
Windows Server installation mediaWhat to expect from an official AWS Windows AMIValidation of software on AWS AMIsHow Amazon decides which AWS Windows AMIs to offerPatches, security updates, and AMI IDs

How Amazon creates AWS Windows AMIs

The following content is a high level overview of the process Amazon uses to create AWS Windows AMIs. Details include what you can expect from an official AWS Windows AMI, as well as the standards that Amazon uses to validate AMI security and reliability.

Where AWS gets the Windows Server installation media

When a new version of Windows Server is released, we download the Windows ISO from Microsoft and validate the hash Microsoft publishes. An initial AMI is then created from the Windows distribution ISO. The drivers needed to boot on EC2 are included in addition to our EC2 launch agent. To prepare this initial AMI for public release, we perform automated processes to convert the ISO to an AMI. This prepared AMI is used for the monthly automated update and release process.

What to expect from an official AWS Windows AMI

Amazon provides AWS Windows AMIs with a variety of configurations for popular versions of Microsoft supported Windows Server Operating Systems. As outlined in the previous section, we start with the Windows Server ISO from Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC) and validate the hash to ensure it matches Microsoft’s documentation for new Windows Server operating systems.

We perform the following changes using automation on AWS to take the current Windows Server AMIs and update them:

  • Install all Microsoft recommended Windows security patches. We release images shortly after the monthly Microsoft patches are made available.

  • Install the latest drivers for AWS hardware, including network and disk drivers, the EC2WinUtil utility for troubleshooting, as well as GPU drivers in selected AMIs.

  • Include the following AWS launch agent software by default:

    • EC2Launch v2 for Windows Server 2022 and optionally for Windows Server 2019 and 2016 with specific AMIs.

    • EC2Launch v1 for Windows Server 2016 and 2019.

    • EC2Config for Windows Server 2012 R2 and earlier.

  • Configure Windows Time to use the Amazon Time Sync Service.

  • Change all power schemes to set the display to never turn off.

  • Perform minor bug fixes – generally one-line registry changes to enable or disable features that we have found to improve performance on AWS.

  • Tests and validates AMIs across new and existing EC2 platforms to help ensure compatibility, stability, and consistency before release.

How Amazon validates security, integrity, and authenticity of software on AMIs

We take a number of steps during the image build process, to maintain the security, integrity, and authenticity of AWS Windows AMIs. A few examples include:

  • AWS Windows AMIs are built using source media obtained directly from Microsoft.

  • Windows Updates are downloaded directly from Microsoft’s Windows Update Service by Windows, and installed on the instance used to create the AMI during the image build process.

  • AWS Software is downloaded from secure S3 buckets and installed in the AMIs.

  • Drivers, such as for the chipset and GPU, are obtained directly from the vendor, stored in secure S3 buckets, and installed on the AMIs during the image build process.

How Amazon decides which AWS Windows AMIs to offer

Each AMI is extensively tested prior to release to the public. We periodically streamline our AMI offerings to simplify customer choice and to reduce costs.

  • New AMI offerings are created for new OS releases. You can count on Amazon releasing Base, Core, and SQL Express/Standard/Web/Enterprise offerings in English and other widely used languages. The primary difference between Base and Core offerings is that Base offerings have a desktop/GUI whereas Core offerings are PowerShell command line only. For more information about Windows Server Core, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/server-core/what-is-server-core.

  • New AMI offerings are created to support new platforms – for example, the Deep Learning andNvidia AMIs were created to support customers using our GPU-based instance types (P2 and P3, G3, and others).

  • Less popular AMIs are sometimes removed. If we see a particular AMI is launched only a few times in its entire lifespan, we will remove it in favor of more widely used options.

If there is an AMI variant that you would like to see, let us know by filing a ticket with Cloud Support, or by providing feedback through one of our established channels.

Patches, security updates, and AMI IDs

Amazon provides updated, fully-patched AWS Windows AMIs within five business days of Microsoft's patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month). The new AMIs are available immediately from the Images page in the Amazon EC2 console. The new AMIs are available in the AWS Marketplace and the Quick Start tab of the launch instance wizard within a few days of their release.

Note

Instances launched from Windows Server 2019 and later AMIs may show a Windows Update dialog message stating "Some settings are managed by your organization." This message appears as a result of changes in Windows Server 2019 and does not impact the behavior of Windows Update or your ability to manage update settings.

To remove this warning, see "Some settings are managed by your organization".

To ensure that customers have the latest security updates by default, AWS keeps AWS Windows AMIs available for three months. After releasing new AWS Windows AMIs, AWS makes the AWS Windows AMIs that are older than three months private within 10 days.

After AWS makes an AMI private, you may no longer retrieve it by any method. In the console, the AMI ID field for a private AMI states, Cannot load detail for ami-1234567890abcdef0. You may not be permitted to view it.

If an AMI is deprecated but is not yet marked private, you can still use it. However, we recommend that you always use the latest version.

The AWS Windows AMIs; in each release have new AMI IDs. Therefore, we recommend that you write scripts that locate the latest AWS Windows AMIs by their names, rather than by their IDs. For more information, see the following examples: